Irish anti-torture flight protesters arrested

This video from Ireland says about itself:

Protest against the use of Shannon Airport by the CIA and US military 10-7-2011

Organised by the human rights activist group Shannonwatch, today’s protest at Shannon Airport was notable for the excessive numbers of Garda and Special Branch operatives oppressively policing and harrassing the peaceful attendees — a ratio of more than two to one counting the guards on the side road and buzzing police cars and the Special Branch unmarked car. Shortly before the start of the protest Gardai set up a checkpoint close to the roundabout where the protest is always held and in the space of thirty minutes the only vehicle pulled to the side of the road for inspection was John Lannon’s, coordinator of Shannonwatch.

Directly after the protest, Fred Johnston, a Shannonwatch activist from Galway was similarly pulled to the side of the road in his car where his valid vehicle insurance documentation and accompanying pet dog; Tristan, were spuriously taken exception to – as John Lannon remarked; “There has been a more determined effort to impede peaceful opposition to Shannon Airport’s role in U.S. military and CIA operations since the present government and Minister for Justice took office”. Shannonwatch object to the continued misuse of a civilian airport, under the blind eye of a complicit government, as a transit stop for CIA torture flights and US troops transiting to America’s imperial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Ireland: US military flights protesters arrested at Shannon airport

Thursday 26th May 2016

TWO Irish peace campaigners were arrested yesterday morning after protesting on the main runway at Shannon airport against US military flights from there.

Dave Donnellan and Colm Roddy walked into the airside zone at dawn, carrying the Irish flag and a banner, before painting red crosses on the runway in remembrance of US-led wars in the Middle East.

They were not detected until they approached a US government-owned Learjet and a Boeing 757 parked by the disused runway 11, half a mile away.

As they walked past the two planes, soldiers in an Irish army vehicle spotted them and alerted nearby Garda officers in a patrol car, who in turn called the airport police to arrest the pair.

The BBC’s Newsnight programme, the New York Times and Amnesty International alleged in 2005 that Shannon airport had been used for dozens of “rendition” flights of prisoners to third countries.