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| C.I.A. Expanding Terror Battle Under Guise of Charter Flights | |||
| 2005-05-31 | |||
When the Central Intelligence Agency wants to grab a suspected member of Al Qaeda overseas and deliver him to interrogators in another country, an Aero Contractors plane often does the job. If agency experts need to fly overseas in a hurry after the capture of a prized prisoner, a plane will depart Johnston County and stop at Dulles Airport outside Washington to pick up the C.I.A. team on the way. Aero Contractors' planes dropped C.I.A. paramilitary officers into Afghanistan in 2001; carried an American team to Karachi, Pakistan, right after the United States Consulate there was bombed in 2002; and flew from Libya to Guantänamo Bay, Cuba, the day before an American-held prisoner said he was questioned by Libyan intelligence agents last year, according to flight data and other records. While posing as a private charter outfit - "aircraft rental with pilot" is the listing in Dun and Bradstreet - Aero Contractors is in fact a major domestic hub of the Central Intelligence Agency's secret air service. The company was founded in 1979 by a legendary C.I.A. officer and chief pilot for Air America, the agency's Vietnam-era air company, and it appears to be controlled by the agency, according to former employees. Behind a surprisingly thin cover of rural hideaways, front companies and shell corporations that share officers who appear to exist only on paper, the C.I.A. has rapidly expanded its air operations since 2001 as it has pursued and questioned terrorism suspects around the world. An analysis of thousands of flight records, aircraft registrations and corporate documents, as well as interviews with former C.I.A. officers and pilots, show that the agency owns at least 26 planes, 10 of them purchased since 2001. The agency has concealed its ownership behind a web of seven shell corporations that appear to have no employees and no function apart from owning the aircraft.
"When the C.I.A. is given a task, it's usually because national policy makers don't want 'U.S. government' written all over it," said Jim Glerum, a retired C.I.A. officer who spent 18 years with the agency's Air America but says he has no knowledge of current operations. "If you're flying an executive jet into somewhere where there are plenty of executive jets, you can look like any other company." Some of the C.I.A. planes have been used for carrying out renditions, the legal term for the agency's practice of seizing terrorism suspects in one foreign country and delivering them to be detained in another, including countries that routinely engage in torture. The resulting controversy has breached the secrecy of the agency's flights in the last two years, as plane-spotting hobbyists, activists and journalists in a dozen countries have tracked the mysterious planes' movements.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #22 My Number #1 question: Would they bounce or splat? |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-05-31 18:10 |
| #21 My totally uninformed take on this? The CIA has moved on to another airline, and did so about 6 months ago. They just told someone who told someone who told these rocket scientists about Aero Contractors. Now they can get on with what they need to do while all the conspiracy whackos get their jollies by "tracking the CIA agents" getting off of the Aero Contractors planes. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-05-31 15:52 |
| #20 Yes, they all have websites, and I'm sure AQ has them all bookmarked. ergo AQ didnt have to look in the NYT for this info. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-05-31 15:50 |
| #19 IE its already out there anyway. No excuse. Think upon the phrase "loose lips sink ships". This makes it a tad easier to access (do the activists have websites? Has AQ found those websites?) ACLU. DU. DNC. Yes, they all have websites, and I'm sure AQ has them all bookmarked. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-05-31 15:22 |
| #18 This old news/treason. If Aero Contractors Ltd. ever was the alleged operation, it has long since morphed: http://www.smithfieldherald.com/news/story/2203088p-8584188c.html |
| Posted by: Tom 2005-05-31 15:11 |
| #17 This is a serious violation, but certainly not unprecedented by the NY Slimes. Their demise is not going to be by governmental action, but by dwindling circulation. Imagine the nerve they have by stating their plan to impose a charge to access their op/ed columnists. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-05-31 14:36 |
| #16 How is it not treason? I suppose the NYT would point to this: The resulting controversy has breached the secrecy of the agency's flights in the last two years, as plane-spotting hobbyists, activists and journalists in a dozen countries have tracked the mysterious planes' movements. IE its already out there anyway. This makes it a tad easier to access (do the activists have websites? Has AQ found those websites?) - saves AQ a bit of googling, and maybe draws a few more dotted lines. Hell, do you think AQ reads our speculations here? I suspect some of whats on RB would be more valuable than whats in NYT :) |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-05-31 13:51 |
| #15 Pinch, I've been meaning to ask you: Is treason a job requirement at the NYT, or just a voluntary activity? |
| Posted by: Matt 2005-05-31 13:43 |
| #14 Arabic? We're there. Big new demographic for us. |
| Posted by: Pinch Sulzberger 2005-05-31 13:30 |
| #13 Is this charter operation the same as the "Ghost Airplanes" that such a fuss was made about some time ago? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-05-31 13:29 |
| #12 The print edition has a handy little chart diagramming the relationships among six named individuals and several named companies. You gotta wonder why they didn't just print it in Arabic to save Al-Qaeda the trouble. The NY Times keep trying to screw us over and Arabic may well be the only language they will print it in. |
| Posted by: badanov 2005-05-31 13:17 |
| #11 The print edition has a handy little chart diagramming the relationships among six named individuals and several named companies. You gotta wonder why they didn't just print it in Arabic to save Al-Qaeda the trouble. |
| Posted by: Matt 2005-05-31 13:10 |
| #10 Actually, the Times is behind the curve on this one. I read a similar story in the European version of Newsweek about these charter flights about two months ago, although it didn't focus on the businesses involved. |
| Posted by: Slick Cletle5880 2005-05-31 12:25 |
| #9 All the CIA needs to do is to contract out for the establishment for charter airline offices nationwide and abroad, folks who go to work every morning and wait for 'the 'word' to do all the stuff necessary to plan charter flights for the spooks. All under different names, unincorporated: Nothing more than an office, a phone, a computer, a desk and a chair. The cost could be small, and there is a large pool of talent out there willing to do this just to hose our fifth column media and help the spooks with more dead terrorists. And it would be nearly impossible for traitors like NY Times reporters to track this type of activity. I'd like to see these reporters' names on a database waiting for the day they travel outside the US. |
| Posted by: badanov 2005-05-31 10:13 |
| #8 Article is probably post-facto and the agency has moved on to another process, org and link. I doubt this does anything disruptive or exposing to danger. The NYT audience is not one that is supportive of the WoT and our actions to begin with - more mutual reinforcement than anything. When I read it in the NYT's then I know that the act must have ended a long time ago and everyone has moved on. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2005-05-31 09:51 |
| #7 Just another reason why I do not read the New York Times... they are a supermarket tabloid with World News Weekly having more credibility. Treasonous? Oh yeah, it is a habitual behaviorism oozing from the top to the bottom... a pervasive stench that for all to shrink from. NYT isn't just doing their job, yellow journalism, titilation and intrigue sells more than trueful reporting. But even that has worsened the in last 5 years at NYT. When they finally do start to report the truth it will be treated with skepticism. When they start to act in a responsible manner regarding the safety of the United States and it's citizens, then perhaps the citizens of the United States may elevate the importance of the NYT above that of used by the homeless for warmth and housebreaking the puppy. |
| Posted by: Sleans Glomolet4123 2005-05-31 07:20 |
| #6 If the government refuses to act some private citizens who are actually concerned with the public good and the Republic will take matters in hand and send a message these reporters will understand. Greed, stupidity and perfidy. The new motto of the NYT. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-05-31 03:51 |
| #5 Where is the utility in printing this other than to disrupt CIA operations and try to givve the Bush administration a black eye? This article was simply the NYT axe-grinding against renditions, to try to do more damage to the Bush administration, no matter what the cost is to the nation. Bastards. As for the alleged operations: They will relocate, regenerate and reconstitute. All on the taxpayers dime - and all at a large loss of efficiency and functionality until they recover from the expose. Thank you NYT for screwing the intel community and the taxpayer. This is right up there with warning Osama we could listen to his sat phone coversations. I guess the big liberal papers never let discretion and the safety of nation get in the way of a splashy headline, their anti-military bias, and political axe-grinding. NYT editors should be hung, and the reporters jailed, for treason. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-05-31 02:35 |
| #4 Seriously, how is this not treason? |
| Posted by: someone 2005-05-31 02:26 |
| #3 Cool, will they float if you accidently drop them off in the ocean? |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-05-31 02:13 |
| #2 A few 22 shorts at close range to the head will put and end to this kind of treason. Why is it in the "public interest" that this is printed? To cause us to lose the war on terror is the only reason I can think of. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-05-31 01:58 |
| #1 "This article was reported by Scott Shane, Stephen Grey and Margot Williams and written by Mr. Shane" ...... all of whom are now candidates for "near death" experiences, or worse. Hey, live by the pen (sword) die by the (pen) sword. |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2005-05-31 01:22 |