Report raises questions about Shannon ‘torture’ flights

GOVERNMENT assurances that at least 40 CIA flights through Shannon Airport had nothing to do with the rendition and possible torture of prisoners were rubbished in a high-level report yesterday.

Dick Marty in his interim report for the Council of Europe, said the US had given no categorical assurances about anything except that it did not practice torture on US soil.

More information about the flights, including those landing at Shannon, should be known shortly, as the Swiss lawyer has received details from the EU’s air traffic control centre, and photographs from the EU Satellite Centre.

He said: “There is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of ‘relocation’ or ‘outsourcing’ of torture.”

Finance Minister Brian Cowan dismissed Mr Marty’s call for government investigations, saying there was no evidence of the CIA using Shannon in this way.

“It’s not happening. There is no evidence that has been put to me about this.” He said the US was a friendly government and had given unqualified assurances he fully accepted.

The Council of Europe, which is independent of the EU and oversees the Human Rights Convention, is to receive answers to its questions from European governments next month.

Labour TD Eamon Gilmore who is a member of the Council of Europe told the assembly that Shannon airport was listed as one of the airports that may be used to illegally transport suspects.

“They have refused to carry out any inspections of aircraft or flights, despite being asked to do so by the Irish Human Rights Commission,” he said.

Mr Marty said Europe’s governments could not be unaware of what was happening, but only Italy, Germany and Greece have instigated any formal investigation. He warned states could not hide behind diplomatic assurances.

He admitted he did not have any evidence of illegal detention centres operating in Europe, including Romania and Poland, as alleged by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

His interim report presented in Strasbourg yesterday consists mainly of excerpts from interviews by journalists and information he received from other sources, including states.

He gave details of the kidnapping in Milan by the CIA of the Islamic cleric Abu Omar, who was taken to Egypt, and of a German Khaled al-Masri.

“It has been proved... that individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and transported to different destinations in Europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered degrading treatment and torture”, he said. “We are not talking about gangsters, but government agents, what more do you want?”