WikiLeaks: Irish locations listed among key U.S. facilities

The latest Wikileaks release of U.S. Government cables detail a list of international locations which are imperative to U.S. National security, two of which are located in Ireland.

According to the BBC, last year the U.S. State Department asked all U.S. Mission based abroad to draft a list of installations whose loss could jeopardize U.S. National security.

The two Irish locations were the Hibernia Atlantic undersea cable landing in Dublin and the Genzyme Ireland Ltd in Waterford.

The Hibernia Atlantic cable is a transatlantic submarine communications system which links North America with Ireland the UK and Europe.

With headquarters in the U.S., the Genzyme plant in Leinster produces thymogobulin which is used by kidney transplant patients.

Other locations detailed on the list included a number of mines in Africa, an oil pipeline in Georgia, an anti-rabies drug production company in France.

The U.S. Cable says the list was drafted to help “build a safer, more secure, and more resilient America by enhancing protection of the nation’s CI/KR [critical infrastructure/key resources] to prevent, deter, neutralize or mitigate the effects of deliberate efforts by terrorists to destroy, incapacitate or exploit them; and to strengthen national preparedness, timely response, and rapid recovery in the event of an attack, natural disaster or other emergency”.