This article is from page 8 of the 2012-10-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
UNMANNED killer drones, such as the one which killed 16 people in Pakistan last week, could be being transported through Shannon Air- port every day, according to Shannonwatch. The anti-war group published a new book on Sunday detailing the number of US military and chartered flights which have travelled through Shannon Airport over the last 10 years. The group claim that, despite promises made in the programme for government, the Irish Government is still allowing international and Irish law to be broken in the airport. The book also highlight the lack of inspections at the airport. “There has been a lack of political will to do this for many years. But we also know that with the new programme for government, a commitment has been given to ensure that international law is respected in Irish Airports,” said John Lannon of Shannonwatch. “By putting this into the programme for government in the first place it was an admission that international law was not being respected in the first place. But it also showed a willingness to change that, but we have seen absolutely nothing from them in this regard to date. This booklet is a timely reminder to the Government about this. “There is a growing amount of disillusionment with them [the Labour Party]. Many of their current TDs would have been out of the front line of the campaign against the torture flights and the military use of Shannon. It is disappointing that they seem to have become suddenly less vocal as soon as they entered government. “I think the next two years will tell a lot about whether Labour in particular meant what they said while in opposition before the last election. “I think it will come as a surprise to a lot of people the number of national and international laws that have been broken in Shannon. At the moment we don’t know what is coming through and nobody is checking. There could be drones coming through Shannon Airport every day and we just have no way of knowing.”