Posted on 09/24/2005 12:16:41 PM PDT by Leroy S. Mort
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A branch of the U.S. Navy secretly contracted a 33-plane fleet that included two Gulfstream jets reportedly used to fly terror suspects to countries known to practice torture, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
At least 10 U.S. aviation companies were issued classified contracts in 2001 and 2002 by the obscure Navy Engineering Logistics Office for the ``occasional airlift of USN (Navy) cargo worldwide,'' according to Defense Department documents the AP obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Two of the companies - Richmor Aviation Inc. and Premier Executive Transport Services Inc. - chartered luxury Gulfstreams that flew terror suspects captured in Europe to Egypt, according to U.S. and European media reports. Once there, the men told family members, they were tortured. Authorities in Italy and Sweden have expressed outrage over flights they say were illegal and orchestrated by the U.S. government.
While the Gulfstreams came under scrutiny in 2001, what hasn't been disclosed is the Navy's role in contracting planes involved in operations the CIA terms ``rendition'' and what Italian prosecutors call kidnapping.
``A lot of us have been focusing on the role of the CIA but also suspecting that certain parts of the armed forces are involved,'' said Margaret Satterthwaite, a New York University School of Law researcher who has investigated renditions.
The Navy contracts involve more planes than previously reported - other news outlets totaled 26 planes; the AP identified 33 planes.
Italian judges have issued arrest warrants for 19 purported CIA operatives who allegedly snatched a Muslim cleric from Milan in 2003 and flew him to Cairo, according to FAA records cited by the Chicago Tribune, aboard Richmor's Gulfstream IV. The jet belongs to a part-owner of the Boston Red Sox, who told The Boston Globe that the team's logo was covered when the CIA leased the plane. Another case involves two men taken from Sweden to Egypt in 2001 aboard Premier's Gulfstream V.
Neither the CIA nor a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon would comment for this story. Officials at the Navy Engineering Logistics Office, or NELO, in Arlington, Va., didn't respond to messages requesting comment.
Joseph P. Duenas, counsel for the logistics office, declined to provide the contracts, saying they ``involve national security information that is classified.''
The secrecy surrounding the deals makes it unclear why NELO issued them, but one reason may be the office's anonymity - the agency is so buried within the Pentagon bureaucracy that some career Navy officials have never heard of it.
John Hutson, a retired rear admiral who was the Navy's Judge Advocate General from 1997 to 2000 and is critical of the Bush administration's detainee policies, said he was not familiar with NELO. Told of its activities, Hutson said NELO employees could be held liable if they knew the planes would be used for renditions. Human rights lawyers allege rendition flights violate criminal law.
The office has been around since the mid-1970s, according to a former employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because NELO's activities are secret. NELO operates under different names: it's also known as the Navy's Office of Special Projects and its San Diego location is called the Navy Regional Plant Equipment Office.
None of those names is listed in the U.S. Government Manual, the official compilation of federal departments, agencies and offices. A man who answered the phone at NELO's Arlington office refused to give his name or the agency's address, suggesting it may be classified.
In court documents filed in the case of a fired Office of Special Projects whistleblower, government attorneys described the agency's principal function as ``the conduct of foreign intelligence or counterintelligence activities.''
The AP learned of the airplane contracts through a Freedom of Information Act request that focused on a different subject - permits granted to all 10 aviation companies that let them land at any Navy base worldwide.
The permits list planes operated by the companies and a contract number issued by NELO. The numbers provide some details about the contracts, including when they were issued, but do not say when they expire. In the documents the AP reviewed, contracts were issued in 2001 and 2002 and were cited on landing permits issued in 2004. The NELO contract numbers also appear on permits issued in 2003 and 2004 that allowed seven of the companies to buy fuel at military bases worldwide.
The permits list 31 planes under NELO contract other than the two Gulfstreams. They include a small Cessna; three huge Lockheed Hercules cargo planes; a Gulfstream 1159a; a Lear Jet 35A; a DC-3; two Boeing 737s; and a 53-passenger DeHavilland DH-8 photographed by plane spotters in Afghanistan.
Ownership of the planes is shielded behind a maze of paperwork and elusive executives.
James J. Kershaw is listed as president of three of the companies, located in Massachusetts, Tennessee and North Carolina. Two other companies share the same vice president, Colleen Bornt. Extensive public record searches could not locate either of them.
Record searches also failed to turn up information on Leonard T. Bayard, whose firm bought Premier Executive Transport Services' Gulfstream. The address of Bayard's firm is the Portland, Ore., office of attorney Scott Caplan.
Asked if his client is a real person, Caplan replied: ``No comment.''
Associated Press writer Rukmini Callimachi in Portland, Ore., contributed to this story.
Yet another reason to pull for the Sox.
Yea for our team!
Go ahead and take it.
Make my day.
FYI
SO...?
John Hutson and Margaret Satterthwaite should be given a free flight to Eygpt.
And here's to hoping we keep them filled to capacity and flying around the clock!
I don't understand this. Do they usually do contracts in the newspaper?
Btw, this is the 3rd or 4th article like this I've seen since February or so this year. Guess they'll keep running it until it gets traction.
Doesn't look like too big of a secret to me. I guess to the MSM, anything that isn't announced in a press release is a "secret".
Free vacation in sunny Egypt. SEE the pyramids! Spend time at our spa. Masseuse, personal trainers and more available. Then fly off to an all expenses paid stay at Club Gitmo.
Of course there's no real news in this story, but it's a neat little piece of propaganda to try to keep these old stories about "renditions" on the front burner. Probably timed to coincide with the "peace" march in DC this weekend in hopes of generating additional quotes by participants on this topic.
The adjectives thrown about in this story are entertaining, although the use of "luxury" before Gulfstream (probably mandatory in the AP stylebook) undercuts their theme by conjuring up images of terrorists sitting in overstuffed leather "comfy chairs" drinking scotch & sodas.
If the AP is not an "enemy combatant," then no one is.
About Damn time for some GOOD NEWS BUMP!
Go Navy!
couldn't we torture them here at home?
..and this is a problem?
The United States is a country that cherishes rule by law, and this (if it is true) makes us hypocrites before the rest of the world.
Torture might bring short-term tactical advantages but in the long run is corrosive to our national interest.
Torture might bring short-term tactical advantages but in the long run is corrosive to our national interest.
Hey... relax, we're just out-sourcing.
Iran did do that to Americans.
We had no President at the time so nothing was done about it then.
9/11 was the result.
I do agree with you however. We wouldn't need to extract information from the bad guys if we just eliminated them all.
The WOT could have been over on 9/12/01.
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