30.10.04
Irish Echo Online - News
'Abduction' jet makes Shannon stops
By Paul Colgan
pcolgan@irishecho.com
DUBLIN -- A U.S. military jet used in the transport of Al Qaeda suspects from locations in Europe and the Middle East has used Shannon airport on at least 13 occasions in the last four years, it's been confirmed.
The presence of the jet in Ireland has provoked outrage among anti-Iraq war activists and has led to the questioning of a government minister in the Dail.
The confirmation by Transport Minister Martin Cullen that the privately owned jet, which is on permanent lease to the U.S. Defense Department, requires no permission from the Irish government to land in Shannon has alarmed human rights observers. They fear that the jet is involved in illegal abductions and should not be allowed to operate with impunity in Ireland.
The Gulfstream jet, with the call-sign N379P, is known to have been involved in the "abduction" of two Egyptian suspects from Sweden in December 2001.
Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed al-Zery had been granted asylum in Sweden but were taken on the Gulfstream jet from Bromma airport in Stockholm to Cairo, where they claimed to have been brutally interrogated. They were taken to Bromma by Swedish police in handcuffs and shackles before being handed over to American agents.
On boarding the flight, it was reported in a documentary by Swedish journalist Fredrik Laurin, they were chained to a harness, blindfolded and hooded.
The two men claimed to Swedish diplomats that they were subject to repeated torture by electrical shocks. Zery was released from custody in October 2003 after the Egyptian authorities failed to uncover any terrorist links. Agiza was found to be a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in Egypt in April.
The Swedish government has since called for an international investigation to probe the role played by U.S. agents in their apprehension.
It maintains that it received assurances from the U.S. that the two men would not be mistreated.
The jet was also reportedly used to ferry a Yemeni student, Jamil Gasim, in chains from Karachi in Pakistan to Amman, Jordan, two months before the Swedish incident -- one month after it had stopped in Shannon.
It is unclear whether the jet has contained any suspects while passing through Shannon. However, concerns have been raised that as Shannon Airport is used regularly as a refueling point for U.S. military planes, the jet may have landed in the Republic while transferring suspects to Cuba. The plane is normally based at Dulles airport in Washington, D.C.
Premier Executive Transport Services, the Massachusetts private charter company that owns the jet, has an agreement with the U.S. military to land at its facilities around the world, including the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba, which houses hundreds of Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.
Minister Cullen said he had no evidence to suggest the aircraft was involved in "any illegal activity" in Shannon, but he would not be drawn on how he could be certain that the plane did not contain suspects. The Garda or Shannon airport police have never boarded the jet.
"There is no requirement under international or Irish law for aircraft coming into Ireland for refueling purposes, as this aircraft has done, to notify the Department of Transport in advance," said Cullen. "No notification to operate this aircraft was received by the Department of Transport."
Described by the CIA as "extraordinary renditions," the plane's operations are designed to transfer suspects to countries where they can be interrogated without the protection of Western law.
Defense Minister Willie O'Dea has said he will be monitoring the activities of the jet to ensure that illegally abducted prisoners are not passing through the airport.
However, he avoided commenting on calls for the jet to be inspected by the Garda, saying that was a matter for Justice Minister Michael McDowell.
Legal observers said the abduction and ferrying of terrorist suspects around the world is in breach of international conventions against torture and the European convention on human rights.
Asked earlier this year about the possibility that planes carrying Al Qaeda suspects may be passing through Shannon, McDowell said: "[Any] person who is on the soil of Ireland is entitled to the protection of our constitution. No person can be brought through the soil of Ireland in the custody of any other state except in accordance with international law."
McDowell said that he would "respond immediately" to any claims that suspects had been transmitted through Irish territory en route to Guantanamo in unlawful custody.
"It would cause me grave concern if I thought people were being smuggled through Irish territory in circumstances that amounted to unlawful detention in Irish law or in international law for that matter," he said.
This story appeared in the issue of October 27-November 2, 2004
'Abduction' jet makes Shannon stops
By Paul Colgan
pcolgan@irishecho.com
DUBLIN -- A U.S. military jet used in the transport of Al Qaeda suspects from locations in Europe and the Middle East has used Shannon airport on at least 13 occasions in the last four years, it's been confirmed.
The presence of the jet in Ireland has provoked outrage among anti-Iraq war activists and has led to the questioning of a government minister in the Dail.
The confirmation by Transport Minister Martin Cullen that the privately owned jet, which is on permanent lease to the U.S. Defense Department, requires no permission from the Irish government to land in Shannon has alarmed human rights observers. They fear that the jet is involved in illegal abductions and should not be allowed to operate with impunity in Ireland.
The Gulfstream jet, with the call-sign N379P, is known to have been involved in the "abduction" of two Egyptian suspects from Sweden in December 2001.
Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed al-Zery had been granted asylum in Sweden but were taken on the Gulfstream jet from Bromma airport in Stockholm to Cairo, where they claimed to have been brutally interrogated. They were taken to Bromma by Swedish police in handcuffs and shackles before being handed over to American agents.
On boarding the flight, it was reported in a documentary by Swedish journalist Fredrik Laurin, they were chained to a harness, blindfolded and hooded.
The two men claimed to Swedish diplomats that they were subject to repeated torture by electrical shocks. Zery was released from custody in October 2003 after the Egyptian authorities failed to uncover any terrorist links. Agiza was found to be a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in Egypt in April.
The Swedish government has since called for an international investigation to probe the role played by U.S. agents in their apprehension.
It maintains that it received assurances from the U.S. that the two men would not be mistreated.
The jet was also reportedly used to ferry a Yemeni student, Jamil Gasim, in chains from Karachi in Pakistan to Amman, Jordan, two months before the Swedish incident -- one month after it had stopped in Shannon.
It is unclear whether the jet has contained any suspects while passing through Shannon. However, concerns have been raised that as Shannon Airport is used regularly as a refueling point for U.S. military planes, the jet may have landed in the Republic while transferring suspects to Cuba. The plane is normally based at Dulles airport in Washington, D.C.
Premier Executive Transport Services, the Massachusetts private charter company that owns the jet, has an agreement with the U.S. military to land at its facilities around the world, including the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba, which houses hundreds of Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.
Minister Cullen said he had no evidence to suggest the aircraft was involved in "any illegal activity" in Shannon, but he would not be drawn on how he could be certain that the plane did not contain suspects. The Garda or Shannon airport police have never boarded the jet.
"There is no requirement under international or Irish law for aircraft coming into Ireland for refueling purposes, as this aircraft has done, to notify the Department of Transport in advance," said Cullen. "No notification to operate this aircraft was received by the Department of Transport."
Described by the CIA as "extraordinary renditions," the plane's operations are designed to transfer suspects to countries where they can be interrogated without the protection of Western law.
Defense Minister Willie O'Dea has said he will be monitoring the activities of the jet to ensure that illegally abducted prisoners are not passing through the airport.
However, he avoided commenting on calls for the jet to be inspected by the Garda, saying that was a matter for Justice Minister Michael McDowell.
Legal observers said the abduction and ferrying of terrorist suspects around the world is in breach of international conventions against torture and the European convention on human rights.
Asked earlier this year about the possibility that planes carrying Al Qaeda suspects may be passing through Shannon, McDowell said: "[Any] person who is on the soil of Ireland is entitled to the protection of our constitution. No person can be brought through the soil of Ireland in the custody of any other state except in accordance with international law."
McDowell said that he would "respond immediately" to any claims that suspects had been transmitted through Irish territory en route to Guantanamo in unlawful custody.
"It would cause me grave concern if I thought people were being smuggled through Irish territory in circumstances that amounted to unlawful detention in Irish law or in international law for that matter," he said.
This story appeared in the issue of October 27-November 2, 2004
