Worried about al-Qaida? Make Shannon an issue

DECLASSIFIED US State Department documents showed al-Qaida cells to be operating in Ireland.

The usual law-and-order parties in the Dáil said this was “profoundly worrying” and will probably use it as an excuse sometime to push through even more restrictive legislation on civil liberties.

None of these potential restrictions though will have even the slightest impact on al-Qaida — but they will serve to make life increasingly oppressive for this democracy’s long-suffering citizens.

However, since the reports date back to 2003, we can probably breathe a little more easily as nothing very untoward has happened here yet.

Perhaps al-Qaida hasn’t noticed how Shannon is being used by the US and CIA on a regular basis, and the opposition in the Dáil is doing its bit for national security by keeping very quiet about the whole business.

Fine Gael TD Billy Timmins called for more resources to be made available to the secret service.

But since the US State Department documents were based mainly on garda intelligence, the cheapest option would obviously be to share this with the secret service, ensuring it is kept at least as well-informed as the US State Department.

If Mr Timmins wishes to express “profound worry” over any issue, he need look no further than how it is the Dáil has to hear of declassified garda intelligence from the US State Department rather than from the Irish Government itself.

And if Fine Gael is really as troubled as it claims to be about al-Qaida targeting Ireland, it could show its sincerity by making the use of Shannon for US troop and CIA rendition/torture flights an election issue.

Nick Folley

36 Ardcarrig

Carrigaline

Co Cork