White Phosphorous over Ireland ?

March 12, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

The Phoenix
27 Feb 2009

ON JANUARY 6, a US Air Force Hercules C-130 cargo plane – the plane of choice for US secret flights – flew through Irish airspace on its way to Prestwick. The plane had come from Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. Little Rock is the most logical transportation point for the Pine Bluff Arsenal, the only facility in the US where white phosphorous is made. It did not, as it is required to do, request permission from Irish authorities and did not notify anyone of any cargo it may have been carrying. So, was this Herc carrying white phosphorous ?
With the slack inspection regimes in place at Shannon and Prestwick (which together form the Shanwick air control zone, long-used by US military craft for covert actions), there is no way of telling what, if anything, was on board that flight. It failed to make any notification of its presence while in Irish airspace on its journey from east-to-west (though it did make the necessary contact when, on the journey back, it landed at Shannon), while the British Civil Aviation Authority refuses to say anything about the mysterious C-130 flight, or why it spent 46 hours on the apron at Prestwick.
Nevertheless, the flight’s pattern fits that of other such munitions transports. Israel has long relied on the US to supply arms, and usually these arms are shipped through Ireland and Britain. According to Channel 4 News, the US air force base in Lakenheath, East Anglia, and the nearby Mildhenhall RAF base have been used to transport the illegal DIME (dense, inert metal explosives) bombs being used in Gaza. The modus operandi is to fly the bombs into the airport and either store them or load them onto another aircraft for transportation to Tel Aviv. And Prestwick has seen this kind of action before. During Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 2006, the airport was heavily used by the US to transport so-called bunker-buster bombs to Israel and was the scene of its own invasion when protestors broke into the airport before being arrested.
Moreover, the US is certainly transporting white phosphorous to Israel. While the mysterious C-130 was flying through Irish airspace on its way to Prestwick, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) was coming under increased international pressure to admit to its use of white phosphorous against the civilian population of Gaza. The Times of London published on January 8 a photograph identifying white phosphorous shells being moved by an IDF soldier, while Amnesty International has published a report recounting all the evidence for the use of white phosphorous. Both The Times and Amnesty identified the shells as coming from the Pine Bluff Arsenal. Having initially denied it, Israel was recently forced to admit the use of white phosphorous against the civilian population in Gaza after the bombing of a UN relief works agency on January 16 and a UN school on January 17 (at which sites traces of white phosphorous were found). They later admitted that such weapons had been used but “only in accordance with international law” and claimed to have begun an investigation into the use of white phosphorous.
Though Goldhawk can only speculate as to what was on the mysterious C-130, there are certain undeniable facts: the plane failed to identify itself going through Irish air space; it came from the one airbase the US military would use if it wanted to transport white phosphorous; it landed at an airport with a history of being used for covert US military operations; and the US military is certainly supplying the IDF with white phosphorous shells. And, as with special rendition flights that passed through Shannon during the Iraq war, the Irish government has been happy to turn a blind eye.