Crowe raises rendition flights with Tánaiste

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Trade and Diaspora, Seán Crowe TD, raised the issue of CIA extraordinary rendition flights using Irish airports and airspace with the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore, in the Dáil.

Crowe raised the issue during questions time to the Tánaiste and on the foot of a newly released report by the Open Society Justice Initiative, titled Globalising Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition, which listed Ireland as one country which helped facilitate CIA extraordinary rendition flights.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:
“In its report, the Open Society Justice Initiative bases its evidence of Ireland’s complicity in CIA rendition flights on three high-level reports from the European parliament, the Council of Europe and the UN.

“I was particularly surprised at the Government’s silence following the report, considering the allegations it made in relation to the role Ireland played in extraordinary rendition. Ireland now has a seat on the UN Human Rights Council and it is vital that every effort is made to clarify and uncover any material linking this state to extraordinary rendition of prisoners.

“Rendition flights are completely illegal under international law, and it is vital to investigate any claims that this state facilitated rendition flights, by allowing the use of Shannon airport and Irish airspace.

“The Tánaiste has said that previous Government’s received assurances by the US authorities that Irish airspace and airports were not used by the CIA for rendition flights. Those assurances seem to be at odds with his views on 1 March 2006, when he said that “the European Convention on Human Rights can also be violated ‘through an omission to act. Not knowing is not good enough.”

“The Tánaiste failed to explain why he didn’t believe these assurances in opposition, but for some unknown reason he believes them now.

“I am calling on the Government to thoroughly investigate these claims and to institute safeguards which will ensure that military operations by foreign states do not use Irish airspace and airports to violate human rights and international law.”