Letter sent to the Irish Times Mon. 26 Sept. 2011 ´The Áras race´

The Áras race

I am reading of the race for the Áras from Spain,
while traveling and writing a novel. After living in
Ireland for ten out of fourteen, and will return to
Cork I have a different view of things.

There are many things said about Martin McGuinness having
´blood on his hands´´ and the like. Have those who make these
comments forgotten that the very founders of Ireland like any
revolutionaries had blood on their hands.

Being a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran gives me a unique view.
There is not one past Taoiseach going back as far as Bertie
Ahern without blood on their hands for complicity in the CIA´s
Rendition and torture scheme. Successive Taoiseach´s have
guaranteed the Irish people that Ireland is not being used in the
program that kidanps people and brings them to be tortured.

Yet planes like the Boeing 737 (N368CE) that are known to be
part of the rendition fleet regularly landed on Irish soil refueled and
left.

Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, has a responsibility to investigate,
and prosecute if it is found that certain Irish officials had knowledge
of and did nothing to prevent these events. Ireland is obligated to investigate
and prosecute under Article 2 of the UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE!

But, successive Irish authorities have done nothing about torture just as they
stood by and did nothing while Catholic church officials engaged in the ´Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment´ of Irish children.
were complicit in the torture.