Shannonwatch

Shannonwatch welcomes the commitment made in the new Programme for Government in Ireland that the prohibition on the use of Irish airspace, airports and related facilities for purposes not in line with international law will be enforced. If and when this is fully implemented it will ensure that Ireland is no longer supporting renditions, or facilitating the transit of armed troops and munitions through Shannon Airport to theatres of war. It will see a return to the country’s important status of being a neutral state.
 

On Friday 25th February 2011 the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin overturned the conviction against Mary Kelly for criminal damage to a US military aircraft at Shannon Airport on 29 January 2003. The decision was deliverd by Judges Peart, Hardiman and De Valera. Ms Kelly was originally convicted by Ennis Circuit Court in October 2004, and the appeal was heard on 29th July 2008. The Appeal judges offered no explanation as to why it took over two and a half years to deliver their judgment.

At her first trial in Kilrush Co. Clare, Ms Kelly’s response to the charge was: "I am not guilty as charged. I did what I have done with lawful excuse." This first trial resulted in a hung jury on 4th of July 2003. The State subsequently retried Ms Kelly and she was convicted in Ennis Circuit Court under Judge Carroll Moran on 29th October 2004. It was this conviction that was overturned today.

The militarised agenda being pursued by Western powers has resulted in the basic human rights of millions of people in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere being ignored in favour of a global agenda of expansion and greed. Shannonwatch urges everyone to question the morality of Ireland's support for wars of conquest in the upcoming Irish general election, to consider the negative impact of a pro-military agenda on Ireland's own sustainability, and to vote for election candidates that will work to restore Ireland's commitment to peace and human rights. 

Engine problems experienced by two separate Omni Air International troop carriers as they departed from Shannon on 6th and 7th February remind us once again of the grave dangers associated with transporting munitions and other military goods through a civilian airport like Shannon.

This is not the first time such incidents have occurred. The DC-10s used by Omni Air International are old and clearly not entirely reliable. Nonetheless the US Department of Defence considers them safe enough for their rank and file soldiers, while most of the higher ranking officers travel in executive jets and newer military aircraft. If one of these military contracted DC-10's crashed on take-off with a full load of fuel and thousands of rounds of ammunition on board, the consequences would be catastrophic. The airport fire brigade would be hard pressed to contain the damage to people and property as the ammunition started to cook off or explode.

During George W. Bush's reign as U.S. president the CIA routinely used Shannon airport as they crisscrossed the world kidnapping and torturing. Bush has admitted that he personally authorised waterboarding, which is an act of torture and a crime under U.S. and international law. To date nothing has been done in the U.S. to investigate the circumstances in which torture was used by the Bush administration. Similarly nothing has been done in Ireland to investigate why and how Shannon was made available to the torture crews.

President Obama declared the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq in August 2010, but as records of military traffic released by Shannonwatch show, 2010 was a year of business as usual for the U.S. military at the civilian Shannon Airport.  Over a thousand U.S. military troop and cargo flights landed at the airport in 2010, while more than four and a half thousand such flights are known to have passed through Irish airspace en-route to and from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cargo companies with U.S. military contracts and planes linked to the extraordinary renditions programme also continued to use Shannon Airport.