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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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June 25th,
2009 - Rendition Committee Has Met Only Once, Amnesty Claims |
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Rendition Committee Has Met
Only Once, Amnesty Claims By Shane Phelan Irish Independent June 25, 2009 A cabinet sub-committee set
up to review the law on searching suspected rendition flights at Shannon
Airport has met just once in the past eight months, a report being published
tomorrow claims. The Amnesty International report
calls into question the Government's commitment to dealing with accusations
that Shannon has been used as a staging area or getaway route for CIA agents
carrying out kidnapping operations. It will say the members on
the sub-committee - Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin, Justice Minister
Dermot Ahern, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey, Communications Minister Eamon
Ryan and Environment Minister John Gormley - have held only one session to
discuss the matter since it was formed last November. Following that meeting the
Government committed to discuss the matter with the incoming Obama
administration in the US. It also committed to
strengthening legal provisions to ensure that gardai and airport authorities
have adequate legal powers to search and inspect aircraft. The Government has
consistently denied there was any evidence that Irish airports or airspace
could have been used for US rendition flights. However, the Amnesty
International report is set to claim that Shannon Airport has been used in
connection with at least four extraordinary rendition cases, those of: Abu
Omar, Khaled el Masri, Khaled al Maqtari and Binyam Mohamed. Last night the Department of
Foreign Affairs did not address questions about Amnesty's claim that the
cabinet sub-committee had met just once. In a statement it said the
Government was opposed to the practice of extraordinary rendition and had
received assurances from the US that no extraordinary rendition has taken
place through Ireland. "Far from regarding US
assurances as worthless, we are fully satisfied, on the basis of the legal
advice available to us, that we are entitled under international law to rely
on them," the statement said. It said a number of allegations
that Shannon had been used in connection with renditions had been
investigated, but had led to no action. External link: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rendition-committee-has-met-only-once-amnesty-claims-1789217.html |