Plane-spotting

Like other peace-loving people in this country, I’ve felt sad and helpless over the last few weeks as the US and Britain threaten to extend their so-called ‘war against terror’, an illegal war which has already killed many more innocent people in Afghanistan than were killed in New York on September 11.

How can we contemplate the same in Iraq, where men, women and children are already experiencing dreadful suffering – and what amounts to genocide (see inset) – not only because they’re ruled by a sadistic despot, but as a direct consequence of American foreign policy?

The ‘war against terror’ is a war without end, as the Bush regime seems proud to declare. Many people fear that it’s an excuse for indefinite violence and genocide in the Middle East by the US and their allies.

The factss are depressing. But my clouds parted when I heard the inspiring story of Eoin Dubsky, the 22-year-old student from Wexford who was brave enough to express his opposition to the war by entering Shannon Airport on September 3rd, spraypainting a US war plane with peace slogans and symbols, alerting security and then waiting for arrest. According to plan, Dubsky now faces charges of trespass and criminal damage.

Dubsky is due to appear in Shannon District Court at 11am on October 10th. When his full case is eventually heard, Dubsky will call expert witnesses to inform the judge, the media and thence the Irish public of what’s really happening in the Middle East. He plans to use the ‘necessity defence’ for his charge of ‘criminal damage’ to the US Air Force ‘Hercules’ KC-130, a mid-air refuelling plane which can also be used for troop/cargo transport, or for dropping ‘daisy-cutter’ bombs. Dubsky argues that he felt morally and legally obliged to ‘symbolically disarm’ this war plane by spraypainting it.

“We’re hoping,” says Dubsky, “to show that ongoing and planned US intervention in Iraq is a crime against peace. Hopefully we can also show that the ‘war on terrorism’ generally – from the bombing of Afghanistan to Camp X-Ray in Cuba – is illegal too. Of course this would mean that the Irish state is involved in a criminal conspiracy.”

In a double-pronged approach, Dubsky has instigated his own civil legal action against the Irish state. On September 12 the High Court granted him leave to apply for a judicial review of Ireland’s offer of overflight and refuelling permission to US war planes relevant to the attacks in Afghanistan. He is seeking an injunction on all such flights.

The decision to allow the US to use Ireland as – let’s not mince words – a military base, was not put to the people; it was not even put to the Dail. One of Dubsky’s key legal arguments is that the decision was therefore unconstitutional.

His application to the High Court seeking an interlocutary injunction on the landing of US warplanes in Ireland has been adjourned to late October.

Aside from US/British war crimes, Dubsky’s trials will also uncover Ireland’s complicity in illegal mass murder and genocide in Afghanistan and now potentially in Iraq. The trials are part of the ‘Refueling Peace’ project, a direct action campaign to monitor and peacefully and accountably stop US military planes refuelling in Ireland. For over a year, this group has monitored the extensive use of Irish airspace and Shannon Airport by the US military. The results of their study are frightening.

“Without fail,” says Dubsky, who has on occasion spent 24 consecutive hours plane-spotting, “every single day that I’ve been at Shannon Airport there’s been military activity there. And it’s the same for other people I know. Either military planes landing and taking off, or these civilian jets with military cargo or personnel on board. An example would be seeing an airplane that looks like a normal civilian plane, but it’s packed with hundreds of US marines. When the planes refuel at Shannon I’ve seen them get out and go for a drink.

“We started monitoring US war planes at the beginning of the attacks on Afghanistan last year. Even before that people were seeing planes coming through. But after September 11th, in the build-up for the attack on Afghanistan, there was this amazing increase in the number of planes, and then for the few months after that it really shot up, and then it plateaued. But now it’s risen again. Ireland is refuelling the refuelling planes, which then refuel the bombers.”

It came as a shock to hear strong eye-witness evidence that US war planes, bound for the mass murder of innocent civilians, are landing and refuelling at Shannon every day. What about Irish neutrality? Our government has autocratically decreed, without debate, that it’s OK for America to use Ireland as a launching pad for horrific war crimes. They would prefer us not to know the extent of Ireland’s involvement. That’s why Dubsky’s trials are so important: they will get that information out.

I asked Dubsky if he knew whether US planes carrying nuclear weapons were landing. “There’s no way of telling,” he said. “The US government will neither confirm nor deny it. But there have been scares, for example a C5 – the second biggest plane in the world – had to have an emergency landing in Shannon. It’s a huge transporter plane and it could’ve been carrying anything for all we know.”

When describing the overwhelming support he’s received, Dubsky is clearly moved. “It’s been such a wonderful, life-affirming experience,” he says. “I’d like to thank everyone, from all walks of life and political persuasions, who are supporting me. They are people who feel motivated by humanitarian ideals or religion, or for reasons of international law.

“I’m looking to be acquitted of these criminal charges,” Dubsky concludes. “And I want to put the real criminals on trial instead.”