Planes alleged to have been used for extraordinary rendition

The following are planes alleged to have been used for extraordinary rendition.


 * N85VM-N227SV
 * N313P-N4476S
 * N379P-N8068V-N44982
 * N2189M
 * N8183J
 * N822US
 * N829MG-N259SK

Background: Air CIA
In a follow-up to Dana Priest's December 27, 2004, Washington Post article on the subject, Michael Hirsh, Mark Hosenball and John Barry related February 8, 2005, in Newsweek that the CIA "ran a secret charter service, shuttling detainees to interrogation facilities worldwide," with suspected terrorists and prospective informants being "snatched" and disappearing, blindfolded, transported, detained, and imprisoned.

The Newsweek reporters cited the case of Khaled el-Masri, "a German citizen of Lebanese descent, [who said] he was taken off a bus in Macedonia in south-central Europe while on holiday on Dec. 31, 2003, then whisked in handcuffs to a motel outside the capital city of Skopje" and subsequently flown to a prison facility in Afghanistan where he was "shackled, repeatedly punched and questioned" by the CIA.


 * "Together with previously disclosed flight plans of a smaller Gulfstream V jet, the Boeing 737's travels are further evidence that a global 'ghost' prison system, where terror suspects are secretly interrogated, is being operated by the CIA. Several of the Gulfstream flights allegedly correlate with other 'renditions,' the controversial practice of secretly spiriting suspects to other countries without due process. 'The more evidence that comes out, the clearer it is that there's been a stunning failure of accountability,' [said] lawyer John Sifton of Human Rights Watch."


 * "CIA officials are increasingly fretful about being saddled with this secret prison network at a time of intense pressure from lawyers and human-rights activists. The CIA's anxiety only deepened last week when President Bush named John Negroponte, his ambassador to Iraq, as the country's first director of national intelligence."

Masri was returned, "deposited on a deserted road leading into Macedonia, where he brokenly tried to describe his nightmarish odyssey to a border guard," who laughed at him. Newsweek "obtained previously unpublished flight plans indicating the agency has been operating a Boeing 737 as part of a top-secret global charter servicing clandestine interrogation facilities used in the war on terror. And the Boeing's flight information, detailed to the day, seems to confirm Masri's tale of abduction."

Companies Alleged to be Involved in Rendition
The following have been identified as being involved in rendition. 


 * Aviation Specialties Inc.
 * Aviation Worldwide Services, LLC, sister company to Presidential (see below), both owned by Blackwater USA, Melbourne, FL, mercenaries.
 * Bayard Foreign Marketing, LLC
 * Boston Red Sox co-owner Phillip H. Morse; Assembly Point Aviation Inc. (registered); Richmor Aviation, Inc. (charters). A plane registered to the Bosox is r-N85VM (now N227SV), a Gulfstream IV with Serial # 1172.
 * Crowell Aviation Technologies, Inc.
 * Crystal Jet Aviation, Inc.
 * Devon Holding & Leasing, Inc.
 * HSL Company
 * Keeler and Tate Management, LLC
 * Kingdom Aviation, LLC
 * Path Corporation
 * Premier Executive Transport Services, Inc.
 * Prescott Support Co.
 * Presidential Airways, Inc.
 * S&K Aviation, LLC
 * Wells Fargo Bank Northwest NA
 * Rapid Air Trans, Inc./Rapid Air Transportation, Inc.
 * Stevens Express Leasing, Inc.
 * Tepper Aviation, Inc.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Dispatches: Kidnap and Torture American Style
 * enemy combatant
 * global detention system
 * Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations
 * Legal Arguments for Avoiding the Jurisdiction of the Geneva Conventions
 * President's Military Order of November 13, 2001, Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism
 * Premier Executive Transport Services
 * rendition planes and drug smuggling
 * Richmor Aviation, Inc.

Reports

 * News Release: "EU: Rendition, revelation of 800 secret CIA flights in European airspace," Amnesty International, April 2006: "Amnesty International today revealed that six planes used by the CIA for renditions have made some 800 flights in European airspace including 50 landings at Shannon airport in the Republic of Ireland."

2004

 * Farah Stockman, "Jet linked to torture claims is sold. Mass. firm had role in flying terror suspects to Egypt," Boston Globe, December 9, 2004.
 * Dana Priest, "Jet Is an Open Secret in Terror War," Washington Post, December 27, 2004; also posted by Seattle Times, December 28, 2004.

2005

 * "Mystery man takes to skies. Elusive owner’s jet linked to CIA, torture," Chicago Tribune (Columbia Daily Tribune), January 9, 2005.
 * Xeni Jardin, "Torture Jet: is this the CIA's 'ghost' plane?" Boing Boing, January 11, 2005.
 * Michael Hirsh, Mark Hosenball and John Barry, "Aboard Air CIA," Newsweek, February 28, 2005.
 * Jeffrey St. Clair, "The Road to Rendition. Torture Air, Incorporated," Counter Punch, April 9/10, 2005.
 * "CIA Used Irish Airport," Prensa Latina, December 5, 2005.
 * "CIA Flights Made 50 Landings at Ireland's Shannon, Amnesty Says," Bloomberg News, December 5, 2005.
 * "Canada will investigate allegations of secret CIA flights," CBC News (Canada), December 5, 2005.

2006

 * Clayton Hallmark, "EU Agreed to CIA Prison Flights -- With these words: 'Both sides [EU-US agreed on ... increased use of European transit facilities to support the return of criminal/inadmissible aliens....',"] Milwaukee Indymedia, January 11, 2006.
 * "SNP reveals 'CIA flight' dossier," Scottish National Party, January 18, 2006. Click on pdf link on bottom of page for "Intelligence Flights through Scotland report" (213.55 Kb).
 * Lester Haines, "Google Earth fingers CIA rendition flights? Strange goings on at Scottish airport," The Register, January 19, 2006.
 * Gethin Chamberlain, "UK 'can search' US rendition aircraft," The Scotsman, January 21, 2006.
 * Richard Norton-Taylor, "Minister admits 'rendition' planes used RAF bases. Government breaks silence on CIA flights. Aircraft landed at Brize Norton and Northholt," Guardian Unlimited (UK), March 7, 2006; truthout.
 * Wayne Madsen, "CIA links to 'Venezuelan' plane seized in Mexico with 5.5 tonnes of cocaine," VHeadline.com, April 26, 2006.
 * "UN torture expert calls for Shannon search of planes," Ireland Online (PrisonPlanet.com), May 10, 2006.
 * "CIA rendition flights to Azerbaijan and Redirected Pentagon Kalashnikovs to Latin American right wing forces," Milfuegos Blogspot, May 14, 2006.
 * "Watchdog hears CIA flights report," BBC, June 27, 2006: "Europe's human rights body is debating a report accusing 14 European states of colluding with the CIA on secret flights transferring terror suspects."