Government failing on renditions as world marks 8 years of Guantánamo

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis

Monday January 11, 2010 11:48

by Amnesty International - Ireland - Amnesty International

Marking the eighth anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo Bay detention centre, Amnesty International Ireland has criticised the Government’s lack of progress in carrying out a promised review of the law on searching suspected renditions flights.

Marking the eighth anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo Bay detention centre Amnesty International Ireland has criticised the Government’s lack of progress in carrying out a promised review of the law on searching suspected renditions flights. However the organisation welcomed again the decision last September to accept two former Guantánamo detainees.

Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland said: “In November 2008 the Government announced it was setting up a Cabinet committee to review the law and ensure Gardaí had the power to board and search suspected rendition flights. At the time the Government said this was an indication that it was, “taking human rights seriously”.

“Over a year later however there is still no sign of this review and the committee has only met twice. Last month activists at Shannon announced that five planes previously connected to renditions flights had used Shannon Airport since March 2009, some of them on multiple occasions. There is a widespread belief that President Obama ended the practice of renditions. This is not the case. The CIA is still permitted to carry out rendition operations.

“The issue of Ireland’s role in rendition flights, like Guantánamo, has not gone away. In the cases of four men, Abu Omar, Khaled al Maqtari, Khaled el Masri and Binyam Mohamed CIA agents used Shannon Airport as a launching pad for rendition operations.

“The Taoiseach must announce when the Cabinet review will finally take place. He must ensure that it is comprehensive and commit to making the findings public.”

The organisation also renewed its call on US President Barack Obama to close Guantánamo. Last January President Obama signed an executive order committing his administration to closing the detention facility “no later than a year from the date of this order” but in November he admitted the US would not meet this deadline.

“Guantánamo is the most visible symbol of a system of prisons, secret detention sites and renditions networks that made possible the illegal kidnapping and imprisonment of hundreds of people,” said Mr O’Gorman.

“The closure of Guantánamo would mark a clean break with the previous administration. Those prisoners still held there should be given a fair, independent and impartial trial or released.”

Amnesty International Ireland again highlighted the valuable contribution Ireland made to closing Guantánamo last year by accepting two cleared detainees for resettlement.

“Accepting those two men was a practical contribution by the Irish Government to the shutting down of Guantánamo. We would hope that other countries, particularly EU member states, will follow Ireland’s example in the year to come,” said Mr O’Gorman.

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Comments (2 of 2)

Expecting too much?

by Fred Johnston

Mon Jan 11, 2010 20:56

The government, especially Fianna Fáil, are happy to read off figures indicating how much profit has been made from US military passing through Shannon, an airport that is otherwise going down the tubes. Local gombeen-think believes the US is saving ould' Ireland once again. Political whoring is now so commonplace in Irish political life that we virtually can take it for granted that it has replaced democracy. Fianna Fáil couldn't get rid of the US presence if it wanted to: the Yanks would immediately threaten some sort of bullying sanction, such as pulling out certain industries and so on. C an you imagine Cowen trying to face that down? It would also take a certain moral and ethical sense, which the Greens threw away as soon as they were shown a government seat and Fianna Fáil never had. It would also take a strong sense of patriotism and of who we are as country, but we possess neither.

The only justice I see is injustice

by Seán Ryan

Mon Jan 11, 2010 15:09

Well done to Amnesty for this.

There is no need at all for the government to review our laws or police powers, both already facilitate the upholding of Irish and international law insofar as kidnapping, torture and other crimes against humanity are concerned. Indeed our government should remove themselves from this particular question altogether as they have no business whatsoever in effectively putting the Irish justice system through a version of extraordinary rendition, Irish style. To review Irish law and practice, there should at least have been some failure or shortcoming to fix - the review itself, being the mechanism that has the Irish justice system locked up tight, is seemingly both the sickness and the cure. It is preposterous.

As for Obama ending extraordinary rendition, that too is a complete fabrication. It wasn't the American presidency who made extraordinary rendition a lawful entity in the US. It was the Supreme Court and it made this abomination a lawful practice decades ago.

Another thing that needs to come out in the wash is Blackwater, or whatever those goons are called these days. It is now known that this mercenary group has intimate ties to the CIA. How many, if any, have been ferried through Irish airports, tooled up for and intent on butchering children?

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Government failing on renditions as world marks 8 years of Guantánamo

Comments (2 of 2)