Shannonwatch

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.

A few weeks ago we posted a  story entitled 'The Phantom Kalitta Boeing 747 - No Official Record of it Landing at Shannon'. In it we explained that even though we had a photograph of this plane at Shannon, the Minister for Transport said there was no record of it being at Shannon on that day.

The plane was almost certainly on US military business. It left Leige on Oct 8th with a US military call sign (CMB162) but switched that before arriving in Shannon on Oct 9th, possibly to conceal the fact that it was carrying US military cargo. 

At Shannon Airport yesterday 10 people braved the weather at the monthly Shannonwatch peace vigil. There were two US warplanes at the airport, a US Navy C40 number 16-5833 and a Hercules C130 number RU 16-4598. Our usual force of Gardaí failed to show up initially. So instead of our usual location at the roundabout we decided to walk up towards the airport passed the unmanned police barriers and past the sole airport security officer at the road checkpoint.

Eventually the forces of the state were deployed against us, albeit in a relatively friendly manner. The Gardaí were formally asked to search and investigate the two US military aircraft that were clearly visible to all concerned. A Garda Sergeant took details of the aircraft, and undertook to discuss the matter with his superiors.