Gardaí interrogated cleaners at Shannon, but did not search planes

Last December, Mary O'Rourke said a special committee of the Seanad would be set up to investigate alleged CIA rendition flights through Shannon. But Fianna Fáil senators objected, and the motion to establish a committee was defeated in the Seanad on 8 March. These are the highlights of that debateBrendan Ryan (Labour): There is a prima facie case that aircraft which landed in this country were used in rendition. The US authorities deny that anyone was on board and our Government has assured me that it accepts the word of those authorities, which was given on the most categorical terms.
Somewhere along the line, the Government took fright. We had got to the stage where we had agreed reasonable terms of reference on a cross-party basis (for the establishment of a special committee).
We are constantly being told that the US is a friendly country. The major party of the Government has decided that for an Oireachtas committee to ask questions, which the Government claims it has already asked, would constitute a hostile act. In effect, the Government is stating that human rights are not indivisible. It is stating that human rights matter when other people whom we do not like transgress them, but when our friends in the US are dodgy about the law and its fundamentals, then all we can do is blink, turn our backs and pretend it never happened.

David Norris (Independent): I was astonished when this committee was deliberately collapsed. We had about six meetings and the legal representative of the Oireachtas was there to advise us. The terms of reference were agreed between all parties, yet suddenly, the whole thing was punctured and I am sure that this was not without the intervention of the Government.
The first (alleged rendition flight through Shannon) landed on 17 June 2003. Hassan Osama Mustafa Nasr, known as Abu Omar, was abducted in Milan. He may not have been a very nice person, but he was treated with contempt for his human rights. He was taken via a military air base in Aviano, Italy and Rammstein, Germany to Egypt on a Gulfstream jet, which later flew to the US via Shannon.

Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fáil): Was he on the plane in Shannon?

David Norris: That is the very fudge the Senators on the other side of the House are trying to make. Under international law, it constitutes complicity in a crime if one assists in the flight.
The suspect was then taken to Egypt, was tortured and released without charge. He was then re-arrested and he has not been seen since. He was probably murdered in Egypt.
The plane used for the second flight was registered as N379P. That flight, known as the “Guantanamo Bay express”, was spotted at Shannon Airport in 2002 and had been involved in the abduction of two men from Stockholm in 2001. There is a criminal case pending on this issue.

Timmy Dooley: In which country is Stockholm?

David Norris: If one refuels an airplane, one is facilitating its operation. It is part and parcel of the flight and would be so understood in international criminal law. Why did the Government not ask who was in the airplane? Why were the airplanes not inspected?
The gardaí told me – this is laughable – that they interrogated the cleaners. The cleaners might notice the odd cigarette packet on the ground but they would not notice the subtle adaptations so people can be shackled and manacled in the aircraft.

Noel Treacy (Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs): A striking feature of most of the allegations made in this area is their vague and circumstantial character. They depend on the retrospective imposition of a pattern of activity on a range of data long after the alleged event and long after any conceivable action, could have been taken.
The most frequently repeated, specific allegation with which everybody will be familiar is that on 18 February 2003, a Gulfstream jet, which had delivered Abu Omar, who had been seized in Milan, to Cairo, landed at Shannon on its return leg to Washington DC. Even this allegation accepts the fact that no prisoner was on board as the aeroplane came through.
It would have been entirely impossible at the time to have known of the aircraft's involvement in an earlier extraordinary rendition operation, as it passed empty though Ireland. Moreover, it is impossible to verify or control the previous or future activities, which might take place outside our jurisdiction, before or after an empty aeroplane passed through.
Ireland has derived substantial economic benefit from its close relations with the USA. It is our largest export market and the main source of foreign direct investment. It is not just about money. Among other things, the US is home to millions of people of Irish birth and descent, including the undocumented. We receive ongoing active and constructive support from the US for the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Despite our closeness to the United States, this does not mean that, though friends, we are in any way unwilling or hesitant to convey clear views on issues of concern. We have made clear that we do not believe that extraordinary rendition is justifiable in any circumstances. The Minister for Foreign Affairs has made clear our belief that the Guantanamo facility should be closed.

Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fáil): I have an old-fashioned, de Valerian view, namely, that sensitive matters of foreign policy are for the Government to decide and it should not be unduly constricted or cut across by the Oireachtas. The Senators opposite should read the Official Report of the debates on the aspects of the Constitution dealing with foreign policy. The Government should determine foreign policy and if the Senators opposite do not like the foreign policy, from time to time elections are held in which they can elect a different Government.

∏More This is an edited transcript, available at www.oireachtas.ie