The Government should give effect to a recommendation from the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) and seek the agreement of the United States authorities for the inspection of aircraft suspected of the transport of prisoners to locations where they may be subjected to torture or to inhumane or degrading treatment.
Such an approach may pose diplomatic difficulties but, given the gravity of the allegations that have been made against the US administration and our international obligations as a sovereign state, nothing less will suffice.
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to assure EU leaders that her government does not permit, tolerate or condone torture. And she insisted that the practice of "rendition" - the transport of suspects to states where they may be more easily questioned or charged - was decades old. However, the IHRC is seriously concerned that aircraft landing at Shannon may be involved in the transport of prisoners to secret locations where they may be at risk of being tortured.
Recently, the US administration redefined the term "torture" so that it does not cover practices such as "waterboarding" (simulated drowning), stress positions, sleep deprivation, mock executions and "cold cells". These treatments are regarded as "torture" under a UN convention and as inhumane or degrading treatment under the European Convention on Human Rights. Ireland has an international legal obligation to ensure that no one is sent to a jurisdiction where this may happen.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern sought and was given assurances by Ms Rice that prisoners were never transshipped through Shannon by the CIA or that the airport had been used for "anything untoward". Such diplomatic assurances are regarded as unreliable and ineffective by the UN as a protection against torture and ill-treatment. The IHRC reported that, given the gravity of the allegations under investigation by the Council of Europe, it was not sufficient for the Government to rely on them.
Concern over the erosion of civil liberties and human rights is widespread in the US. Seeking to inspect particular aircraft at Shannon may cause some annoyance to the Bush administration, but it could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be regarded as an unfriendly act.
After all, the US had no difficulty in demanding that US air marshals should be present aboard civilian flights from Ireland. We have an obligation to ensure that international conventions and treaties against torture are upheld. And if the inspection of certain CIA aircraft visiting our airspace helps in that regard, it should be done.