Shannonwatch

On 2 April 2013, the UN General Assembly adopted an Arms Trade Treaty which is intended to regulate the international trade in conventional arms. It covers everything from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships. According to the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs the treaty will "foster peace and security by putting a stop to destabilising arms flows to conflict regions. It will prevent human rights abusers and violators of the law of war from being supplied with arms. And it will help keep warlords, pirates, and gangs from acquiring these deadly tools".

67 Member States including Ireland signed the Arms Trade Treaty when it opened for signature on 3rd June. By signing they signaled their intention to become a party to the Treaty in the future.

Joe Glenton went to jail rather than return to Afghanistan to fight in a war he did not believe in. On Thursday evening at 8pm in Richardson’s Eyre Square, Galway, he will give his eyewitness account of the “War on Terror” on the killing fields of Afghanistan.

About Joe Glenton

Joe Glenton was the first British soldier to refuse to serve in Afghanistan on legal and moral grounds. Threatened with years in prison, he challenged and beat the military on the charge of desertion; which was withdrawn before trial to avoid a public examination of the War on Terror.

Today, he is a writer and film-maker. He has narrated and presented a four-part series called The Soldier Myth. This is now available to watch free on Youtube and draws on the testimonies of recent Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, as well as historians, academics, activists and family members of those killed in the wars.

Margaretta D'Arcy, Mick Wallace TD, Zoe Lawlor and Clare Daly TD discuss the US military and CIA use of Shannon with Gardai

For the first time in many months the regular peace vigil at Shannon Airport was held in bright sunshine. But what didn't change was that the peaceful protestors were outnumbered by Gardai who erected crash barriers and stood in line to block access to the airport. Even the presence of two TDs, Clare Daly and Mick Wallace who asked to walk up to the airport, was met with the usual refusal.

Sixteen peaceful protesters. And more than twenty Gardai all staring in the wrong direction, away from where the war criminals might be. Keeping the airport free of peaceful protestors. Just "doing their jobs" they said.

As part of the ongoing response to the continuing use of Shannon Airport by the US military, Shannonwatch are holding a vigil outside the airport from 2pm to 3pm on Sunday June 9^th. The vigil will be attended by independent TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace who will call for government action in line with its stated commitment to international law and Irish neutrality.

Bradley Manning went on trial at Fort Meade in Maryland on Monday, facing 21 charges resulting from the leaking of hundreds of thousands of classified digital files to WikiLeaks. His "crime" was to expose the truth about the much more serious US war crimes and about their secret foreign policy dealings. His punishment, if the US government have their way, will be life imprisonment.

A groundbreaking research project mapping the US government's programme of global rendition has just been launched. It is called The Rendition Project, and it contains a database of over 11,000 pieces of data on confirmed and suspected rendition flights and other flights from related carriers. Over 350 of these flights came through Shannon Airport.