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Title: El-Masri v. Tenet: ACLU Fact Sheet on "Air CIA" (renditions)
Source:
ACLU
URL Source: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/27516res20061127.html
Published: Dec 3, 2006
Author: ACLU
Post Date: 2006-12-03 19:34:55 by Zipporah
Keywords: None
Views: 45
Comments: 1
El-Masri v. Tenet: ACLU Fact Sheet on "Air CIA" In legal papers challenging the illegal CIA kidnapping of German national Khaled El-Masri, the ACLU has named as defendants the owners and operators of a Boeing 737 airplane that was leased by U.S. government agents and used to transport El-Masri from Macedonia to Afghanistan and then Albania. According to the ACLU's legal complaint in El Masri v. Tenet, the U.S.-based, private aviation corporations "have played and continue to play an integral role in the implementation of the ‘extraordinary rendition' policy." The companies and their employees, the ACLU charges, conspired with then-CIA director Tenet and other U.S. government officials to kidnap, detain and abuse El-Masri. The owners and operators knew or should have known that the suspects they were transporting "will be subjected to prolonged arbitrary detention, torture, and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." The defendants are: New documents disclosed this week confirm the involvement of Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, based in Seattle. In a statement to the Spanish police, the head of a local aviation company, Mallorcair, confirmed that his company received instructions from Jeppessen International Trip Planning, a Boeing subsidiary, for handling local logistics for the plane used to transport Khaled El-Masri and others. The documents were obtained by journalist Stephen Grey, author of Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program. They include the Mallorcair statement to the Spanish police and copies of telexes from Mallorcair to Jeppessen confirming arrangements for the El Masri flight as well as many other flights. (See www.ghostplane.net/elmasri)>http://class="noline_blue">www.ghostplane.net/elmasri) Depending on the outcome of the pending appeal in the El-Masri case, the ACLU may amend its civil complaint to include Boeing as a defendant. The ACLU is also charging 20 "John Does,"current and former CIA agents and airline employees who directed or participated in the kidnapping, detention and abusive treatment of Khaled El-Masri. Their identities are not currently known. Chronology of the Plane Used in the Kidnapping of Khaled El-Masri Details are not available concerning the plane that transported El-Masri back to Albania, where he was abandoned on a hill on May 28, 2004 with no explanation, never having been charged with a crime. For more information on the case, go to http://www.aclu.org/rendition
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Aviation documents show that a Boeing jet registered with the Federal Aviation Authority as N313P, took of from Palma, Mallorca, Spain on January 23, 2004 and landed at the Skopje airport at 8:51 p.m. that evening. The jet left Skopje more than three hours later, flying to Baghdad and then on to Kabul, the Afghan capital. On Sunday, January 25, the jet left Kabul, flying to Timmisoara, Romania. The ACLU has obtained a log of the plane's activities between January 22-24, 2004, online at http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/airplane_callsigns20040122.pdf
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From Ghost Plane: A CIA rendition - and a Boeing firm called Jeppesen .... in documents Khaled el Masri, the German citizen (pictured below), rendered from Skopje, Macedonia, to a CIA jail in Afghanistan, described how he was handcuffed and blindfolded and placed in a jet to Kabul, Afghanistan, on January 24, 2004. The plane reached Kabul after making one stop, he said. Confirmation of el Masri's account came from the flight logs of the CIA jet, registered in 2004 under the tail number N313P and later N4476S, a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ). The plane was operated by Aero Contractors Ltd from North Carolina, although generally travelled under the identity of "Stevens Express", a company registered in Tennessee. As described in Ghost Plane (chapter 4), evidence for the involvement of the N313P and the identity of its pilots, crew and the rendition team emerged from an inquiry by Spanish police on the island of Mallorca, from where the plane began its journey to pick up el Masri in Macedonia, and where the plane returned for two nights after the rendition. The same plane had arrived in Mallorca after also rendering the Londoner, Binyam Mohamed, from Morroco to Afghanistan. The Spanish report suggested the plane was handled in Majorca by a local company, Mallorcair, which arranged immigration procedures, refuelling, local permissions, and organised hotel accomodation, as well as restocking the plane with food and wine. The New Yorker - in a piece by Jane Mayer called 'The CIA's Travel Agent' - has reported the Jeppersen Data Plan connection and noted it was a subsidary of Boeing. Mayer reported: "A former Jeppesen employee, who asked not to be identified, said recently that he had been startled to learn, during an internal corporate meeting, about the company’s involvement with the rendition flights. At the meeting, he recalled, Bob Overby, the managing director of Jeppesen International Trip Planning, said, “We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights—you know, the torture flights. Let’s face it, some of these flights end up that way.” The former employee said that another executive told him, “We do the spook flights.” He was told that two of the company’s trip planners were specially designated to handle renditions. He was deeply troubled by the rendition program, he said, and eventually quit his job. He recalled Overby saying, “It certainly pays well. They”—the C.I.A.—“spare no expense. They have absolutely no worry about costs. What they have to get done, they get done.” Overby, who was travelling last week, did not return several phone calls. Mike Pound, the head of corporate communications for Jeppesen, said that he would have no comment, and he added, “Bob Overby will have no comment as well.” Tim Neale, the director of media relations for Boeing’s corporate office in Chicago, said, “The flight-planning services we provide our customers are confidential, and we do not comment publicly on any work done for any customer without their consent.” The C.I.A. had no comment." The visit of the N313P for el Masri's rendition was just one many visits to Mallorca by the BBJ as well as the plane's sister jet, a Gulfstream V (registered as N379P and then N8068V) that was used in a great many renditions, as detailed in the book. Here are the flight logs of the N313P during its visits to Majorca in January 2004: 17-January-2004 SHANNON to LARNACA In almost all visits by the alleged CIA planes, according to the Spanish report, instructions were received by Mallorcair from Jeppesen Data Plan. Although the documents here are sometimes difficult to read, instructions can be seen in the form of a telex to Mallorcair from named individuals at Jeppesen for handling of the jet. Below are instructions received for the BBJ's return to Palma after the el Masri rendition. The plane is identified as a "private non-commercial flight" and the captain identified as "Capt James R Fairing", believed to be a cover name. In a statement to Spanish police, the boss of Mallorcair confirms he received instructions from Jeppesen: An un-certified translation of the above is: "Miguel Moduy Rodriguez, proprietor and delegate of the business, Mallorcair S.L. Ser Aviation. The gentleman, Mudoy, recorded six occasions that his business rendered services to the previously cited airplanes. All of the services rendered were made before the solicitation of JEPPESEN DATAPLAN, 225 West Santa Clara ST Suite 1600, San Jose, California, U.S.A., (a business dedicated to the handling, airport rights, and flight welfare, etc) In the presented documentation by Mudoy, it shows that all airplanes were operated by the company Stevens Express Leasing (U.S.A.)." Click to download: - the full telex from Jeppesen on return trip of BBJ to Mallorcair after el Masri rendition - telex on visit of N313P on 9 March 2004 - telex on visit of N4476S on 17 January 2005 - telex on visit of N8068V on 15 September 2004 - telex on visit of N8068V on 6 September 2004
21-January-2004 LARNACA to RABAT/SALE
21-January-2004 RABAT-SALE to KABUL Rendition of Binyam Mohamed
22-January-2004 KABUL to ALGIERS
22-January-2004 ALGIERS to PALMA DE MALLORCA First night in Mallorca (Marriott hotel)
23-January-2004 PALMA DE MALLORCA to SKOPJE
24-January-2004 SKOPJE to BAGHDAD Rendition of Khaled el Masri
24-January-2004 BAGHDAD to KABUL Rendition of Khaled el Masri
25-January-2004 KABUL to TIMISOARA (Romania)
26-January-2004 BUCUREST (Romania) to PALMA DE MALLORCA 2nd / 3rd night in Mallorca (Gran Melia Hotel)
28-January-2004 PALMA DE MALLORCA DULLES WASHINGTON 
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