http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=19691-qqqx=1.aspBan on CIA’s ‘Guantanamo Express’ from Irish airports
THE plane sometimes referred to as the ‘Guantanamo Express’, used by the CIA to transport kidnapped suspects to secret jails, has been banned from landing at Irish airports in future, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told a European Parliament committee.
The plane landed at Shannon after taking Abu Omar from Germany to Egypt on February 17, 2003, where he is still being held incommunicado and tortured, according to the committee’s report.
However, Mr Ahern refused to hold an independent investigation into the use of Shannon and other airports by CIA rendition planes, saying he relied on assurances he received from the Bush administration.
He said he raised the issue with the US in 2004, a year before the Washington Post exposed the renditions and secret jails.
“The United States has stated authoritatively to us that prisoners have not been transferred through Irish territory, nor would they be without our permission,” he said.