Being a murderous, lunatic, militant Islamist -- should have horrible consequences..
Semper Fi
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.
Being a murderous, lunatic, militant Islamist -- should have horrible consequences..
Semper Fi
I wouldn't be so quick to take the AP's bait.
If you read the article carefully, past the insinuations, this entire torture allegation rests entirely on the assertion that the terrorists reportedly said to family members that they were tortured. As we've learned in the WOT, this is SOP for captured terrorists, so one should have one's salt shaker handy. Further, since it is the AP reporting this, we can't really be sure that even that narrow fact is indeed true. If the AP had any credible details at all on the nature of the torture, etc., you can be sure it would have been included in the article.
"...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..."
Detention in Egypt makes Guantanamo Bay look like Club Med!
Those Egyptions are mean mo-fo's.
According to the AP, The U.S. is one of those countries!
While the AP disclosing this "secret" information provides direct aid and comfort to our terrorist enemies, it is as nothing compared to that singular National Security disaster, that veritable body blow to America's interests, the disclosure of the super secret identity of Valerie Plame.
The MSM was so accustomed to the Clinton White House giving them their news stories that anything they now stumble over is a secret.
What law was broken by Americans on American soil?
Who gets to define and delineate unacceptable torture?
Who is going to punish those that practice unacceptable torture?
Have you heard of ANY international body of "righteous folks" going after the sonsuvbitches that behead innocents, blow up children in their schools or buses, drive airplanes into buildings, hang burned corpses from bridges, use drugged children as "suicide bombers".......etc, etc, etc......
I didn't think so......
No --- we sent rough men with weapons to "bring justice"...
Rough men perform rough duty, we OWE them a fair shot, without asking them to do anything they find "unsavory"...
I thought the "diversity is wonderful" crowd always wanted us to respect the culture of others....
Why can't we allow some ally's cultural acceptance of torture, to have THEM extract needed information????
In for a penny, in for a pound.....
What means would you NOT use, to extract information you KNEW could save the life of thousands/millions -- from one you KNEW had that information?
War between nations or cultures is not a tennis match..
The First and most important consideration in ANY war is to WIN....
Losing in "good form" is suicidal, not righteous...
Semper Fi
It's about your dry humor. You sure your a navy guy>
Sounds allright to me.
Say it isn't so. Haven't we tortured our prisoners enough, making them wear panties on their heads and poking fun at their wee-wee's.
Inactive reserve ARMY officer: fit, able, ready, and willing to serve when/if Uncle Sam calls.
That's good to highlight; thanks.
Aren't there international agreements that define such things? Granted, our enemies do not have any regard for international conventions; they are entirely vicious and motivated by the worst forms of hate.
Why can't we allow some ally's cultural acceptance of torture, to have THEM extract needed information????
Because if US jets were to fly persons in our custody to other countries for torture, and we knew they would be tortured, morally it would be no different than if we had done it ourselves. The US is bound by international conventions that prohibit torture; flying people to other countries to be tortured perhaps would get us off the hook legally, but again, morally it's no different. (This assumes this stuff really did happen, and is not just disinfo by our enemies. The Islamist culture has an entirely different attitude about objective truth than does our own; words are just another weapon for them.)
we sent rough men with weapons to "bring justice"... Rough men perform rough duty, we OWE them a fair shot, without asking them to do anything they find "unsavory"...
We know rough stuff happens on battlefields, and I agree with you, our "rough men" deserve our full support. But there's a difference between what happens on a battlefield, and what happens when US intelligence officers send prisoners in our custody to be tortured in foreign countries.
What means would you NOT use, to extract information you KNEW could save the life of thousands/millions -- from one you KNEW had that information?
This is a very tough question, I will admit. If we had any reason to believe torture was the only way to stop a mass-casualty attack, the lesser of two evils may be the moral choice. But I don't think this justifies routine use of torture.
They just keep recycling this story hoping it will grow legs. Hey AP, when the Clinton Admin was practicing snatch and grabs and doing the same think in Bosnia during the 1990s, where was all your hyperventalating then?
I also thought the reaction to Abu Ghraib was overwrought. I think there is a difference between psychological pressure and actual torture. But Abu Ghraib made a lot of Iraqis angry, and it was counterproductive.
Im trying to feel bad about terrorists being tortured, really I am. But, alas, I just cant..
Plane spotters? Who do they work for, Osama?
Ms. Satterthwaite is the wretch in black, with the glasses.
okay we havent been hit since 9/11 could it be due to .... information gathering techniques used by other governments? I am not sure I understand the issue here.
"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."
Good for them!
... Now lets fire the a-hole who released documents to AP that ought not be released.
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