Madam, - It is very late in the day, but we must thank God that eminent people are speaking up about the deepest moral stain that has ever besmirched our nation, namely our cowardly collusion in the US torture-flights through Shannon.
Countless innocent people have been whisked away to be brutalised, beyond the reach of any legal or moral accounting, for years on end, in this vast American gulag. Not content with making torture legally acceptable and with practising it directly in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and undisclosed locations, the US has enlarged in new ways its traditions of torture by proxy and has co-involved friendly democratic nations to an unprecedented degree.
What nation has been more friendly with the US than Ireland? Now our friendship has developed into an abusive relationship. With a demonic cynicism worthy of a Josef Fritzl, the Bush administration has raped Ireland's conscience, insulted our integrity, and made a mockery of our long history of dedication to justice and freedom.
Is it for financial reasons that we tolerated this shameful situation? Did we think it would soon blow over? Well, whatever the consequences, we must follow the advice that we would give to any spouse or child in a dangerous situation of manipulative abuse: Get away as fast as you can, while there is still time! - Yours, etc,
Rev JOSEPH S. O'LEARY DD,
Sophia University,
Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo,
Japan.