Just prior to the Duke conference, Dr. Edward Horgan, a former Irish Defence Forces officer and co-founder of Shannon Watch, had his 10-year visa revoked by the U.S. State Department. After much pressure in the Irish press and from U.S. allies, including Veterans for Peace, at the last minute Dr. Horgan, who is also the International Secretary of the Irish Peace and Neutrality Alliance, was allowed travel to the U.S.
Ireland has been a neutral state since its inception, Horgan told the assembly. Over one million U.S. troops have passed through Shannon since 2002. "Three plane loads a day, at least, each bringing about 200 troops--so 500 or 600 armed troops pass through Shannon airport every day of the week, every day of the year, in gross violation of international law on neutrality."
"Clearly torture is a serious crime. But it is connected with the two wars [Afghanistan and Iraq]," Horgan continued. "By torturing somebody you are removing some of their human rights, albeit very seriously and very grossly. By killing somebody you are removing all of their human rights. You are removing their very existence. Killing or causing the deaths, directly or indirectly, of one million people, and killing 200,000 children, or causing their deaths, [in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan] is absolutely a gross crime against humanity, regardless of who does it."
"Kidnap, rendition and torture of U.S. enemies is now being replaced with extra-judicial killings and assassinations of U.S. enemies. Collateral damage, including the killing of thousands of innocent foreign civilians, is now acceptable to the U.S.," Horgan said. "Obama has ordered a dramatic increase in the U.S. drone attacks. "These extrajudicial killings are being passed off as being part of the war on terror, a necessary evil. But killing someone, extra-judicially or otherwise, but unjustifiably, is even a more serious crime than torture."
"I can speak all you want about all the bad things that have happened to myself and others," Bisher al-Rawi told the assembly, speaking on live video from his home in London. Al-Rawi was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured at two separate CIA facilities in Afghanistan, then transferred, via Aero Contractors, to Guantanamo in 2003 and released without charges in 2007. "Whether beatings, the pains, or the shivering cold, or people screaming because nobody is giving them the medication, or people screaming because they are being beaten up, whatever, I can go on with all of that. But I think, on top of that, we should look to the future, we should look at how we can actually do something positive to build these lives, these lives that have been destroyed" I take this very close to my heart and I have decided this is really my work in life for the time being, until the time when we no longer have to speak about these things. "I hope that will happen before too long."
But we must not be bystanders.
##
Clare Hanrahan is an activist and journalist and a contributing editor to War Crimes Times where this article first appeared. She is an
associate member of Veterans For Peace Chapter 099, member of the
National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, and an organizer
with War Resisters League-Asheville. Her book, Jailed for Justice: A Woman's Guide to Federal Prison Camp, is available at LuLu.com
NC Stop Torture Now:
http://www.ncstoptorturenow.org
"The Guantanamo 'Suicides': A Camp Delta Sergeant Blows the Whistle" -- Harper's Magazine March, 2010
Shannon Watch:
http://www.shannonwatch.org
European Union investigation report:
http://www.statewatch.org/cia/documents/working-doc-no-8-06.pdf
This article first appeared in the War Crimes Times summer issue -- http://warcrimestimes.org
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