This article is from page 67 of the 2007-11-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 67 JPG
TWO aircraft confirmed to be in- volved in prisoner rendition activities by the CIA in reports published by the European Parliament, the Coun- cil of Europe and Amnesty Interna- tional, continue to use Shannon Aiur- port to refuel but are still not being searched by gardai.
The Gulfstream IV jets, registra- tion numbers N4/5LC and N478GS, owned at the time by Centurion Avi- ation Services, a shelf company for
the CIA, have been identified by the EU’s “Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners” published in November 2006.
N478GS landed at Shannon on July 26 andN475LC refuelled at the air- port in the early hours of October 30. A formal request for the airplane to be searched by gardai was made on the night by well known anti-war campaigner Edward Horgan from Limerick. Mr Horgan, a retired Irish
Army Commandant, was aware that the plane was due in Shannon and was there when it arrived.
His request to have the plane searched was refused and he made a formal complaint and two days later, received a letter from An Garda Sio- chana stating that “the gardai will not be taking any action on the informa- tion contained in your statement.”
Ata recent conference in Ennis, Mr Horgan asked guest speaker Kath- leen O’ Toole, the head of the Garda Siochana Inspectorate, whether
she would investigate the failure of gardai to prevent the use of Shannon for torture.
Stating that she had no personal or professional knowledge of the situa- tion at Shannon, Ms O’ Toole said that OS DENA OComDOOUUOUKI (cs mmc(oco wm OLE Li-DOhVAES Ro) f| time to assign us to look at anything throughout the country involving garda practices then of course we will do that.”
Centurion Aviation Services was also named in an Amnesty Interna- tional report on rendition last year
and the registered owner of both aircraft 1s now listed as L-3 IS LLC, Great Falls, Montana.
According to the European Parlia- ment report, “Aircraft N478GS and N475LC belong to the company Cen- turion Aviation Services. This compa- ny is relevant, within the framework of CIA flights, as a beneficiary of the so-called “landing permits” in the US military bases all over the world. The Civil Aircraft Landing Permit (CALP) authorizes aircraft to land on US military bases worldwide.”