David Norris (Independent)

I return to calls I have made over the last while for a debate on the Middle East which focuses on the policy of the United States of America in Iraq and Israel. The latest report of the Interim Review Commission this morning indicates that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that senior people in the USA knew this was the case. This is very damning. Mr. Rumsfeld said there was no connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and then tried to withdraw the remark. There is obvious confusion and it is important to have a debate.

I return also to an issue I put to the Leader in the last session. It may be the case that two named persons who were kidnapped by the United States of America were brought through Shannon Airport at some stage. There is a real problem concerning the use of Shannon Airport for the transfer of victims of torture. I refer to an article by Michael McCaughan in Village, the new magazine edited by Vincent Browne, headlined "Shannon used as kidnap operation stop-over". According to the report, on 18 December 2001, US operatives kidnapped Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed Al-Zery, Egyptian exiles who had requested asylum in Sweden. They were forced onto a plane in Sweden despite protests by the Swedish migration board. Each of the prisoners had his clothes removed from his body with a scissors, a suppository inserted into his anus and diapers placed on him. Their hands and feet were chained to a specially-designed harness and they travelled blindfolded and hooded.

I put it to the House that these are conditions of torture and that the people suffering them may have been transported through Irish airspace and may have landed in Shannon. This is an illegal act and I urge strongly that these circumstances be investigated. We have reports of two named people who were kidnapped and subjected to torture. The kidnap and export of people to third countries so they may be subjected to torture is intolerable and this country should not be implicated in it in any way.