NEWSWEEK PERISCOPE: Eyes on the CIA (Tracking CIA Transport System)

Prnewswire ^ | Sunday February 27, 9:05 am ET

[Brian Mosely]

Aviation obsessives with cameras and Internet connections have become a threat to cover stories established by the CIA to mask its undercover operations and personnel overseas. U.S. intel sources complain that "plane spotters" -- hobbyists who photograph airplanes landing or departing local airports and post the pix on the Internet-made it possible for CIA critics recently to assemble details of a clandestine transport system the agency set up to secretly move cargo and people-including terrorist suspects-around the world.

Google searches revealed that plane spotters Web-posted numerous photos of two private aircraft-one a small Gulfstream jet and the other a midsize Boeing 737-registered to obscure companies suspected of CIA connections. Some of the pictures were taken at airports in foreign countries where CIA activities could be controversial. When the 737 last year went through a change of tail number and ownership -- a suspicious company in suburban Boston apparently transferred the plane to a similar company in Reno, Nev. -- Internet searches of aviation and public-record data-bases disclosed details of the plane's new owners and registration number. One critical database, accessible via Google, was a central aircraft registry maintained by the government's own Federal Aviation Administration. A U.S. intel source acknowledged that the instant availability of such data and photos on the Internet is not helpful "if your object is clandestinity." (To see how it works, check the Web for info on a business jet carrying the Liechtenstein tail number HB-IES. The search should turn up pictures of that plane at a European airport, as well as public records and news stories describing how the plane, registered to a company called Aviatrans, once belonged to Saddam Hussein.)

[penelopesire]

"...Intel sources say the CIA's own lawyers years ago decreed that under U.S. law the agency must register its aircraft-including their tail numbers and the front companies that own them-with public authorities like the FAA, even though this could provide clues to clandestine activity."

my guess is that it was during the years of 1992-2000...that the CIA 'lawyers' decided this was a good idea..(rolling eyes)

[syriacus]

Groups like this, but overseas?

Plane Spotters

is a list for Aircraft Spotters throughout North America. "Spots" of both civilian and military aircraft are welcome, with an emphasis on those aircraft that are out of the ordinary.

  Members: 92
Created: Jul 9, 1998

[syriacus]

Or this?

The Aviation Enthusiasts and Spotters Webring

[penelopesire]

BTW..last fall I found a website devoted to mapping underground tunnels and sewage systems under chemical plants, nuclear plants and airports! I sent the FBI and Homeland Security the info. Go have a look:

http://www.uer.ca/places/

the site is down at the moment...LOL..hopefully, the feds took it down.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping

[GOPJ]

The New York Times blew the cover on this one...