| US Soldiers through Shannon |
030121 --- From archives.tcm.ie/...
"The High Court in Dublin tonight directed
that the Government should reveal documents relating to the use of Irish
airspace and airport landing facilities available to foreign military
aircraft." after Peace activist Eoin Dubsky's case to defend his spray
painting of a USAF C-130 in Shannon. Without such court cases these figures would not be released by the government. 030329 - - - From www.clarefm.ie ...: [ 031208- Link destination no longer exists - Clare FM has since deleted all its archives containing this kind of evidence... Good job I copied it here beforehand. ] Saturday, March 29th 200 US Military planes have passed through Shannon Airport by Emer Connolly Filed at: 6.50am In the wake of suggestions that additional troops will use Shannon Airport to refuel in the coming days, it has emerged that 200 planes carrying munitions have passed through the airport so far this year. The Department of Transport has confirmed that 213 applications to land over overfly at Shannon have been received from the US authorities since January 1st. 13 of these have been refused on grounds of security. The vast majority of the aircraft - 136 - have landed at Shannon while the remainder have used it for over-flying. An estimated four aircraft refuel at Shannon daily, en route to Iraq. So far in March, 79 planes carrying troops have used Shannon Airport. 030429 --- Judge Kearns in his judgement on the Ed Horgan case says: "US military personnel are mainly transported by civil aircraft which do not require special permission to transit or overfly if they are not carrying weapons or munitions. As a result, it is impossible to state with precision the number of US troops that have passed through Shannon Airport travelling to the military conflict in Iraq. However, it is estimated, on the basis of the most recent data available, that the total number of US troops and associated civilian personnel passing through Shannon Airport in the period from 1 January 2003 to 19 March 2003 was around 34,500. A further 3,000 passed through Shannon Airport in the period between 20 March 2003 and 29 March 2003 inclusive. " 031001 ~One third of the ~180,000 US troops in Iraq came through Shannon and continue to use it. 031206: Irishtimes.com (pay site) reported on Saturday Dec 6 that 115,000 US soldiers have used Shannon this year in return for Euro 14 million blood money to the state. Also reported on www.unison.ie/irish_independent/... on Dec 6 (free registration) that 115,157 soldiers on 1,464 flights used the airport this year. Why didn't the 2 biggest broadsheets in Ireland publicize this BEFORE the Dec 6 Shannon protest ? Figures of this scale never appeared in the national media before Dec 6. So 115,000 of a total of 200,000 US soldiers (58%) in Iraq came through Shannon. To see just one of the US armies finest at work shooting dead an injured Iraqi look at this realvideo format CNN video on www.newsfrombabylon.com/... Download realvideo 8 if needed from billbrownmusic.com or proforma.real.com (5MB). The Iraqi bodycount is not known. For estimates see the "Bodycount" link on voteoutffpd.com. 50,000 is a low estimate. So Ireland played a directy role in the killing of 58% x 50,000 = 29,000 Iraqis. You could argue that most were probably killed by US bombers involving a crew of ~10 pilots but anyone who ascribes war deaths to machines has watched too many "Terminator" films. So a total US army of 200,000 killed ~50,000 people, 29,000 via Shannon warport, County Clare with the full approval of the current FF/PD government.. This is why we must voteoutffpd. 041013 : www.indymedia.ie/... Number of troops through Shannon up 17% from this time last year to 112,803 on 1,114 flights from Jan to Sept. 03. 22,525 troops stopping off on 150 flights in Sept. Estimated €14 million from the US business in 2004. This follows the estimated €25 million it secured from the military traffic in 2003 and 2002. Expected that just under 350,000 US troops will have passed through Shannon in the past three years. Passengers down 2%. Regarding allegations of al-Qaeda suspects passing through Shannon on a US aircraft, the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, said: "There is no evidence that this aircraft was being used for any illegal activity on any occasion when it was in Shannon Airport." Mr Cullen said the aircraft referred to had used Shannon Airport 13 times from 2000 to 2004. He said: "Each landing was a technical stop, that is, for refuelling or other technical reasons. On no occasion did any passengers join or leave the flight at Shannon." 050227 - www.indymedia.ie/..Tim Hourigan Figures for 2004 released. 158,549(also from Q. 87 on www.oireachtais.ie/... ) troops through Shannon. Despite extra war business, job cuts still expected. |
| US warplanes through Shannon |
From the Clare Champion, Jan 3, 2003: US military flights through Shannon: 1990 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 447 271 302 375 333 342 387 434 437 511 256 489 523 up to Nov. (887 for the full year in Friday May 2 edition) |
| US guns through Shannon |
Each of these soldiers is equipped with their
personal handgun and M16 machine gun plus ammunition. |
| US bombs through Shannon |
20 28 foot long missiles were carried on one
plane alone according to transit documents. From the statement of fact in judgement by Judge Kearns in the Ed Horgan case: "A total of 41 US military aircraft were given permission to land at Shannon Airport in the period from 1 January 2003 to date (April 28 2003). " These aircraft are not inspected, but you can be sure they are not carrying teddy bears. There is no reason to not believe that the same rate of about 10 military aircraft per month are still using Shannon. " In relation to the carriage of weapons or munitions on flights landing in Ireland or overflying its airspace, the Department of Transport granted 180 exemptions in the period between 1 January 2003 and 19 March 2003 inclusive. 35 exemptions were granted for flights in the period between 20 March 2003 and 30 March 2003 inclusive. The vast majority of these exemptions were in respect of aircraft carrying troops accompanied by their weapons and ammunition. " For a presentation on DU given by the LAKA organisation who represent victims of a cargoplane full of DU munitions crashing near Schipol Airport in Amsterdam in the 90s see www.bandepleteduranium.org/... "Unauthorized arms passed through airport" (attempt to bring landmines through!) Clare Champion Friday May 2, 2003. "Aircraft chartered by the US military carrying troops & munitions passed through Shannon airport without the permission of the Government up to mid-January, documents released this week reveal. The government documents state that three US military aircraft were refused permission to land at Shannon in the past few months because they had landmines on board. Permission was prohibited because Ireland is a signatory to the Ottowa Convention which prohibits the use of landmines." |
| US "anything" through Shannon |
Firemen called to extinguish a fire on a US
aircraft after an emergency landing had guns pointed at them, to prevent
them getting on board after the fire was brought under control by US
troops. Not unreasonable to say that anything such as hostages,
banned weapons were on that plane. Reported on Clare FM. Anything
that fits in a C-130 Hercules transported can not be inspected by
Irish police and is going through Shannon as below ( Pic from
www.refuellingpeace.org) See www.newsfrombabylon.com/... for pictures of the inside of a C-130 used to transport "terrorist suspects" from Afghanistan to Camp X-ray / Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay. Note that the US will not treat these prisoners as POWs since that would give them some rights. Instead they are labelled just "detainees". "Guantanamo Bay Express" carrying prisoners through Shannon. Exposed by Swedish documentary Kalla Fakta. www.indymedia.ie/... "We can tonight reveal that it was a foreign intelligence agency that abducted the two men out of Sweden. Masked US agents were allowed to operate on Swedish territory." |
| US military flights through Irish airspace |
• From the judgement of Judge Kearns in
the Ed Horgan case (see Eoin Dubsky site): "on the 4th of April 2003, the Chief State Solicitor ... setting out the factual position for the period from 1st January 2003 to date as follows:-"There were 762 overflights by US military aircraft in the period from 1 January 2003 to 31 March 2003 inclusive." "The Department of Foreign Affairs does not routinely receive information as to the number of personnel on board military aircraft effecting such landings." • " 2,100 military aircraft & 200 civilian flights carrying arms have been given the go ahead to overfly Irish territory this year" - Clare Champion, Friday August 29, 2003. |
| US "anything" through Baldoyle aerodrome, Dublin |
• TV reports in the news suggest Casement
aerodrome in Baldonnel on the Naas Road in Dublin was used for military
cargo planes. Please forward links to my address on the
voteoutFFPD.com. • US C-130 Hercules landed at here on March 30, 2004, with a Jolly Roger / Skull & crossbones !!!! flag out the door. Brian Cowen, minister for foreign affairs has "queried" the US embassy about it. When asked by Aengus O'Snodaigh, SF TD, Cowen said the flag is and "informal one" with "no particular status" and that any further action would be a matter for the US. Did Brian not have a childhood ??? The skull and crossbones is the flag of pillaging, looting, murdering pirates or else poisonous substances, but that would have slipped Brian completly. A spokesman for the dept of defence said there is a 30 year protocol allowing US planes to land at Baldonnel, Shannon etc. This one was said to be flying from the US to a US AFB in Sicily and have nothing to do with Iraq!!! The authorities believe that it complied with the "Air Navigation Act 1973" i.e. no arms, ammunition of explosives are carried, but none of these planes are ever inspected.. Irish Times 10/4/4 Pg 1. Also on the front page of the Herald earlier in the same week.  Caption closeup:  Warplane:   |
| Use of Irish airspace for transit of warplanes
and refuelling of fighter aircraft. |
This
refuelling tanker plane made an emergency landing at Shannon,
suggesting it was being used to refuel fighter aircraft or bombers
in Irish airspace. |
| Use of Shannon Hotel to accomodate US troops
when their plane needed repairs |
Reported in San Diego Tribune, 2003. |
| Warplanes through Abbeyshrule airfield Co.
Longford. |
Some pictures of warplanes using Longford to
refuel etc. : abbeyshrule.tripod.com/..
.. |