Amnesty hits out at lack of investigation into suspected rendition flights
The Government was today accused of choosing not to investigate claims Irish airspace and Shannon Airport were used for US rendition flights.
Amnesty International Ireland made fresh calls for Taoiseach Brian Cowen to order a review of the law applying to suspected rendition flights following yesterday’s publication of a CIA Inspector General’s report.
The report revealed CIA agents carried out mock executions and used threats of violence during interrogations.
Amnesty’s Colm O’Gorman said the fresh revelations show how much the world did not know about the Bush administration’s actions.
“For Ireland this raises again the policy of the Irish Government to rely on denials from the US Government that Shannon was used to transport prisoners,” said Mr O’Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International Ireland.
“Similar assurances the US Government gave Ireland, and the world, that it was not involved in torture are looking increasingly threadbare.
“We welcome moves in the US and also in Britain to investigate the use of torture by their agents but this exposes the failure of our own Government to investigate the use of Shannon Airport and Irish airspace in US renditions operations.”
Mr O’Gorman maintained the Irish Government does not, and did not, know what went through Ireland’s airports on secret CIA flights.
“CIA planes illegally claimed to be civilian aircraft while travelling through our airspace and using Shannon Airport. The Irish Government has never investigated this,” he added.
“Our Government does not know because it chooses not to know.”
He said while it is almost a year since the Government established a special cabinet sub-committee to review the law on searching suspected rendition flights, little progress has been made.
“We are calling on the Taoiseach to announce when the Cabinet review will finally take place, to ensure that it is comprehensive and to commit to making the findings public,” added Mr O’Gorman.
