Minister Seamus Brennan, on RTE, justifies the Government attitude to CIA rendition flights (kidnap flights) at Shannon by claiming that some “specially trained� Garda officers have reported to the government that there is no evidence of CIA rendition through Shannon.

These Gardai have not inspected the CIA flights. He could not or would not specify the form of their special training, but he was, with the Government, determined to rely on their assurance.

“Specially trained� has no meaning. It might mean “inadequately trained�. It might mean adequately trained for, say, the control of weeds in fields.

Perhaps I was too quick to give credit to the Garda Siochana for its attitude to US (illegal) rendition flights at Shannon.

On 24th November 2007, the new Garda Commissioner urged the public to aid the Gardai in fighting crime.

Five days later, activists at Shannon notified the Gardai of the arrival there of what is allegedly one of the CIA’s busiest rendition Gulfstream private aircraft.

The response of the Garda Siochana was to order the activists to leave the airport and then to arrest them. The activists were waiting at the airport to point out the suspect aircraft. The Gardai refused to search the aircraft.

A junior Government Minister “explained� the Garda response by stating:

a) The aircarft was only landing briefly;

b) It was owned by a private Las Vegas company

That, in the real world, would suggest inculpatory evidence of a CIA rendition flight, not, as he seems to suggest, exculpatory evidence.

Le chef inspecteur de l’inspection de la police Irlandaise Garda Siochana a indiqué ( Irish Times , le 8 Novembre ) qu’elle examinera les résultats du prochain rapport de la Commission irlandaise des droits de l’homme sur les vols secrets Americains ( utilisant l’airport Irlandais Shannon et concernant le transfert clandestine des terroristes presume’s ) .
Elle a alors remarqué que

 vous pouvez compter sur moi étant dans le mouvement des droits de l’homme .

Elle semble dire que si elle obtient des evidences sur lesdites vols
A travers l’airport Shannon, la Police Irlandais (Garda Siochana ) dans ce cas Agira .

Naturellement elle peut réellement ne pas dire cela; sa citation
si nous pensons approprié à l’avenir de regarder sur cela nous le faisons.

Les droits de l’homme est essentiel dans le maintien de l’ordre et dans le travail de police son expression n’est pas la plus pleine forme d’engagement possible sur une telle question.

En outre elle est peu susceptible face à n’importe quel dilemme à l’avenir sur cette question.

Le 7 octobre 2004, Dermot Ahern le minister Irlandais des affaires étrangères a dit au Dail ( Chambre basse du parlement Irlandais )

Le gouvernement n’a aucune information pour indiquer que des prisonniers sont transportés a travers les aéroports irlandais à et de Guantanamo ou ailleurs.
La raison- selon lui- est que les autorités Americains
ont confirmé à l’ambassade d’Irlande aux Etats-Unis que Washington n’a pas utilise’s les airports Irlandais a cette fin et qu’elles ne chercheraient pas à le faire sans obtenir l’autorisation des autorités Irlandaises.

En fait,le record de la police Irlandaise (garda) sur cette question n’est pas sans mérite.
Cependant, le record Americain dans ce domaine n’est pas propre.

Comme dans l’affaire ‘Etats-Unis –v- Alvarez-Machain’( 1992,504 US 655 )
ou est apparu que les agents des USA ont transfere’ un accusé du
Mexique et l’ont transfere’ clandestinement aux Etats Unis ou il s’est trouve’ face aux accusations criminels.

En outre le gouvernement Americain ,a travers Theodore B. Olson, a argumente’ que

malgré leur rareté, les actions extraterritoriales d’application de loi sans coopération avec des gouvernements étrangers sont parfois crucial à l’administration de la justice et de la sécurité nationale Americaine .

Bien, il ne l’a pas réclamé réellement étre légal, mais l’idée que, le Governement Irlandais doit accepter –en bonne fois- ce que son homologue Americain lui indique, est une ide’e morte dans l’eau.

The chief inspector of the Garda Siochana Inspectorate indicated (“Irish Times�, 8th November) she will examine the findings of forthcoming Irish Human Rights Commission report on US “rendition� through Shannon airport. She then remarked that

… you can count on me being on the human rights bandwagon.

She appears to be saying that if she gets evidence of US rendition through Shannon the Garda Siochana will take action. Of course she may not be actually saying that; her phrase

… if we think it appropriate at any time in the future to look at that we will… policing is all about human rights.

is not the fullest form of commitment possible on such an issue.

Furthermore she is unlikely to have to face any dilemma in the future on the issue.

On 7th October 2004, Dermot Ahern the Minister for Foreign Affairs told the Dail,

The Government has no information to indicate that prisoners are being transported through Irish airports to and from Guantanamo or elsewhere.

The reason for this is that, as he went on to say,

Furthermore, the US authorities have confirmed to our Embassy in Washington that they have not been using Irish ariports for this purpose and that they would not seek to use Irish airports for this purpose in the future without seeking the authorisation of the Irish authorities.

In fact the record of the Garda Siochana on the issue is not without merit.

However, the US record on the avoidance of reprehensible behaviour on the point is not good.

In United States v Alvarez-Machain ([1992] 504 U.S. 655), it transpired that US agents had kidnapped the accused in Mexico and flew him to the US to face criminal charges there. The US Supreme Court disregarded the relevance of international law generally and decided the issue in favour of the US state on an interpretation of the Extradition Treaty between the US and Mexico. (The Mexican view was well known; they had lodged several diplomatic protests with the US).

In addition the US Government, through Theodore B. Olson has argued that

…notwithstanding their rarity, extraterritorial law enforcement actions without public cooperation by foreign governments are sometimes critical to the administration of justice and national security.

Well, he didn’t actually claim it was lawful, but the idea that what the US government tells the Irish government must be accepted in good faith is dead in the water.

We have commented previously on the ePassport and its lack of security.

See the attached opinion of the EU Article 29 Data Protection Working Party on RFID tags in passports and its recommendations for steps to precede the introduction of the chipped passports.

We cannot see that Ireland took any notice of the Working Party’s recommendations, not to speak of, inter alia, the concerns of Civil Liberties groups in the USA and Canada.

For example, what State agencies, besides the Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform, have access to the ePassport database? The Garda Siochana?

If we are not close to Boston or Berlin, with what place are we close?

The EU Council Presidency has proposed the setting of the minimum age for recording and storing facial images and fingerprints in the chip of a passport.

It proposes that both images and fingerprint records on passports be compulsory from the age of 12 and be permissible below that age.

The decision is to be made in a Committee on which Ireland has a representative. Its original brief covered visas; it was extended to documents of non EU nationals in the EU; it then began to look at passports and is currently looking at EU ID cards

What is Ireland’s position on these questions Mr. Ahern?

Are we intent on fingerprinting our children?

Are we intent on fingerprinting everybody?

Why?

Biometrics is the statistical analysis of biological data. A passport, therefore, cannot be a biometric passport, unless the meaning of biometrics has changed. A passport could be biometric if the purpose is the accumulation of statistics, not of one person or passport, but of many passports.

Passports, historically, were provided to travelers to ease their journey in foreign countries. A State document, requesting that the authorities abroad should help the traveler accorded with the fact that only States existed in public international law; individuals were not recognized (by and large still the case).

On that view the new Irish ePassport is a traditional document. It is addressed, effectively, to the USA. The United States of America will not assist Irish travelers unless they present a State document of request acceptable to the USA. Only an ePassport is acceptable.

However, it is not the Irish State that is of interest now to the USA, it is the traveler. Specifically, it is the identity of the traveler. Even more specifically it is the entire body of knowledge about each Irish traveler, to be embodied in every ePassport, which is of interest to the USA.

The ePassport is, presumably short for “electronic passport�. The chip buried in the passport is a communications device. It can be read at a distance with suitable technology. It can be read anywhere in the world that the traveler goes to, not just at USA border or entry points. The information in it can, and will, form part of a huge database in the possession of the USA. Any US company or agency could become a collector of the information. It would not be necessary to see or handle the ePassport to download or transfer the information. It could happen at a car hire outlet or in an hotel. It could happen on a street.

The ePassport is a person’s barcode. It is the person’s identity.

The great era of identity theft is about to begin.

Hopefully, the first victim is not Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Christopher Ahern whose passport number is public property, displayed by him on the front page of the Irish Times of 17th October 2006.

Presumably he can at least be confident that it will not be stolen by Colonel Oliver North or Robert McFarlane (a.k.a. “Sean Devlin�); he bears no resemblance to them.

What do their successors look like?