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Ahern asks US for more `transparency'

US President George W. Bush accepts a ceremonial bowl of shamrocks from Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern during St. Patrick's Day ceremonies on Friday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. PHOTO: AFP

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern gave US President George W. Bush a bowl of shamrocks on Friday, then asked the president for more "transparency" about CIA flights over Europe and his continued support with the stalled Northern Ireland peace process.

After their St. Patrick's Day meeting, which lasted more than two hours, Ahern renewed his commitment to seeing the implementation of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord and its central goal: power-sharing between the province's British Protestant majority and Irish Catholic minority.

The consensus among Irish-Americans and political leaders is that "We just have to move on," Ahern said after meeting with Bush, who also visited with relatives killed in murders linked to the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

"We've seen the end of the IRA campaign," Ahern said. "We've seen the end of the arms issue. We're dealing with the criminality issue. We saw the big raids on the border last week. The politicians have to get back to the work that they were elected to, and we have to do that this year."

Ahern said he asked Bush if there was a way to bring more "transparency" to rendition, the secret practice of grabbing a terror suspect off the street in one country and flying him to his home country or another country where he is wanted for crimes or questioning.

The EU is investigating allegations that CIA agents interrogated al-Qaeda suspects at secret prisons in Eastern Europe and transported some on secret flights that passed through Europe.

Ahern said that while Ireland facilitates US troop movements and is "happy to do it," there is public unease over the CIA flights.

"We've asked for the president's understanding and cooperation," Ahern said, adding that it would be easier for him to explain the flights in his country if he knew more about them.

"We are going to continue to look at, perhaps, how we might bring more transparency to that process if that's possible," Ahern said.

"It's an issue that we will keep in touch about. We've agreed to touch base, and we'll do that over the next two weeks.," he said.

In the traditional annual visit to the White House, the taoiseach gave the president a glass bowl of shamrocks, a symbol of warm US relations.

"The Census Bureau tells us there are more than 34 million Americans that claim Irish ancestry," said Bush, who wore a pale green tie for the occasion. "On St. Patrick's Day, I suspect that number jumps a little bit."

Bush and the Irish leader talked about Iraq, Iran, Darfur, India, the Middle East. Ahern said he expressed support for immigration legislation that would benefit the estimated 50,000 to 70,000 illegal Irish immigrants in the US.

Ahern said he backed a a proposal by senators John McCain, a Republican, and Democrat Edward Kennedy, which would let illegal immigrants stay for six years if they remain employed and pay a fine of US$1,000. They would then become eligible for permanent residency.

Much of the Bush-Ahern discussion focused on the killings of Robert McCartney, stabbed in the neck and stomach and bludgeoned with iron bars outside a Belfast pub on Jan. 30, last year; Joseph Rafferty, shot dead outside his home in Dublin last April 12; and Pat Finucane, a Belfast lawyer shot 14 times on Feb. 12, 1989, as he sat down to Sunday lunch.

A Protestant militant admitted the crime in 2004, but Finucane's family and Roman Catholic leaders have demanded a public probe into suspected involvement of British security forces.

"The president is very familiar with the cases -- extremely familiar -- and very well-briefed on all of the cases," Ahern said.

"I should say we had quite a long conversation on the Finucane case," he said.
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