Extraordinary renditions are operations to apprehend terrorists abroad and transport them to another state for interrogation, usually without the knowledge of the host government. The procedure was developed by the CIA in the mid-1990s.
At least
four suspect aircraft landed at Shannon over the past week. Last Wednesday, one of the jets, registration N475LC, made a refuelling stop lasting half-an-hour. Another plane, N478GS, made a similar stop at the airport on Saturday afternoon. One man, believed to be a US government agent, was seen observing the refuelling process.
The planes, operated by Centurion Aviation Services, a shelf company for the CIA, were identified in the EU report on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners, which was published in November 2006. Despite this, both jets continue to stop at Shannon.
Late last Sunday night, two more aircraft, N71PG and N54PA, were due in Shannon. Records show that both jets visited numerous airforce bases in the US in recent weeks. However, flight records for N475LC and N478GS are no longer accessible online.
Last October 30, when one suspect jet landed at Shannon, gardaí refused to search the plane despite a formal request to do so, stating that they had received instructions from the Attorney General that such aircraft should not be searched.
Retired Irish army commandant and anti-war activist Edward Horgan claims that he has received confirmation from a senior garda at Garda HQ that such a "letter of advice" from the Attorney General to the legal section at Garda HQ did exist, despite claims in the Dáil that no such instruction was given.
Mr Horgan has now renewed his original call, made in December, for the Government to ban suspect aircraft from landing at Irish airports. The move came on the same day as the Irish Human Rights Commission published its report on extraordinary rendition.
The report stated that "assurances by the US and Irish governments that rendition flights have not landed at Shannon are not sufficient for Ireland to meet its human rights obligations, and any aircraft around which suspicion exists must be boarded and examined by gardaí".
The IHRC report also recommended that consideration be given to establishing a Garda sub-station at Shannon Airport, where many of the planes used in rendition operations are alleged to have refuelled.
Mr Horgan added: "It may be months or years before we know what the purpose of these flights has been, and in the meantime, Ireland is trafficking in torture and doing so for economic reasons.
"In recent weeks, it has been revealed that the US government transported prisoners through the British territory of Diego Garcia without apparently informing the British government, and in spite of US government assurances that no prisoners were transported through British territory.
"Even more serious is the statement in the past few days by Manfred Nowak, UN torture investigator, that Diego Garcia was actually used to imprison prisoners captured by the US in Afghanistan or Iraq."
