The Washington Post finally breaks the story of CIA torture flights in the domestic press with
Jet Is an Open Secret In Terror War. The story has been running internationally for a long time, but now Americans can proudly read about how their tax dollars are being used to finance the operation of a private Gulfstream V to illegally transport people not charged with a crime in any court to countries where the US can torture them by proxy, unseen and unheard.
I put up a diary on torture flights six weeks ago, Bushco's Torture Flights - Proof!, using a story from The Sunday Times in London which had obtained copies of the confidential flight logs for the Gulfstream V. I said then in a comment:
The Boeing 737 and Gulfstream 5 appear to be used as prisoner transports. It is rumoured, however, that there are also helicopters at the disposal of the same secret teams which might have a more sinister purpose.
Maybe the United States is the new Argentina: nice beaches, good skiing, delicious steaks, friendly people and a hideous, torturing, corrupt ruling elite.
The WaPo article scrupulously avoids personalising the torture of individuals by quoting those few who have survived and been freed, or interviewing those who have been directly involved. The Sunday Times pulled fewer punches in its coverage, describing the heirarchy of choices open to the CIA:
Bob Baer, a former CIA operative in the Middle East, said: "If you want a serious interrogation you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear . . . you send them to Egypt."
Among the countries where prisoners have been sent by America is Uzbekistan, a close ally and a dictatorship whose secret police are notorious for their interrogation methods, including the alleged boiling of prisoners. The Gulfstream made at least seven trips to the Uzbek capital.
The WaPo overlooks the Boeing 737 used for the same purpose and also owned by Premier Executive Transport, but the journalists have done a good job of backchecking the corporate registration details and establishing that all of the directors of Premier are false identities with recently issued Social Security numbers.
Since the story broke in the Times, the registration of the planes has been changed yet again to disguise them on their rounds. Culver provided the following:
Further data.
Gulfstream N379P becomes N8068V: the price of carelessness with flight logs, or notoriety, or just business practice
Don't look for tail number N379P if you are seeking a clandestine transporter of enemy combatants to undisclosed locations for Extraordinary Rendition, i.e., delivery of detainees to foreign locations for advanced interrogation. A straightforward open source analysis reveals that N379P is now N8068V, same serial number (581), same owner (Premiere Executive Transport Services Inc.), and one might surmise, the same purpose, (And when someone awakes to the public recognition of this datum, expect it to change again, or change ownership, or contract provider, and possibly the aircraft.). . .
According to the WaPo, ownership of the recently reregistered plane has now changed from Premier Executive Transport to Bayard Foreign Marketing of Portland, Oregon.
Planespotters worldwide will be keeping their eyes peeled for these planes. I've always thought of planespotting as an odd hobby (although very popular among the British), but now I am glad that such hobbyists are out there looking for the unusual in the skies.