De Rossa: Ireland complicit in CIA torture operations

IRELAND is complicit in CIA torture operations, Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa warned last night.

He attacked the Government’s “arrogant” dismissal of a Council of Europe probe into American extraordinary rendition flights which named the Republic as one of 14 countries helping the US transport individuals to secret prisons.

The report was compiled by Swiss senator Dick Marty who said Ireland had “colluded” in the practice where people the CIA believed may have terror links are transported to a third country where they face torture.

Mr Marty said Shannon was involved in the operations in an “indirect fashion” as the planes landing there had already off-loaded prisoners elsewhere.

Mr De Rossa said this amounted to Ireland colluding in state kidnapping.

“That does not let the Government off the hook. If I stopped at a petrol station after kidnapping and torturing people and the owner knew what I had done, yet did nothing to stop me, he would be charged with aiding and abetting.

“It is the same thing with Shannon. The Irish Government is colluding in the torture of these people.

“It completely undermines our standing in the rest of the world,” he said.

The MEP demanded that the Government begins monitoring the flights through Shannon and stopped relying on US assurances that Irish facilities were not being used for rendition flights.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern rejected the findings of the Council of Europe report and insisted it contained nothing new.

“The only new real reference in the report to Ireland was that it listed Ireland along with a number of other states that ‘could be held responsible for collusion’.

“There is absolutely no question of us having colluded with the CIA or the US authorities,” he said.

Fiona Crowley of Amnesty International Ireland said ministers had turned their backs on human rights abuses. “The Irish Government is simply avoiding its international human rights responsibilities in refusing to investigate allegations that renditions aircraft have landed at Shannon or have been permitted to cross Irish airspace or to take measures to prevent such acts in future.”

Gardaí in Co Clare said yesterday they have carried out five investigations into claims the CIA used Shannon for rendition flights.