The Celtic League has reiterated its concerns to the Scottish Executive over the use of facilities in Scotland to support CIA torture flights.
Correspondence from the League General Secretary, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, copied to Tavish Scott MSP (Transport Minister) and sent to Douglas Alexander MP (Secretary of State for Transport.) is set out below
"Dear
Prestwick Airport
At its 2006 AGM held at Landerne, Briezh/Brittany, the following resolution was passed.
This AGM:
a) Condemns the use by United States and Israeli civil and military aircraft of Prestwick airport as a transit point for arms shipments to the Israeli Defence Forces
b) Calls for an enquiry to establish if the actions of those in the United Kingdom who authorise or facilitate the shipments are guilty of crimes under International law.
Our AGM unreservedly condemned the use of Prestwick airport to ship weapons from the United States to Israel in its military campaigns in the Lebanon, where hundreds of civilians were and still are being killed. Moreover, the use of Prestwick to act as a stopover for flights to the US in its illegal transportation of terrorist suspects over the last few years, is another instance where this same airport has been used to carry out Westminster's dirty work.
It is undemocratic and unfair that a Scottish airport has been used in this way, despite major domestic opposition. Such action runs the risk of the international community seeing Scotland as somehow implicated in illegal activity, as I saw myself by reading an article in the Spanish newspaper El Pais about the issue.
We therefore call on you, as Secretary of State for Transport to stop all further illegal and dubiously legal flights through Prestwick airport, or any other airport in Scotland for that matter. We also urge you to set up an independent enquiry to establish the extent to which the UK Government can be held accountable, under international law, for the transportation of the weapons to Israel that were later used to kill Lebanese civilians.
I look forward to hearing from you."
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
23/02/07
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