Planes alleged to have been used for extraordinary rendition

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The following are planes alleged to have been used for extraordinary rendition.

Background: Air CIA

In a follow-up to Dana Priest's December 27, 2004, Washington Post article on the subject, Michael Hirsh, Mark Hosenball and John Barry related February 8, 2005, in Newsweek that the CIA "ran a secret charter service, shuttling detainees to interrogation facilities worldwide," with suspected terrorists and prospective informants being "snatched" and disappearing, blindfolded, transported, detained, and imprisoned.

The Newsweek reporters cited the case of Khaled el-Masri, "a German citizen of Lebanese descent, [who said] he was taken off a bus in Macedonia in south-central Europe while on holiday on Dec. 31, 2003, then whisked in handcuffs to a motel outside the capital city of Skopje" and subsequently flown to a prison facility in Afghanistan where he was "shackled, repeatedly punched and questioned" by the CIA.

"Together with previously disclosed flight plans of a smaller Gulfstream V jet, the Boeing 737's travels are further evidence that a global 'ghost' prison system, where terror suspects are secretly interrogated, is being operated by the CIA. Several of the Gulfstream flights allegedly correlate with other 'renditions,' the controversial practice of secretly spiriting suspects to other countries without due process. 'The more evidence that comes out, the clearer it is that there's been a stunning failure of accountability,' [said] lawyer John Sifton of Human Rights Watch."
"CIA officials are increasingly fretful about being saddled with this secret prison network at a time of intense pressure from lawyers and human-rights activists. The CIA's anxiety only deepened last week when President Bush named John Negroponte, his ambassador to Iraq, as the country's first director of national intelligence."

Masri was returned, "deposited on a deserted road leading into Macedonia, where he brokenly tried to describe his nightmarish odyssey to a border guard," who laughed at him. Newsweek "obtained previously unpublished flight plans indicating the agency has been operating a Boeing 737 as part of a top-secret global charter servicing clandestine interrogation facilities used in the war on terror. And the Boeing's flight information, detailed to the day, seems to confirm Masri's tale of abduction."

Companies Alleged to be Involved in Rendition

The following have been identified as being involved in rendition. [1]

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References


Reports

External articles

2004

2005

2006

2007

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