UNCLAS DUBLIN 001398

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL MARR MOPS EI
SUBJECT: FAB FIVE TRIAL RESET; SEVERAL PARLIAMENTARIANS
ENDORSE FURTHER ATTACKS ON U.S. AIRCRAFT

REF: DUBLIN 1372


1. (U) On November 11, Judge Desmond Hogan reset the trial
of five anti-Iraq war protestors accused of damaging a U.S.
plane at Shannon Airport (the so-called "Fab Five") for July
5, 2006, at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Hogan stepped
in for Judge Donagh McDonagh, who recused himself from the
proceedings on November 7 after defense lawyers argued that
he would risk perceptions of bias for having attended a
mid-1990s Texas conference addressed by then-Governor Bush as
well as President Bush's inauguration in 2000 (ref A). (The
trial had collapsed the first time in March of this year when
Judge Frank O'Donnell withdrew the case from the jury without
explanation.) In setting the new date for the trial, Judge
Hogan cited statements by the defense lawyers that the
proceedings would take ten working days.


2. (U) On November 10, several opposition members of the
Irish Parliament had jointly called for charges to be dropped
against the Fab Five, with several members expressing support
for further attacks on U.S. military aircraft. Sinn Fein MP
Aengus O'Snodaigh said he would fully endorse such actions
"if they were to occur tomorrow," and Independent Senator
David Norris said that further attacks would not "grieve him
at all." Norris elaborated that the Irish Government
appeared to consider "a dent in a death machine" as more
significant than the "slaughter of innocents." Independent
MPs Tony Gregory and Finian McGrath argued that additional
attacks would be as acceptable as the previous one, though it
would be preferable for protestors to chain themselves to
U.S. aircraft. Green Party MP John Gormley and Labor Party
MP Joe Costello added that the possibility of future
imprisonment for the Fab Five was a "disgraceful
criminalization of peaceful dissent."


3. (SBU) Comment: Post intends to protest to the political
parties and individual parliamentarians involved in voicing
support for further violence against U.S. military aircraft.
We will also convey concerns to the GOI. Septel will report
mounting domestic pressure on the GOI to randomly inspect
U.S. military flights in response to rumors that USG aircraft
transiting Ireland occasionally carry terrorism suspects to
Guantanamo and rendition program sites. In calling for
charges against the Fab Five to be dropped, several of the
parliamentarians listed above cited these rumors as well as
continuing high numbers of U.S. troop transits through
Shannon.
KENNY