Shannonwatch

Letter by Shannonwatch's Edward Horgan published in Irish Examiner 20 Feb 2019

There is supposed to be ceasefire in Yemen but each day children are still dying, by bombing, gunfire, disease and starvation. According to UN sources at least 85,000 children have died. Like the Syrian conflict there are many internal and external factions involved but the main culprits include Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates supported by armaments supplied by, US, UK, France and Germany. They support the UN recognised Yemeni government that is not supported by the vast majority of Yemeni people.

There was just one aircraft doing normal - or abnormal - flight business at Shannon Airport at 4pm on Sunday January 27th. It was an Omni Air International N477AX on contract to the US military carrying armed US troops from Moody US Air Force Base Fort Wort Texas to Kuwait in the Middle East. It took off from Moody about 14.30pm.

As today's peace vigil took place at Shannon there were two US warplanes at the airport. One was a Hercules C130J mid air refueling plane, and the other one a small US army Beechcraft turboprop number 00258.

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A recent New York Times report entitled 'C.I.A.'s Afghan Forces Leave a Trail of Abuse and Anger' indicates that the CIA and US military have not ended their involvement in war crimes and torture in Afghanistan.

Shannon Airport is still being used on a daily basis to facilitate these war crimes, not just in Afghanistan, but also in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Guantanamo and elsewhere.

The US warplanes have not gone away, they're just being more devious in their landings at Shannon, not displaying their flight numbers or call signs. This Omni Air International plane landed at Shannon just after 1pm on the afternoon of Dec 29th. It arrived from Norfolk US Naval Base in the USA and was most likely on its way to the Middle East with yet anther plane load of armed US troops.

The photos below show Shannon airport workers servicing this aircraft and refueling it.

In a recent reply to a pariamentary question from Clare Daly TD, our Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, pedantically explained that the regulation of civil aircraft is governed by the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention), and that rom that Convention and subsequent international treaties, international rights and freedoms of air for civil aircraft, including the right to refuel, are derived.

He didn't need to explain this; he's written it at the start of umpteen parliamentary question responses already

He went on to state that Ireland's rights and obligations under the Convention have been incorporated into Irish law through the Air Navigation and Transport Act 1946 (as amended). The legislation, he said, provides that the Minister for Transport has primary responsibility for the regulation of civil aircraft, including those chartered to other States.