Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern will express the Government's "absolute anger" over his treatment by the European Parliament on the issue of CIA "rendition" flights when he meets parliament president Josep Borrell in Dublin today.
"Ballydung Urban Council would not treat you in such a manner," Mr Ahern told The Irish Timeslast night.
Mr Borrell begins an official visit today which includes meetings with the President, the Taoiseach and the Minister as well as an address to the National Forum on Europe.
Speaking in advance of what was clearly going to be an angry encounter, Mr Ahern said he found it "bizarre" and "reprehensible" that a draft report on extraordinary rendition by a European Parliament committee was released two days before he was due to outline Ireland's position to the committee in Brussels.
He said one supposed "rendition" flight to Knock airport was actually a golf expedition: "My officials have studied the committee's working documents which provide the basis for their claims. In one instance alone they list among suspicious flights an aircraft owned by the Boston Red Sox baseball team.
"This aircraft flew around regional airports in Ireland before landing in Knock in the summer of 2001. We believe it was ferrying golf tourists. Its presence in Knock was far from being a case of extraordinary rendition, but more one of extraordinary apparition," the Minister said.
In the European Parliament yesterday, Labour MEP for Dublin Proinsias De Rossa said: "The Minister is mistaken in his belief that the plane which landed at Knock, and known to have been used by CIA for renditions, is owned by the Boston Red Sox.
"In fact, the plane is owned by Philip H Morse, a minority partner in the Boston Red Sox franchise. Moreover, Mr Morse confirmed to the Boston Globein March last year that the plane had been leased to the CIA.
"Indeed, the plane which Minister Ahern refers to is none other than the notorious 'Guantanamo Express', known as such because of its repeated trips there."
Jamie Smyth writes: In Brussels, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern rejected any suggestion that Irish airports had been used by CIA-operated aircraft to illegally transport prisoners.
"Did they ever use Ireland as a base or a hub or a destination? The answer to that is a categorical no," he told reporters.
"In the Oval Office, sitting far closer than I am to you, I looked at President Bush and I said to him: 'I want to be sure to be sure' and he assured me. You can't do more than that," Mr Ahern said.
