Use of Irish Airports: Motion - 8th March 2006

Use of Irish Airports: Motion - 8th March 2006
Mr. Norris: I am very happy to second this motion and I am very grateful to Senator Ryan for giving me the opportunity to do so. Like many other people, I was astonished when this committee was deliberately collapsed. In reply to my question about the committee on 1 December 2005, the Leader stated that if the European Parliament is taking the issue seriously, then we should do likewise. We had about six meetings and the legal representative of the Oireachtas was there to advise us. The terms of reference were agreed between all parties, yet suddenly, the whole thing was punctured and I am sure that this was not without the intervention of the Government. Some of my colleagues on the other side of the House have been gombeens on this issue. I use that word advisedly and I would like to rub it in. A gombeen is one who sells out one’s ideas for cash and it is a perfectly parliamentary term to use. Such people do not care if human beings are tortured or murdered, because we know this has actually happened.
If Members are looking for specific facts, I refer them to five specific flights.
Acting Chairman: The Senator made the point that people sold something for cash. Is he making an allegation about somebody?
Mr. Norris: Yes. People sell out their ideals for cash and the record proves that this is the case. Members have said that we cannot afford to do this because the multinationals are huge sources of employment and cash and so on.
Acting Chairman: It is not appropriate to make such a comment about any Member without having evidence to substantiate it.
Mr. Norris: It was said that we could not afford it because it would cost us financially. That constitutes selling out one’s ideals for cash. I expect to be allowed some injury time for that inappropriate interruption from the Chair.
Acting Chairman: I accept the Senator’s clarification.
Mr. Norris: I want to refer to five specific flights. The first flight landed on 17 June 2003. Hassan Osama Mustafa Nasr, known as Abu Omar, was abducted in Milan. He may not have been a very nice person, but he was treated with contempt for his human rights. He was taken via a military air base in Aviano, Italy and Rammstein, Germany to Egypt on a Gulfstream jet, which later flew to the US via Shannon.
Mr. Dooley: Was he on the plane in Shannon?
Mr. Norris: That is the very fudge the Senators on the other side of the House are trying to make. Under international law, it constitutes complicity in a crime if one assists in the flight. This is what we have done and this is what the Government has tried to conceal. I would appreciate less nonsense from that side of the House.
The suspect was then taken to Egypt, was tortured and released without charge. He was then re-arrested and he has not been seen since. He was probably murdered in Egypt.
The plane used for the second flight was registered as N379P, which made several changes when it was discovered that we were following it. The Americans were obviously more embarrassed about it than the Government. That flight, known as the “Guantanamo Bay express”, was spotted at Shannon Airport in 2002 and had been involved in the abduction of two men from Stockholm in 2001. There is a criminal case pending on this issue.
Mr. Dooley: In which country is Stockholm?
Mr. Norris: Since yesterday, we have been in possession of information stating that the British Government, despite its repeated denials of the use of its bases for rendition, has been involved in such a process. The following three flights are of interest to this House because they were routed back through Shannon. Flight N313P arrived from Brize Norton at 10.15 on 19 October 2003, departed to Tripoli at 13.00, arrived from Tripoli at 15.35 on 22 October, departed to Tripoli at noon on 28 October, arrived from Tripoli at 17.10 on 29 October and departed to Shannon. Flight N379P arrived from Islamabad at 15.50 on 18 October 2002, departed to Washington at 9.00 on 20 October, arrived from Amman at 12.50 on 16 January 2003, departed to Shannon at 10.00. Flight N8068V arrived from Marrakesh at 12.10 on 15 May 2004, departed to Luton at 13.00, arrived from Luton at 11.05 on 17 May and departed to Shannon at 8 a.m. The sole purpose of these airplanes was rendition of illegally kidnapped victims and we facilitated that by refuelling those airplanes at Shannon.
The Human Rights Commission, on 23 December last, called on the State to inspect flights into Shannon. This is not just a group of cranks on the backbenches of Seanad Éireann. I will now turn to the response of the Government to the Marty committee. We were told that inspection was not necessary because it was duplication. As a result of a complaint I made to the Garda Commissioner, I was visited by two detective superintendents. They told me, and I confirmed it this afternoon, that the Garda has no power to enter these aircraft in these conditions because of the way the UN convention on torture was incorporated into Irish law. The Government said something totally contradictory in this report, so which is correct?
Mr. Daly: It has other powers.
Mr. Norris: The instructions to the Government were to investigate whether there had been active or passive co-operation. I do not suggest there was active co-operation but there is factual evidence that there was passive co-operation. There is no doubt on this point.
Mr. Dooley: The Senator should define “passive co-operation”.
Mr. Norris: If the Senator would shut up, I will. The Senator is not in the county council in Ennis now and he never will be, with the help of God and a toothbrush.
Acting Chairman: Senator Norris without interruption.
Mr. Norris: This response to Senator Marty is the most shameful document I have seen. It is full of prevarication, bluster, answers to questions that were not asked,——
Mr. Dooley: Facts.
Mr. Norris: ——inaccuracies, half truths and what appear to be downright lies.
Mr. Dooley: That is because they do not suit the Senator’s agenda.
Mr. Norris: I have indicated that some of it is contradicted by senior Garda officers. The Senator also asked about aid or assistance in the transportation by aircraft or otherwise of persons so deprived of their liberty. Is it beyond the intelligence of a small section of the Fianna Fáil Party to understand plain English? If one refuels an airplane, one is facilitating its operation. It is part and parcel of the flight and would be so understood in international criminal law.
The Government says that in the interests of the proper operation of the security and safety of an aerodrome or the security and safety of persons, aircraft or other property thereon, a garda may arrest without warrant any person who assaults or whom he or she reasonably suspects to have assaulted another person. This is a series of five flights where we know that people were assaulted. This has been determined in several European courts. The pilot of that airplane was the same pilot who brought it back through Shannon. We know he was involved in the assaults. Why was nothing done? Why did the Government not ask who was in the airplane? Why were the airplanes not inspected?
The gardaí told me — this is laughable — that they interrogated the cleaners. The cleaners might notice the odd cigarette packet on the ground but they would not notice the subtle adaptations so people can be shackled and manacled in the aircraft. The Government signally failed in its duty to inspect and that is why this part of its answer is a downright lie and a disgrace to the Irish people.
Mr. Dooley: The Senator should withdraw that remark.
Mr. Norris: I will not withdraw anything. Under Irish law a victim is entitled to secure civil damages against the State. I sincerely hope that the people for whom the Government has been complicit in their kidnap and torture will sue the State and I hope the record of Seanad Éireann and the fact that I and others have pursued this over the past few years will stand as evidence.
Senator Marty mentioned “by act or omission”. We have not covered the State’s act of omission but I am aware of what the Government is trying to do. It is trying to squirt out obfuscation so it can pretend it did not know. However, ignorance of the law is no defence in law. The Government said it is fully aware of its obligations. It might be but why did it do damn all about them? Where the Secretary General’s request is concerned, the Government said the issue arises largely — and this is the fudge — in the context of the transport of any individual while so deprived of his or her liberty. The transport of an individual includes the return leg. That is what the Senators are so afraid of, but can one in conscience think of people being tortured?
The CIA says that if one wants somebody tortured, one takes them to Jordan or Syria and if one wants them killed, one takes them to Egypt. This is on the record from a senior CIA operative. Look at the destinations of those flights. Where were they going?
Acting Chairman: The Senator has exceeded his time.
Mr. Norris: I am honoured to support the motion. I am glad there is a division of opinion on the Government benches because there are decent and honourable people who would not sell their fellow human beings into torture——
Mr. Dooley: Neither would we.
Mr. Norris: ——simply because they have the habit of being colonised,——
Mr. Dooley: We will not succumb to this on the basis of a sham.
Mr. Norris: ——touching their forelocks and being gombeens.
Mr. Dooley: It is an anti-American sham.