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CITIZENS GROUP EXPOSES AERO CONTRACTORS<br><br>
Trial Thursday in Johnston County, NC<br><br>
Further Investigation of “Torture Taxi” Operation <br><br>
A group of citizens from Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina will come
<br>
together to take part in a number of actions this week in North Carolina
to <br>
continue their efforts to expose the “torture taxi” operations of Aero
<br>
Contractors. They will call on Michael F. Easley, the Governor of
North <br>
Carolina, to take action to shut down the company’s illegal activities at
<br>
two North Carolina locations. <br><br>
On November 18, 2005, the group, Stop Torture Now served a peoples’ <br>
indictment to Aero Contractors, charging them with multiple counts of
<br>
violation of U.S. and international laws and treaties banning torture by
<br>
providing pilots and planes for the CIA’s program of “extraordinary <br>
rendition.” <br><br>
In December, the ACLU filed a civil suit on behalf of a German citizen,
<br>
Khaled el-Masri, who was kidnapped by the United States and flown to
<br>
Afghanistan where he was tortured before being released. Aero
Contractors <br>
was named in the suit. <br><br>
In November, 14 members of the group were arrested at Aero’s hangar at
the <br>
Johnston County airport near Smithfield, NC, while serving the
indictment. <br>
They will stand trial on Thursday, January 5, at 9AM on trespass
charges. <br>
Two expert witnesses, The Rev. W.W. "Bill" Finlator, a
long-time advocate of <br>
civil rights, and Daniel Pollitt, a University of North Carolina at
Chapel <br>
Hill law professor emeritus will appear on the defendants’ behalf.
<br><br>
Following Thursday’s trial, the group will caravan to Aero’s hangar where
<br>
they will hold a press conference and request access to Aero’s property
in <br>
order to inspect the company’s flight records and to take depositions
from <br>
employees. <br><br>
At the press conference the group will announce its plans to take the
<br>
campaign against Aero’s torture taxi one step further by delivering
copies <br>
of the indictment to the Governor of North Carolina and other state <br>
officials who serve on the board of Global TransPark Authority in
Kinston, <br>
NC, where Aero operates a second hangar. The Kinston site houses
Aero’s <br>
Boeing 737 business jet which plane spotters and flight logs have linked
to <br>
many of the “extraordinary rendition” flights that have delivered
suspects <br>
to various detention centers, including U.S. secret prisons in
Europe <br><br>
On Friday, January 6, Stop Torture Now will travel to Global TransPark in
<br>
Kinston where they will draw the public’s attention to the Aero operation
<br>
and make further requests to inspect the company’s flight records and to
<br>
take statements from employees. <br><br>
Stop Torture Now is a project of the Center for Theology and Social
Analysis <br>
in St. Louis, MO. Participants in this week’s actions include
members of <br>
CTSA as well as members of two Catholic Worker communities in North
Carolina <br>
and Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness <br><br>
A copy of the indictment and further details about this week’s actions
can <br>
be found on the Stop Torture Now website: <br><br>
<a href="http://www.stoptorturenow.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.stoptorturenow.org</a> <br><br>
Further information about the North Carolina Global Trans-Park and its
board <br>
of directors can be found on their website: <br>
<a href="http://www.ncgtp.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.ncgtp.com/</a>
<br><br>
Further information about the ACLU law suit can be found on their
website:<br>
<a href="http://www.aclu.org/natsec/emergpowers/22207prs20051206.html?ht=extraordina" eudora="autourl">
http://www.aclu.org/natsec/emergpowers/22207prs20051206.html?ht=extraordina<br>
</a>ry%20rendition%20extraordinary%20rendition <br>
<br>
For further information about specific times and locations of this week’s
<br>
events, <br>
call 314-249-7890.<br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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