Shannon airport being turned into US Military Cargo Hub?

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Tuesday May 27, 2008 09:44

by Edward Horgan

US Troops Transit airport, CIA Rendition airport, now - US military cargo transit airport?

We must continue to connect up the dotted lines in the web of deceipt, mass murder, torture and militarisation that is being facilitated at Shannon airport.
The Lisbon Treaty, with its NATO entanglement is part of this growing web, as is Ireland's fraudulent neutrality.

Well over one million US troops have transited through Shannon airport since 20 March 2003.
CIA are still using Shannon as a refuelling stop for its torture rendition planes, usually at about 2 am in the morning. Torture is best hidden in the dark of night.
One million US troops fighting unlawful wars, also need millions of tons of military cargo including depleted uranium bombs, so that they can more easily kill innocent people. When one is engaged in an unlawful war, all the victims of such a war are innocent. The principal unlawful combatants in Iraq are the US military and US and other colaition of the willing mercenaries such as Blackwater.

At 3 pm yesterday, Monday 26 May 08, Evergreen International Boing Jumbo reg number N488EV landed at Shannon airport and refuelled at Gate 42. The pilot and crew seemed to stay on board. It left again after about one hour. It appeared to have a full cargo load on board. Origin and Destination not yet known.

A little bit of the history of Evergreen International makes interesting reading. This information comes from our CIA watching friends in the USA, including Chuck Fager, who is on a visit to Ireland and Europe at present. Chuck is one of significant group of Quaker peace activists around the world who do not agree with unlawful wars (or any other kind of violent wars either), and who are opposed to torture by CIA and anyone else who perpetrates torture.

Evergreen and Aero Contractors have some interesting parallels – they were both created in the wake of the Church hearings of the 70s, as ways of perpetuating what the CIA could no longer do under its own name.

N488EV is registered to something called VENTURES ACQUISITION CO LLC, with an address in McMinnville, Oregon. Evergreen, which is based in McMinnville, has a history of contracting with the CIA to support the contras, as I recall from Central America solidarity days. It was mixed up in the drugs-for-guns stuff, and evidently also in the misappropriation of ex-military aircraft for shady CIA dealings. Following is an excerpt (I think from the Portland Oregon Free Press) which can be found at http://www.vaq34.com/oldtacamo/stealing.htm, where there are other interesting bits as well:

Evergreen International Airlines

Originally based in McMinnville, Oregon, Evergreen expanded from a small helicopter company in the 1960s to a major international airline with secretive government contracts.

In 1975, after a series of revealing hearings led by Senator Frank Church, the CIA was pressured to sell off its lucrative business front companies. The result of this program was the privatization of those former government assets into corporate hands. It was Evergreen that was chosen to take over the CIA's airbase at Marana, Arizona, which led to decades of privileged treatment regarding Evergreen's government contracts. Top CIA aviation officers, including the legendary George Doole, worked for Evergreen. Prior to working for Evergreen, Doole had managed all of the CIA's proprietary airlines.

In the last few years, Evergreen has faced industry criticism and hard financial times. In 1994, the company defaulted on $125 million in junk bonds and found its books open to public scrutiny, not a comfortable situation for a CIA contract airline.

In late December 1996, Evergreen announced that an unnamed financial institution would help Evergreen buy back all $125 million of the defaulted junk bonds. The company, which is saddled with a tremendous amount of debt, is considered the recipient of a back-door government bailout.

This from Wikipedia:

Evergreen International Aviation, Inc. is a global aviation services company based in McMinnville, Oregon. They are primarily known for their main subsidiary, Evergreen International Airlines, which operates Boeing 747 cargo planes to destinations around the world. Evergreen is part of the US Civil Reserve Air Fleet and the International Peace Operations Association, and has been known to have an agreement with the Central Intelligence Agency. Evergreen's owner and founder Delford M. Smith "...acknowledged one agreement under which his companies provide occasional jobs and cover to foreign nationals the CIA wants taken out of other countries or brought into the United States. However, neither Smith nor CIA officials would say whether any broader agreement existed."