A chara,
The case of torture victim Binyam Mohamed – a British resident and Guantanamo internee - puts a human face on the Irish government's assistance to US torturers, who unhindered travel regularly through Shannon airport.

On two occasions, CIA planes and crew that delivered Mr Mohamed to torture in secret prisons in Morocco and Afghanistan stopped overnight in Shannon.

Mr Mohamed was subject to various forms of torture including beatings, starvation and the cutting of his genitals with a razor. The US authorities are now using the resultant confessions as evidence against Mr Mohamed at a military tribunal in Guantanamo.

For months now, Mr Mohamed's lawyer has been seeking information from the Irish government on these two flights, which stopped in Shannon on 22 July 2002 and 17 September 2004. The information sought includes flight records, the names and passport details of all those on board, the name of the hotel where they stayed and records of the hotel, including telephone records, and records surrounding the flight, including documents filed by US representatives and private corporations involved in the planning of the trips. However, the government has failed to supply this information.

The Irish government cannot undo the horrors that Mr Mohamed experienced, but it can offer him much-needed assistance as he goes before the kangaroo court in Guantanamo. The information sought from the Irish state can help Mr Mohamed prove his innocence. If the government refuses, it will be sealing his fate to many years imprisonment or worse, the death penalty. It will also be sealing this Irish government's fate, to be seen the world over as a conscious colluder in torture.

The government must no longer turn a blind eye to the scandal of Shannon Airport.

Immediate steps have to be taken to halt any CIA planes from travelling through both Irish airspace and Irish airports. Indeed, all other US military aircraft should be refused landing rights in Ireland, as they too could be transporting torture victims or torturers. Our government is duty bound to take such actions as a signatory to the UN Convention against Torture.

Is mise,
Niall Farrell,
PRO,
Galway Alliance Against War

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