What is the Truth? Ed Horgan Calls a Spade a Spade

international | anti-war / imperialism | feature Sunday April 23, 2006 15:24 by Edward Horgan - "if any" organisation, or many

"It is also wrong for Honor Mahony to state in the her Irish Times report entitled “Man alleging …” that: “Mr Horgan admitted his evidence was based on opinion.” I admitted no such thing."

For the record, the group of four, Tim Hourigan, Mary Kelly, Deirdre Morgan and Edward Horgan, who made a similar submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs on 20 Dec 2005, also offered to make a similar presentation to the EU Committee. The EU declined on cost grounds, and invited me only. However, I have received substantial help from a dedicated group of peace activists, mainly Irish, but with a few significant non-Irish contributors.

Over the past month a Garda has confirmed to me in confidence that they have been directed not to search US CIA aircraft or US military aircraft at Shannon airport, and that many of the Gardai disagree with this directive because it means “… turning a blind eye to the probability of wrongdoing, and we all know what terrible things such policies have led to in the past.”

In my submission to the European Parliament I called a spade a spade, and referred several times to the unlawful killing of over 100,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan and the interconnected rendition for torture programme, and the Irish Government’s complicity in these events. Many MEPs did not want to hear this, and the Irish MEPs in particular were embarrassed at Ireland being publically exposed for its participation in the Iraq War.

If Hitler and his ilk had been robustly challenged much earlier on the murders and torture they were committing in the 1930s, then many of their victims might have been spared. Yet it was considered politically or diplomatically incorrect to do so. 1945 was tens of millions of victims too late to accuse Hitler of mass murder. In my EU submission I referred to Britain as a “rogue European Union state because it is waging in an unlawful war on Iraq that has caused over 100,000 dead", and I referred to Ireland as a “rogue neutral state” for its breach of international laws on neutrality by its facilitation of the Iraq War at Shannon airport.

It was clear from the reaction that MEPs considered that my statements were politically incorrect. I can live with their criticism, but I cannot remain silent given what I know is going on, with a substantial degree of certainty.

Much was made by some MEPs and the Irish media reports of the lack of “concrete evidence” or “facts” presented by me. In any court of law, there are virtually never any cases decided on 100% certainty. Most serious cases are decided on evidence that must be “beyond reasonable doubt” and never beyond all doubt. In industrial relations cases the degree of proof required is the much lesser criterion of “reasonable grounds for believing” that the events occurred.

However, the levels of certainly required for the police and the Irish Government to carry out a comprehensive investigation of allegations of torture or complicity in unlawful killings in Iraq or elsewhere, is neither reasonable grounds nor beyond all reasonable doubt. The police have an absolute duty to investigate all such serious crimes if they receive any reports that such crimes may have been committed, and have a duty to find any relevant evidence themselves, and not wait for or demand that members of the public present them with such evidence. They also have a specific duty to prevent such crimes taking place in the first, and the garda chiefs have shamefully failed in this particular duty.

What I did produce to the EU Parliamentarians was clear firm documentary evidence i.e. actual flight logs, that Shannon airport has been used by CIA rendition aircraft almost one hundred times, and substantial circumstantial or prima facia evidence that Shannon airport is likely to have been used for the actual transport of prisoners on several occasions. (documentary evidence of course is not made out of concrete) For MEP O’Neachtain to state, as quoted in the Irish Times, that I had not produced “any substantial evidence of any kind” is extraordinary if he has taken the trouble to read my submission and especially the detailed CIA flight logs I produced to the committee.

It is also wrong for Honor Mahony to state in the her Irish Times report entitled “Man alleging …” that: “Mr Horgan admitted his evidence was based on opinion.” I admitted no such thing. I made it clear that there is very substantial evidence that Shannon airport has been used for the CIA extraordinary rendition programme. The only issue that I confirmed was a matter of my opinion, or my assessment, was whether, or how many, prisoners had been actually transported through Shannon airport. I emphasised that I and others were actively prevented from establishing this information, and that I was not prepared to use violence or to commit crimes to gain access to this information, and this information was readily available to the Irish police and therefore to the Irish Government. I am pleased however that this woman recognised that I am a “man”. Her report indicates that she missed quite a lot of what was going on.

On a positive note, my submission to the EU Parliamentarians was keenly observed by a Council of Europe rendition investigator who complemented me on the important information I had presented, and asked me for copies of my submissions and the attachments, which I am in the process of making available to him. The Council of Europe are likely to take special interest in my detailed analysis of the Irish Government’s reply to the Council of Europe, which I described as fraudulent.

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