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<font size=3><br>
</font><font size=4><b>Huge stash of rendition documents reveal how the
CIA covered its tracks<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>A trove of new information about the
international renditions business has today been unveiled by legal action
charity Reprieve.<br>
<br>
Over 1500 operational and legal documents, originally disclosed as part
of a New York court case fought from 2007 to 2011, now offer the first
comprehensive overview of how the CIA’s unlawful programme of
‘extraordinary renditions’ – otherwise known as kidnap - was structured
and managed. <br>
<br>
Reprieve’s evidence shows how:
<ul>
<li>A complicated billing chain obscured the ultimate end user of the
flights -- the CIA
<li>The US government used the same aircraft – tail number N85VM, owned
by Liverpool FC owner Philip Morse -- for over 55 flights to Guantanamo
Bay, Kabul, Bangkok, Dubai, Islamabad, Cairo, Baghdad, Djibouti, Rabat,
Frankfurt, Ramstein, Rome, Tenerife, the Azores and Bucharest
<li>The plane, a Gulfstream jet, frequently passed through British and
Irish airports en route, including Shannon, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London
Luton
<li>Richmor executives used disturbing newspeak to describe the ghost
prisoners that they were shuttling to torture sites, referring to them as
"invitees"
<li>All rendition flights were covered by a "letter of
convenience" from the State Department
<li>The CIA continued to pay millions to cover its its tracks well after
its illegal rendition-to-torture programme was made public
</ul>The documents also add previously unseen detail to several notorious
rendition cases, including that of Abu Omar, snatched in Milan in
February 2003 and rendered to torture in Egypt - a case which culminated
in the <i>in absentia</i> kidnapping conviction of 22 CIA operatives by
an Italian judge.<br>
<b> <br>
Reprieve’s Legal Director Cori Crider said: <br>
</b> <br>
<i> “These documents give us an unprecedented insight into how the
government outsourced renditions, right down to the complicated
paper-trail the CIA used to cover their tracks. <br>
</i> <br>
<i>“When you see all these details, litigated for years in the open, the
question that comes to mind is: why were Binyam Mohamed, Bisher al-Rawi,
and all the other rendition victims denied their day in court? This case
proves, once and for all, that the reason the government blocked the
rendition cases was not to protect sensitive material. It was to avoid
embarrassment.”<br>
</i> ************************************<br>
<b> <br>
Notes to editors:<br>
<br>
</b>For further information please contact Donald Campbell or Katherine
O'Shea in Reprieve’s press office:
<a href="mailto:donald.campbell@reprieve.org.uk">
donald.campbell@reprieve.org.uk</a> / +44 (0)20 7427 1082 / (0)77 91 755
415 or
<a href="mailto:katherine.oshea@reprieve.org.uk">
katherine.oshea@reprieve.org.uk</a> / 07931592674.<br><br>
In an effort to diversify the planes available to it, the US Government
sought, as early as 2002, private aircraft which could perform
government-related operations under "certificates of
convenience" issued by the State Department. The operations of one
such plane - Gulfstream jet N85VM, managed by Richmor Aviation and owned
by Philip Morse, also the owner of Liverpool football club - are
copiously divulged in over 1500 pages of documents, which have seen the
light of day after Richmor Aviation filed a lawsuit for breach of
contract.<br>
<br>
Astonishingly, whereas in the case brought in 2007 by the American Civil
Liberties Union against flight planner Jeppesen for facilitating torture
flights the government stepped in and used "state secrets
privilege" to shut down proceedings, in this parallel instance no
effort was made to cover up the incriminating stream of documentation
which Richmor's suit entailed.<br>
<br>
Flights were arranged by a Virginia-based private military company,
Dyncorp, which later merged with the technology company Computer Sciences
Corporation (CSC). Employees at Dyncorp/CSC located brokers, who in turn
located flight operators with available aircraft and crews. The
government - the ultimate customer - paid a reduced hourly rate for
exclusive rights to the services of Richmor's N85VM, initially over a
six-month period between June and November 2002. A working arrangement
between the various parties continued through to 2005, however.<br>
<br>
Trial transcripts make clear that some of N85VM's flights carried
prisoners or - in the parlance of Richmor's owner - "invitees".
Others took US government agents to Guantanamo Bay. Bundles of invoices
reveal previously unseen insights into flights which can be connected
with the rendition of Abu Omar as well as those of "high value
detainees" Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Hambali.<br>
<br>
High-value detainee Al-Nashiri was captured in Dubai in October 2002. He
was then taken to a CIA prison in Afghanistan. Between 8 and 11 Nov.
2002, documents disclosed here show the N85VM flew from Washington DC to
Shannon in Ireland, then to Dubai, on to Kabul, then back to Dubai,
passing through London Luton and arriving finally back in Washington. Abu
Omar, meanwhile, having been taken from Milan to a US military base in
Ramstein in Germany, was flown on 18 February 2003 on N85VM from there to
Cairo; the plane then returned to the US via Shannon.<br>
<br>
Although some data concerning the movement of N85VM had already been
compiled, the documents disclosed here include considerable extra detail
and some previously unknown destinations. Reprieve investigators are
working to identify other prisoners who might have been connected with
other, previously unknown flights documented here.<br>
<b> <br>
<br>
</b>
<img src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349/images/Reprieve.JPG" width=144 height=56 alt="Reprieve logo">
Reprieve<br>
PO Box 52742<br>
London EC4P 4WS<br>
Tel: 020 7353 4640<br>
Fax: 020 7353 4641<br>
Website:
<a href="http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=15995870cd&e=f8755a10f3">
www.reprieve.org.uk<br>
</a></b></font><font face="arial" size=3> <br>
</font><i>Reprieve is a charitable company limited by guarantee;
Registered Charity No. 1114900 Registered Company No. 5777831 (England)
Registered Office 2-6 Cannon Street London EC4M 6YH; Chair: Ken Macdonald
QC; Patrons: Alan Bennett, Julie Christie, Martha Lane Fox, Gordon
Roddick, Richard Rogers, Ruth Rogers, Jon Snow, Marina Warner, Vivienne
Westwood <br><br>
<br>
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