I just want to note an Irish connection in this issue. Last summer, the Council of Europe rapporteur, Dick Marty, included Ireland's Shannon airport in a map of "secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers". The Irish government response is basically to say that they trust the Americans and everything will be grand. Irish Foreign Affairs minister Dermot Ahern accepted the assurances of Condoleeza Rice that Shannon was not used as a transit point for the CIA's abductees.
In February of this year, the European Parliament rejected Dermot Ahern's position and called for a Dáil inquiry into Ireland's role in instances of extraordinary rendition. In 2005, Amnesty International reported that 800 secret CIA flights had used European airspace, and noted evidence about specific flights in which Shannon airport was used as a stopover.
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In The Irish Times on Saturday, there was an article about by Tom Clonan about how US military F-16 jets were taking part in the Salthill Air Show this weekend. Despite the fact that the Irish state contends that it remains neutral, Clonan notes that the pilots and crew of the US team at the Air show were "unanimous" in seeing Ireland as a participant in the war on terror. All of the team have served in Afghanistan or Iraq, and most of them have passed through Shannon Airport on their way there.
According to one of the pilots, "Ireland is an important ally to the United States in the international war on terror. Fundamentally, Ireland's views on human rights and freedom are exactly the same as those of the United States".
What a compliment.
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