David Norris (Independent)

I wish to raise the issue, which the House has treated seriously in the past, of the use of Shannon Airport by a Gulfstream V jet and other Boeing planes. When I first raised this issue one year ago, I could hardly believe what I was saying could be true. I wondered if I was detached from reality. It seemed to me strange that the Government should be involved and implicated in the commission of very serious international war crimes. The evidence, however, is growing. I direct Members' attention to a long and detailed article in The New Yorker on 8 February 2005 and other articles in the last week's Newsweek and The Village. We now have clear evidence that Shannon Airport is involved. The logs clearly demonstrate that, on several occasions, Shannon Airport was used during an operation in which citizens were illegally snatched by American operatives and taken to third countries where they were sometimes tortured to death. This has been the subject of international protests from Sweden and Canada. Will the House fully debate this issue? I will table a motion. I do not think we can afford to be involved in this type of scandalous and disgraceful behaviour.

It is a matter I will certainly raise with the American ambassador when he visits us privately and secretly at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs. Perhaps one reason the Americans do not want it out in the open is that they do not want the world to know they are involved in torture. Much of this information is coming from the most unimpeachable source, the Central Intelligence Agency. The information being harvested from these unfortunate people under extreme pain is so unreliable those involved are wasting their time and do not know what to do with these people who survived torture. They cannot bring them to court. Are they expected to murder them? It is a very serious situation and this country is being involved in the commission of international crimes.