Two former Guantanamo Bay prisoners, whose extraordinary extraditions involved planes that the EU say landed in Shannon Airport, are mentioned in the US Senate's damning report on CIA torture.

One of the world's leading international relations and human rights experts is calling for an investigation into the role that Ireland played in facilitating suspicious flights.

The Pat Kenny Show spoke to Sam Raphael, a senior lecturer in Kingston University and co-director of The Rendition Project - a group exploring the secret detention and rendition of alleged terror suspects during the War on Terror. He says that Shannon was "premier" among a small group of airports that were "absolutely crucial to this torture programme".

These are by no means new allegations, and it remains unlikely that actual prisoners landed at Shannon, but Mr Raphael is calling on the government to investigate CIA flights through Ireland's airports. He describes Shannon as a "logistical hub for rendition operations".

A 2007 EU Parliament report into "the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners" expressed serious concerns about: "147 stopovers made by CIA-operated aircraft at Irish airports that on many occasions came from or were bound for countries linked with extraordinary rendition circuits and the transfer of detainees."

Victims linked to Ireland 

In 2008 a lawyer representing a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Binyam Mohammed formally wrote to the then Taoiseach, Brian Cowen looking for information about planes connected with the rendition of his client. Two planes are believed to have stopped in Shannon in the days surrounding two different rendition operations which transported Binyam to US detention facilities.

Binyam Mohammed is specifically mentioned in the section of the 2007 European Parliament report which deals with Ireland. He is also mentioned 30 times by name, and four other times under a false name in the US Senate's CIA torture report.

He was detained for seven years, four of which were in Guantanamo Bay.

In 2009, all charges against Binyam Mohammed were dropped and he was released. He had been held under suspicion of plotting to detonate a 'Dirty Bomb' in the US.

During his detention Binyam says that he was subjected to a number of forms of torture, including beatings, scolding and one incident when his penis was cut with a scalpel.

Binyam Mohammed discussing his detention

He went on hunger strike while being detained in Guantanamo Bay.

Binyam was subsequently involved with a court case with the British state in which he claimed that they had been complicit in his torture and false imprisonment. The British authorities eventually paid him £1m in damages.

 

 

Partially withheld extract from the report into CIA interrogation techniques which details Binyam's movements

Amnesty International also alleged that the plane which carried Binyam did pass through Shannon, and that the Government must have learned of the flights.

Jamil el-Banna is also mentioned in both the new US Senate report and the section on Ireland in the EU's 2007 report. The EU notes that a plane connected with his rendition is known to have passed through Shannon. He too was detained in Guantanamo Bay and was later released.

He also alleges that he was tortured. He is listed as a CIA detainee in the torture report.

Questions

Speaking to Newstalk Mr Raphael called for an investigation to answer the following questions:

• Did the Irish authorities know what was happening on American planes in Ireland while the torture program was operating?
• Did the airport authority know what was happening in Shannon?
• While the progamme was operating, what information could Ireland have got from the United States regarding the exact purpose of the flights which passed through Shannon Airport?
• Were there prisoners on board any of the planes that passed through Ireland?

He also pointed out that Ireland has a limited period in which to investigate these questions because the US government are hoping to close the issue now that the Senate report has been published.  

Irish suspicion and inaction

Documents released by WikiLeaks in 2011 detail some discussions between members of the Irish Government and the US Ambassador in Dublin, and other US representatives. These papers include constant questions about movements through Shannon, including concerns over rendition flights.

A document from December 8th, 2004 recounts the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern told US ambassador that he had been reporting in the Dáil that enemy combatants have not gone through Shannon "en route to Guantanamo or elsewhere". Mr Ahern looked for reassurances, asking the US ambassador "am I alright on this?". 

At a later meeting in 2007, leaked cables reveal that the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern believed that suspicious flights had passed through Shannon. The classified cable says: "He seemed quite convinced that at least three flights involving renditions had refueled at Shannon Airport before or after conducting renditions elsewhere."

The leaked documents are full of instances when Irish officials believe that something untoward could be happening in Shannon. These fears were generally met with reassurances from the US.

The 2007 European Parliament report was critical of Ireland's failure to engage with Irish and foreign intelligence which suggested that planes transporting prisoners were passing through Shannon. It was also critical of Ireland's lack of random searches of aircrafts which stopped off in the country.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups have also been critical of Ireland, suggesting that the Government turned a 'blind eye' to CIA planes passing through Shannon.

A statement from the Irish Department of Justice has acknowledged that a small number of commercially leased aircrafts involved in US rendition operations may have passed through Irish airports - but there is no evidence that they were carrying prisoners at the time.