CIA is still using Shannon for torture flights

ACCORDING to a recent EU committee report, Ireland is the third worst offender in all of Europe, after Germany and the UK, in allowing torture flights to land and refuel, with 147 CIA flights identified at Shannon airport.

The report goes further by linking 14 CIA aircraft with Shannon refuelling stops and creating further linkages between these aircraft and actual transport of prisoners for torture and other landings in countries that habitually practise torture.

I have seen one of the most notorious renditions aircraft — N379P, known as the ‘Guantanamo Express’ — which was listed in the EU report at Shannon in January 2003. Not only had the CIA been abusing Shannon airport in the past, it is still doing so now. I photographed one of the CIA rendition aircraft listed in the EU report — N368CE — at Shannon as recently as July 8 last.