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US Rendition & DU: a Damning European Timeline

Written by Asinus Asinum Fricat on April 4, 2008 – 3:38 pm -

First, knowing what we know, let’s put a little perspective on what the UK’s and Irish government have told us so far:

UK, December 2005: Three days ago UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that since US President George Bush took office in January 2001 the UK government had found no evidence of a request from the US “for over-flights or for re-fuelling or other facilitation for what you’ve described as rendition… nor are we aware by other means of any such case.”

Around the same time: The Irish Government has received specific assurances from the US authorities, including US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that no prisoners have been transferred through Irish airports, nor would they be without Irish Government permission.

Well, we all take comfort in the knowledge that no less than GWB himself has reassured us! And the Depleted Uranium?

So why is this news? An aircraft believed to be carrying depleted uranium ammunition en route to Doha has made a forced landing last week in Shannon, and came close to exploding, according to witnesses. Does this matter? Are Rendition planes tied to DU Ammunition? Read on to the end.

The Rendition Timeline:

June 8, 2006: Gardaí (local police) have confirmed that they carried out five separate investigations over the past two years into complaints that CIA rendition flights were using Shannon Airport. In October 2004 and again in February 2005 two separate investigations were carried out after complaints that Shannon airport was being used by a jet belonging to the US Department of Defence to transfer prisoners for the purpose of rendition. Interviews were carried out with a number of people and files on both incidents were sent to the DPP, but no prosecutions followed. Why? Errrr, can we come in?

However gardaí did not board the plane in question, nor did they interview US defence personnel.

November 28, 2006: A draft European Parliament report into alleged CIA rendition flights has expressed ’serious concerns’ over the 147 stopovers made by CIA-operated aircraft at Irish airports. The report says these aircraft were on many occasions coming from, or en route to, countries linked with so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’ and the transfer of alleged terrorism suspects or detainees. It also claims that CIA linked aircraft which had stopped off in Ireland had ‘certainly been used for the extraordinary renditions’ of nine named individuals. This is what we know so far.

June 8, 2007: The European Commission has called on EU member states accused of hosting secret CIA prisons for terrorism suspects to hold urgent, independent investigations and ensure victims are compensated. A Council of Europe report has claimed that Poland and Romania hosted secret US detention centres in the period 2003 to 2005.

October 3, 2007: Compelling evidence revealed by Reprieve suggests that Scottish airports have been widely used by known CIA jets as integral refuelling bases for rendition planes, directly resulting in numerous known cases of kidnapping and torture.

December 12, 2007: Ireland’s Taoiseach, Mr Ahern has pointed out that the Government was totally opposed to the practice of extraordinary rendition and that gardaí had full powers to search civil aircraft. He insisted that there was absolutely no evidence that any people, planes or anything to do with extraordinary rendition, had landed in Shannon. He added that several reports have now examined and found there is no validation to the claims.

February 21, 2008: David Miliband has admitted two US “extraordinary rendition flights” landed on UK territory in 2002. The foreign secretary said in both cases US planes re-fuelled on the UK dependent territory of Diego Garcia.

It’s worth noting that former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and former Prime Minister Tony Blair made statements in 2005, 2006 and 2007 saying there was no evidence that rendition flights had stopped on UK territory.

March 14, 2008: Amnesty International has said Ireland is clearly contravening international law by allowing its territory to be used to facilitate the practice of extraordinary rendition. The group is basing its claim on the findings of its latest report.

Amnesty in Ireland claims Shannon Airport was used to refuel an aircraft that the following day was allegedly used to move a man from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Once again, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahearn, insisted that there was absolutely no evidence that any people, planes or anything to do with extraordinary rendition, had landed in Shannon. He added that several reports have now examined and found there is no validation to the claims. Of course not, I mean both Dr Rice and her -hus-president had given the Irish Oaf their scout’s honor that no such bad things happened. Never!

But, but…a year and a bit ago, around October 2007, The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, General Michael Hayden, had defended the methods it uses to interrogate terror suspects. Gen Hayden said programs such as extraordinary rendition produced what he said was irreplaceable intelligence. Under the program, terror suspects are transported to secret prisons in countries with less stringent interrogation rules. Mr Hayden, speaking in Chicago, said the leads gained justified rendition.

“The irreplaceable nature of that intelligence is the sole reason why we have what I admit freely is a very controversial programme.”

March 19, 2008: The European Commission is set to criticise EU governments for failing to reply to a questionnaire, which, among other issues, aimed at shedding more light on CIA activities in Europe.

So far, only Finland, Luxembourg, Poland and Spain responded to Brussels’ call for clarity. The good news is that they will have to give an answer before the summer.

April 2, 2008: US landed 1,500 army flights with weapons on board. Most of them are believed to have been destined for US military forces and to have passed through Shannon airport along with hundreds of thousands of US soldiers on their way to Iraq. The Department of Transport told the Irish Independent it never received a request for permission to land carrying depleted uranium ammunition. The new figures, were revealed yesterday by the Department of Transport after media queries amid fears that an emergency landing at Shannon on Friday involved an old DC-8 cargo plane that was suspected of carrying explosives. However the airline involved, Murray Air, denied that the plane was carrying weapons or explosives, although they declined to say what was on board or who their client was.

The American cargo plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday night after it suffered a compressor failure in one of the engines. It had to turn back to the airport to make an emergency landing. But terrified witnesses living underneath the flight path at Askeaton, Co Limerick, said they believed the plane was on fire and about to crash. Yet they were still in the dark yesterday about what it was carrying. No problems! Another “reassuring” bulletin from the office of the Foreign Minister in on the way. After all, Dr Rice “reassured” him too, so it’s all good.

Once again, the Government has denied claims that depleted Uranium ammunition is being transported through Shannon Airport on U.S. military cargo planes destined for Iraq.
The allegation was made by a Former U.S. Marine who claims he used the ammunition when serving in Iraq as a Platoon Sergeant. Jim Massey says the Irish Government is aware that the cargo is carried through Shannon.

“You would have to be a fool. Any person that has ever spent time within the military whether it`s British, Irish or American forces knows that Shannon airport is a main hub for military activity as far as deploying troops, as well as ammunition. It`s a known fact that all of the cargo supplies, munition goes through Shannon and then re-routes toward Iraq.”

The point I’m making is that why should we believe these heads of governments when we do know they have lied repeatedly to us in the past and in the present? Why can’t we board these planes? Who are they hiding, and what are they carrying?

Facts: Once an aircraft with a US registration marks on its tail lands on foreign soil, the cargo aboard that aircraft is considered part of the sovereign territory of the US, and no courtesy call by an unarmed member of the Irish Defence Forces will change a thing about the way rendition flights operate.

In 2001, Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, said that NATO’s use of depleted uranium in former Yugoslavia could be investigated as a possible war crime.

Study finds dramatic increase of uranium leaching rates from corroding DU penetrators after three years

DU is also pyrophoric: if it penetrates steel or other metal armour, the impact and heat energy released causes it to disintegrate to dust and combust when it reaches air. Against an armoured vehicle this is devastating, piercing the hull to create an extremely hot ball of dust and gas in the interior, killing the crew and igniting fuel and ammunition.

Imagine what it does to people who are in the line of fire of DU bullets?

Tags: CIA, Depleted Uranium Ammunition, European Union, Ireland, Rendition, UK
Posted in Diaries |