Rendition committee has met only once, Amnesty claims
A CABINET sub-committee set up to review the law on searching suspected rendition flights at Shannon Airport has met just once in the past eight months, a report being published tomorrow claims.
The Amnesty International report calls into question the Government's commitment to dealing with accusations that Shannon has been used as a staging area or getaway route for CIA agents carrying out kidnapping operations.
It will say the members on the sub-committee -- Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey, Communications Minister Eamon Ryan and Environment Minister John Gormley -- have held only one session to discuss the matter since it was formed last November.
Following that meeting the Government committed to discuss the matter with the incoming Obama administration in the US.
It also committed to strengthening legal provisions to ensure that gardai and airport authorities have adequate legal powers to search and inspect aircraft.
The Government has consistently denied there was any evidence that Irish airports or airspace could have been used for US rendition flights.
However, the Amnesty International report is set to claim that Shannon Airport has been used in connection with at least four extraordinary rendition cases, those of: Abu Omar, Khaled el Masri, Khaled al Maqtari and Binyam Mohamed.
Last night the Department of Foreign Affairs did not address questions about Amnesty's claim that the cabinet sub-committee had met just once.
In a statement it said the Government was opposed to the practice of extraordinary rendition and had received assurances from the US that no extraordinary rendition has taken place through Ireland.
"Far from regarding US assurances as worthless, we are fully satisfied, on the basis of the legal advice available to us, that we are entitled under international law to rely on them," the statement said.
It said a number of allegations that Shannon had been used in connection with renditions had been investigated, but had led to no action.
- Shane Phelan Investigative Correspondent
