Example of Shannon Airport security: RTE journo walks airside through open gate

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday February 05, 2003 00:43 by Eoin Dubsky - Refueling Peace info at refuelingpeace dot org

While of course the Irish law enforcement authorities have a duty to intern the US armed forces and their aircraft at Shannon, and no amount of "security breaches" around the perimeter fence could come close to the risks posed by the bomb laden US military cargo aircraft at Shannon... this one *is* a gem... My dad just emailed me this from Ireland, I didn't see it myself but I guess you can check it up yourself on the RTE website too:

On 6 o'clock RTE 1 radio news. Philip Boucher-Hayes reported that he went to Shannon airport today to talk to peace campers and have a look around in general. He came accross an open gate and walked into the airfield abt. 50 yards. He was about 100 yards from a cargo plane but did not want to cause any alarm so he went out again. He phoned Aer Rianta, they said it was probably a gate controlled by a third party, company with factory nearby etc.(The mind boggles, when thinking of smuggling). The presenter was gob smacked, she just could not imagine such a security gaff. Philip said there would be no problem getting in at a number of places where the fence was broken etc.

This all came AFTER special U.S. (N.Irl) Envoy Hass had met with Brian Cowan and maybe Bertie and condemned the (violent) attackes at shannon. He had said he was satisfied that measures were now taken to safeguard US personel and equipment.