Two peace activists, Edward Horgan and Conor Cregan, were arrested last night (29th November) at Shannon airport after calling the Gardai. They had gone to the airport following a tip-off to watch a certain jet land. This plane is registered N478GS and has been implicated by the Council of Europe in the so-called ‘extraordinary renditions’ programme being run by the US government, whereby prisoners are flown to countries where they are allegedly tortured. In Working Document No.8 of the European Parliament TDIP report, N478GS is reported to have been involved in an accident in Bucharest in 2004 while en route from Bagram in Afghanistan (on board were seven Americans who disappeared quickly after the accident; one of them was carrying a gun).
Two peace activists, Edward Horgan and Conor Cregan, were arrested last night (29th November) at Shannon airport after calling the Gardai. They had gone to the airport following a tip-off to watch a certain jet land. This plane is registered N478GS and has been implicated by the Council of Europe in the so-called ‘extraordinary renditions’ programme being run by the US government, whereby prisoners are flown to countries where they are allegedly tortured. In Working Document No.8 of the European Parliament TDIP report, N478GS is reported to have been involved in an accident in Bucharest in 2004 while en route from Bagram in Afghanistan (on board were seven Americans who disappeared quickly after the accident; one of them was carrying a gun).
Horgan and Cregan called the Gardai to ask them to search the plane, but the Gardai refused and asked the peace activists to leave the airport. When they said they would not they were arrested for refusing to take direction from an officer, and detained in Shannon Garda station for an hour.
This follows upon a complaint made by retired Army officer Horgan on the 30th October, when another plane listed in the European Parliament report, N475LC, landed at Shannon. The Gardai at Shannon told Horgan that the Attorney General had told them not to search planes. This was denied by Minister of State Pat Carey TD (replying on behalf of the Minister for Justice) in an exchange during the adjournment debate in the Dail on 29th November, when the matter was raised by Michael D Higgins TD. Deputy Carey: ‘That a particular aircraft is rumoured to have been associated with the CIA on, for example, certain internet blogs does not constitute probable cause to ground an inspection’. The ‘blog’ in question can be found at: www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/default_en.htm
To read the Dail transcript just download the attached word document.
