'Torture flight' plane spotted in Birmingham

[IndianaGreen]

Source: The Guardian

'Torture flight' plane spotted in Birmingham

Robert Booth
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 1 November 2009 18.37 GMT

An American plane named in an inquiry by the European parliament into alleged CIA torture flights landed at Birmingham airport last month and was met by British special forces helicopters.

Plane spotters said the Gulfstream jet touched down from an undisclosed location on 2 October and was met by two army air corps Dauphin 2 helicopters used by the SAS at Hereford.

The 22-seat plane is registered to L-3 Integrated Systems, a Montana-based subsidiary of a US defence corporation. It made numerous flights between Ireland and Egypt in 2003 and was involved in an accident at Bucharest airport in Romania in 2004 after a flight from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.

The European parliament reported that seven passengers disappeared after the accident and deplored the CIA's use of Romania as a stopover for extraordinary renditions of terror suspects including the British national Binyam Mohammed.

The report's authors said they regretted "the lack of control of the Gulfstream aircraft with registration number N478GS".


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/01/rendition-f...

[NYC_SKP]

1. Extraordinary Rendition Taxi, that one. link and pic

http://www.quakerhouse.org/planes.htm

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Thank God Obama Has Ended Extraordinary Rendition

Because the rule of law should prevail.

Oh wait...

(Awaiting pom-poms in 3... 2... 1...)

[SpartanDem]

3. Yes it is a good thing he singed that executive order banning it

when he first took office. I kinda I have thing about making argument using facts...now if you'll excuse me I gotta find my pom poms




http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Obama-outlaws-tortu...

Date: 23 January 2009
By Chris Stephen in New York
PROPELLING the United States rapidly away from the Bush era, President Barack Obama yesterday banned torture and closed the CIA's infamous "Black Site" prison network, the secret locations used to interrogate terror suspects


The orders will also mean the end of so-called extraordinary-rendition flights, in which the CIA transported hundreds of bound-and-gagged suspects around the world, using airports including Prestwick for refuelling, so the detainees could be interrogated in "friendly" states that permit torture.

[ShortnFiery]

6. Yes, Because Obama is the alpha and omega of honesty. After all, our government has NEVER ...

lied to it's citizenry in the past under a democratic President.

Psst! Gulf of Tonkin.

[katandmoon]

11. Apparently, the CIA's copy got lost in the mail!

[BridgeTheGap]

28. They're not part of the Federal government any way and don't have to do what

The President or Congress say. Can you say "rogue?"

[MannyGoldstein]

16. "Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool"

Looks like Bill Clinton's creation still lives:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/01/nation/na-rendi...

Some specific parts may have been stopped, but Obama is dug in on having a fundamental right to kidnap people and send them to foreign prisons without judicial oversight.

[tblue]

34. But but but...look at the MESS he inherited! We must look FORWARD! It's only been 9 MONTHS!!!

You're either with Obama or you're with The Republicans! Have YOU ever tried herding kittens?!

(hope you recognize this as . This is what I get on DU for questioning Obama's commitment to the things his supporters thought they were voting for.)

[Cronus Protagonist]

43. Is THIS the kind of CHANGINESS you want?

Rhetorical question.

[whathehell]

41. You do notice though, that the LA Times link distinguishes between "rendition" and torture.

[No Elephants]

17. Yet, Amnesty International is currently calling on Obama to end extraordinary

rendition and close CIA prisons around the world.

But, I'm sure you're more up to speed on the "facts" than Amnesty International.

BTW, was that a Freudian slip in your subject line, or were you just happy to see your pom poms?

[sattahipdeep]

29. The little-noticed provision...going forward

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said that the rendition
program might be poised to play an expanded role going forward
because it was the main remaining mechanism -- aside from
Predator missile strikes -- for taking suspected terrorists off the
street.

But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the
rendition program was one component of the Bush administration's
war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.

One provision in one of Obama's orders appears to preserve the
CIA's ability to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects as long
as they are not held long-term. The little-noticed provision states
that the instructions to close the CIA's secret prison sites "do not
refer to facilities used only to hold people on a short-term,
transitory basis."

....
The decision to preserve the program did not draw major protests,
even among human rights groups. Leaders of such organizations
said that reflected a sense that the United States and other nations
needed certain tools to combat terrorism.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/01/nation/na-rendi...

Hillary Clinton speaks out about US links with Taliban

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2CE0fyz4ys

Truth slapped in your face!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r69IG6YV_P0
CIA has links to Sunni separatist group

It is relevant to take note
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-KJCMWcoms

[jonnyblitz]

7. google any variation of "torture continues under Obama" and

all sorts of interesting stories pop up.

[niyad]

31. don't forget the blinders and earplugs

[bertman]

4. How could we possibly abandon extraordinary rendition. It is now part of the fabric of our society.

Just like police officers who look like paramilitary robocops, warrantless wiretapping and scouring of emails, and Emperors--I mean, Presidents who are above the law. Oh, and don't forget Congressional representatives who are bought and sold to corporations.

Get used to it. It's the new America.

[ShortnFiery]

5. +1. God Bless The Corporate States of America. :P

[peacetalksforall]

10. You need one more art image or photo image - Congressmen and women with thepartial profile (from

behind)- showing them holding their waist to toe pockets open.

The evil starts someplace else - meetings of barons - but, Congress provides any essential legitimacy given ..... for money.

[niyad]

30. sadly, that image is far more accurate these days than 50 stars. how low

we have sunk.

[caseymoz]

13. There is a chance it's being used for something other than ER.

So, it's not like we caught them in the act-- this time.

[No Elephants]

18. I don't have to catch anyone in the Act.. I trust Amnesty International on this issue more than I

trust any politician.

[caseymoz]

36. Has AI said anything about this plane flight, yet?

I'm on your side, here, that every member of Bush administration should be tried. The question is whether the Obama administration is also torturing. I don't think seeing the plane on the runway answers this question. Is this plane being used for that? Did witnesses see anyone in chains and blindfolded being hauled in to the plane? Because that's how they recognized it as the Torture Jet before.

From L-3's cover story, I could tell our federal PR dollars are being wasted by private industry-- again. If I were a cutting edge media type, one of the first things I would do to help our image abroad is to ground those fucking torture planes-- no matter how they're being used now.

It's simply bad judgment and morally abhorrent that our government chooses a massive PR campaign rather than becoming a model for the world community.

If Obama has not put a halt to torture, I'm horrified to say that what we have with him is a less stupid, more eloquent version of Cheney and Bush, who should be put on trial in The Hague himself. So, before I say that, I think there should be more evidence.

[bertman]

42. I tend to agree, caseymoz. But, on the other hand, if they're not doing ER's why shouldn't

they use the plane for other legit purposes? I think we could be jumping to a conclusion here.

Also, if you were going to do ER's would you use the SAME planes as before? Probably not.

[caseymoz]

44. Well, the original ones, like this, were spotted and soon identified.

You could say that spotting this plane should put people on alert.

[starroute]

8. L-3 Integrated Systems? Oh, brother

Better known as L-3 Communications -- or maybe that's the parent company -- it shows up all over the place, especially in connection with Pentagon propaganda. How ... creative ... to be engaged in "efforts to improve foreign public opinion about the United States" with one hand while you're running torture flights with the other.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Pentagon Funds Diplomacy Effort
Contracts Aim to Improve Foreign Opinion of United States

By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 11, 2005

The Pentagon awarded three contracts this week, potentially worth up to $300 million over five years, to companies it hopes will inject more creativity into its psychological operations efforts to improve foreign public opinion about the United States, particularly the military.

"We would like to be able to use cutting-edge types of media," said Col. James A. Treadwell, director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element, a part of Tampa-based U.S. Special Operations Command. "If you want to influence someone, you have to touch their emotions."

He said SYColeman Inc. of Arlington, Lincoln Group of the District, and Science Applications International Corp. will help develop ideas and prototypes for radio and television spots, documentaries, or even text messages, pop-up ads on the Internet, podcasting, billboards or novelty items. . . .

SYColeman, a unit of L-3 Communications, is a government-services company with about 1,100 employees, most in the region. According to its Web site, Lincoln Group provides communications services and strategic planning. San Diego-based SAIC, which has 16,000 employees in the Washington region, is among the Pentagon's largest contractors.

[starroute]

9. And then there's this...

As quoted here last year:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Iraqi Sues US Contractors Over Torture
May 06, 2008
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - An Iraqi man sued two U.S. military contractors May 5, claiming he was repeatedly tortured while being held at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison for more than 10 months.

Emad al-Janabi's federal lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, claims that employees of CACI International Inc. and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. punched him, slammed him into walls, hung him from a bed frame and kept him naked and handcuffed in his cell beginning in September 2003.

Also named as a defendant is CACI interrogator Steven Stefanowicz, known as "Big Steve." The suit claims he directed some of the torture tactics.

Phone messages left for Arlington, Va.-based CACI and New York City-based L-3 Communications, formerly Titan Corp., were not immediately returned May 5. There was no phone number listed for Stefanowicz at his Los Angeles address.

[Kolesar]

20. "Good catch" eom

[nashville_brook]

39. Titan Corp wiki -- "Legal Situations"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Corp .

Legal situations

As a public military contractor the company employed some of the personnel who were implicated in the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in 2004. Involving mostly Titan and CACI International employees, the U.S. Army "found that contractors were involved in 36 percent of the proven incidents and identified 6 employees as individually culpable",<2> although none have faced prosecution unlike US military personal.<2>


(snip)

On March 2, 2005, the company admitted to illegally providing $2 million to the 2001 re-election campaign of President Mathieu Kérékou of Benin (West Africa), and agreed to pay $28 million in penalties. Titan pled guilty and paid the largest penalty under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in history for bribery and filing false tax returns.<1>

Titan Corp briefly partnered with SkyWay Communications <2> and owned stock in several other corporations related to SkyWay, whose former DC9 aircraft, N900SA, was captured in April 2006 with 5.5 tons of cocaine on board. Investigation of the cocaine bust by Mad Cow Morning News <3> has led to the discovery that Titan had employed Makram Chams, a Lebanese national, who owned a Kwik-Check convenience store in Venice, Florida, where the biggest overseas money transfer to the terrorists, $70,000 from the UAE, was sent, according to the testimony of FBI agents during the 9/11 Commission hearings.

[caseymoz]

35. delete

Has AI said anything about this plane flight, yet?

I'm on your side, here, that every member of Bush administration should be tried. The question is whether the Obama administration is also torturing. I don't think seeing the plane on the runway answers this question. Is this plane being used for that? Did witnesses see anyone in chains and blindfolded being hauled in to the plane? Because that's how they recognized it as the Torture Jet before.

From L-3's cover story, I could tell our federal PR dollars are being wasted by private industry-- again. If I were a cutting edge media type, one of the first things I would do to help our image abroad is to ground those fucking torture planes-- no matter how they're being used now.

It's simply bad judgment and morally abhorrent that our government chooses a massive PR campaign rather than becoming a model for the world community.

[Solly Mack]

12. K&R

[Xicano]

14. Remember the 1971 Stanford prison experiment by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo?

Remember how after less than a week the students in the experiment had psychologically reprogrammed enough where the guards started exhibiting sadistic tendencies and the prisoners, despite being abused, even pissed on, didn't walk out of the experiment even though they all knew it was just an experiment?

Well, I am sorry to have to say. That despite how much I'd love to see Obama be a Democratic President I'd love to be proud of, I am afraid I cannot. I am afraid I cannot because I only have his actions to go by, and too many of his actions show me that as a liberal Democrat I can no longer support him, and its time to recognize what the Stanford students didn't. Its time to recognize to walk away, and thats very sad. Sorry Obama but in my opinion you're just another corporate puppet.



Peace,
Xicano

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. +1

Sorry Obama but in my opinion you're just another corporate puppet.

[democrank]

15. K & R

[Hubert Flottz]

19. K&R

EDIT...Probably just a GESTAPOver

[WinkyDink]

21. How long until "plane-spotting" is made illegal?

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

22. Words - or in other words

No Prosecutions For Bush Administration War Crimes.


and now we know why.


International Law
http://www.un.org/en/law


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law

International law is the term commonly used for referring to the system of implicit and explicit agreements that bind together sovereign states in adherence to recognized values and standards. It differs from other legal systems in that it primarily concerns states rather than private citizens<1>. However, the term "international law" can refer to three distinct legal disciplines:

Public international law, which governs the relationship between states and international organizations. It includes the following specific legal field such as the treaty law, law of sea, international criminal law and the international humanitarian law.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

23. Or, More Words

Damn where DID I put that Nobel Peace Prize?


http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr

PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

[Wingmasters]

24. So you don’t think it could happen ??

Really… come on guys,the President got boxed by the right wing since the day he decided not to prosecutes C.I.A.Operatives whom involved in torture.

[JohnyCanuck]

26. Well sometimes outsourcing just makes good sense,

like when there's technical expertise overseas that just isn't available in good old "land of the free, home of the brave" USA.
Other regimes who have openly tortured for years also have had time to come up with some innovative techniques. Would the CIA's own torturers be able to think outside the box to the extent that they would think of boiling someone alive as an innovative torture technique? Why not send your prisoners to someone who would - like the Uzbeks, for example.

Ex-UK Ambassador says UK and USA sent prisoners to Uzbekistan to be tortured (Youtube Video)

Trying Again to Stop Torture: My Formal Statement for the Joint Committee on Human Rights

WITNESS STATEMENT TO THE PARLIAMENTARY JOINT COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS

My name is Craig Murray. I was British Ambassador in Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004.

snip

As Ambassador in Uzbekistan I regularly received intelligence material released by MI6. This material was given to MI6 by the CIA, mostly originating from their Tashkent station. It was normally issued to me telegraphically by MI6 at the same time it was issued to UK ministers and officials in London.

From the start of my time as Ambassador, I was also receiving a continual stream of information about widespread torture of suspected political or religious dissidents in Tashkent. This was taking place on a phenomenal scale. In early 2003 a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, in the preparation of which my Embassy much assisted, described torture in Uzbekistan as “routine and systemic”.

The horror and staggering extent of torture in Uzbekistan is well documented and I have been informed by the Chair is not in the purview of the Joint Committee on Human Rights. But what follows goes directly to the question of UK non-compliance with the UN Convention Against Torture.

In gathering evidence from victims of torture, we built a consistent picture of the narrative which the torturers were seeking to validate from confessions under torture. They sought confessions which linked domestic opposition to President Karimov with Al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden; they sought to exaggerate the strength of the terrorist threat in Central Asia. People arrested on all sorts of pretexts – (I recall one involved in a dispute over ownership of a garage plot) suddenly found themselves tortured into confessing to membership of both the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and Al-Qaida. They were also made to confess to attending Al-Qaida training camps in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. In an echo of Stalin’s security services from which the Uzbek SNB had an unbroken institutional descent, they were given long lists of names of people they had to confess were also in IMU and Al-Qaida.

It became obvious to me after just a few weeks that the CIA material from Uzbekistan was giving precisely the same narrative being extracted by the Uzbek torturers – and that the CIA “intelligence” was giving information far from the truth.

I was immediately concerned that British ministers and officials were being unknowingly exposed to material derived from torture, and therefore were acting illegally.

I asked my Deputy, Karen Moran, to call on a senior member of the US Embassy and tell him I was concerned that the CIA intelligence was probably derived from torture by the Uzbek security services. Karen Moran reported back to me that the US Embassy had replied that it probably did come from torture, but in the War on Terror they did not view that as a problem.

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/03/trying_a...

[ShortnFiery]

32. Yes, now the USA executes people within SOVEREIGN countries - without trial via Drone Bombings and

outsources torture to other countries so that USA Officials can plead "ignorance."

I've never been more ashamed of my beloved country. We have become what we loath and can NOT, in good conscious, claim a moral high ground.

Forgive me, but I'm losing hope in Our Basic Humanity and looking out for the Four Horseman - We have lost our SOUL as a Nation.

[The Stranger]

27. Circulate the plane's registration -- N478GS -- and we'll track the torturers all over the world.

They can run, but they can't hide.

Any progressive pilots on the boards today?

[kaehele]

33. Unbelievable

If this flight is what it seems to be and if Obama did leave in that loophole when he said he banned such activities, I am astounded. And furious.

[defendandprotect]

37. The CIA -- and any President doing this -- have to go . . . there's no democracy

with secret government --

National Security State is fascism --

Disgusting!!

[juno jones]

38. The gulfstrem put me in mind of another CIA hobby.

Drug running.

There's some aircraft numbers for those planes running about the internets as well. Wonder if this one matches up to any of them.

[placton]

40. smile

it's all for the best, really