Gun stolen from US Troop aircraft at Shannon

Every week thousands of US soldiers continue to troop through Shannon airport en route to and from the war in Iraq. Often there are four or flights a day, each carrying hundreds of troops. The airline now being used in the main is Omni Air International based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a charter airline (see picture).

But also coming through Shannon are CIA aircraft, which have been cited by the European Parliament's investigatory committee, as aircraft involved in illegal rendition flights – ie the abduction and transport of suspects from centres around Europe and north Africa and their transport to destinations where it is believed they are subjected to torture.

One such CIA aircraft (N475LC) came though Shannon on 29 October last.

A curious by-product of this traffic through Shannon has been the theft of an automatic pistol from one of the aircraft, allegedly by one of the  Service-air workers, who clean out the planes and the toilets on the stop-overs. Several workers in the company have been detained and interrogated by Gardaí but, so far, the gun has not turned up. One of the suspects has links with a gang in one of the areas of Limerick publicly associated with criminality and there is apprehension the gun may turn up in a future murder or attempted murder.

Meanwhile a Garda investigation as taken place recently into an allegation that one of their own members witnessed a prisoner on board one of the CIA aircraft, in handcuffs. But the investigation apparently got nowhere.