How US firms profited from torture flights ("war on terror" became just another charter opportunity

[kpete]

Source: Guardian UK

How US firms profited from torture flights
Court documents illustrate how US contracted out secret rendition transportation to a network of private companies


The scale of the CIA's rendition programme has been laid bare in court documents that illustrate in minute detail how the US contracted out the secret transportation of suspects to a network of private American companies.

The manner in which American firms flew terrorism suspects to locations around the world, where they were often tortured, has emerged after one of the companies sued another in a dispute over fees. As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the mass of invoices, receipts, contracts and email correspondence – submitted as evidence to a court in upstate New York – provides a unique glimpse into a world in which the "war on terror" became just another charter opportunity for American businesses.

As a result of the case, the identities of some of the corporations involved in the rendition programme have been disclosed for the first time, along with the names of some of the executives who knew the purpose of the flights.

One unintended consequence may be that some of those corporations and individuals are now at risk of being sued in proceedings brought on behalf of the al-Qaida and Taliban suspects who were the victims of the programme.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/31/us-firms-torture-flights-rendition

[No Elephants]

1. ProfitED? When and why did airlines stop making a profit on rendition?

It continues. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/us/politics/25rendition.html

[subsuelo]

2. Court case lifts lid on secret post 9/11 flights

Source: MSNBC (A/P)

Gov. used private contractors for 'extraordinary rendition' of terrorist suspects

WASHINGTON — A hidden network of U.S. companies, coordinated by a prominent defense contractor, played a key role in the covert airlift that transported terrorism suspects and their American minders, according to newly disclosed documents in a New York business dispute between two aviation companies.

The court files of more than 1,700 pages shed new light on the U.S. government's reliance on private contractors for flights between Washington, foreign capitals, the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and, at times, landing points near once-secret, CIA-run overseas prisons. The companies included DynCorp, a leading government contractor that secretly oversaw a fleet of luxury jets, and caterers that unwittingly stocked the planes with fruit platters and bottles of wine for the transoceanic routes, according to the court files and testimony.

The business dispute stems from an obscure four-year fight between a New York-based charter company, Richmor Aviation Inc., which supplied corporate jets and crews to the government, and a private aviation broker, SportsFlight Air, which organized flights for DynCorp. Both sides cited the government's program of forced transport of detainees, or "extraordinary rendition," in testimony, evidence and legal arguments. The companies are fighting over $874,000 awarded to Richmor by a New York state appeals court to cover unpaid costs for the secret flights.

Trial testimony studiously avoided references to the Central Intelligence Agency. When lawyers pressed a witness about flying terrorists from Washington or Europe to Guantanamo Bay, Columbia County, N.Y., Supreme Court Judge Paul Czajka put on the brakes: "Does this have anything to do with the contract? I mean, it's all very interesting, and I would love to hear about it, but does it have anything to do with how much money is owed?" At another point, the name of a high-level CIA official was mentioned, but the official's intelligence ties were not divulged.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44347477/ns/us_news-security/

[arcane1]

3. A term like "CIA-run overseas prisons" should make EVERY American's blood boil

and has no place in a so-called democracy.

[monmouth]

4. Especially if the bin laden family members were onboard one of those flights..n/t

[SpiralHawk]

5. "Smirk." - xCommander George AWOL bin Laden Bush (R)

[TheMadMonk]

12. No, they were on earlier flights in the 2-3 days post 9/11.

THESE flights are the ones over the ensuing decade where relatively ordinary people, stripped of their humanity by a stroke of the President's pen were taken to tortured, maimed and sometimes killed in the name of national securtity.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Where do I start?

It only comes to light because 2 private corporations are fighting about money.
Renditions pop up in the court testimony but the Judge clamps a lid on the topic.

And how much of the paltry 900 million are going to pay the lawyers that brought the case all the way to the NY Supreme Court level?

[dipsydoodle]

7. How US firms profited from torture flights

The scale of the CIA's rendition programme has been laid bare in court documents that illustrate in minute detail how the US contracted out the secret transportation of suspects to a network of private American companies.

The manner in which American firms flew terrorism suspects to locations around the world, where they were often tortured, has emerged after one of the companies sued another in a dispute over fees. As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the mass of invoices, receipts, contracts and email correspondence – submitted as evidence to a court in upstate New York – provides a unique glimpse into a world in which the "war on terror" became just another charter opportunity for American businesses.

As a result of the case, the identities of some of the corporations involved in the rendition programme have been disclosed for the first time, along with the names of some of the executives who knew the purpose of the flights.

One unintended consequence may be that some of those corporations and individuals are now at risk of being sued in proceedings brought on behalf of the al-Qaida and Taliban suspects who were the victims of the programme.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/31/us-firms-torture-flights-rendition

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R

[democrank]

Extraordinary rendition.....

as American as apple pie.

[No Elephants]

10. For Clinton, Bush and Obama, anyway--that we know of.

[PuffedMica]

11. Anonymous has a few more corporations that need their emails looked into.

[Demeter]

13. 9/11 The Gift that Keeps On Giving

[Gin Blossom]

14. But but... these corporations were job creators!

Imagine what they could do with some tax relief!

God, I hope they get sued.

[subsuelo]

9. Court case lifts lid on secret post 9/11 flights

This thread has been combined with another thread.

Click here to read this message in its new location.

[dipsydoodle]

15. BBC link now updated with more info

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14745941

[indepat]

16. God, how I love it so what our government does in our name

:patriot:

[Hissyspit]

17. N.Y. Billing Dispute Reveals Details of Secret CIA Rendition Flights

Source: Washington Post

N.Y. billing dispute reveals details of secret CIA rendition flights

By Peter Finn and Julie Tate, Published: August 31

On Aug. 12, 2003, a Gulfstream IV aircraft carrying six passengers took off from Dulles International Airport and flew to Bangkok with fueling stops in Cold Bay, Alaska, and Osaka, Japan.

Before it returned four days later, the plane also touched down in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates and Ireland. As these unusual flights happened, U.S. officials took custody of an Indonesian terrorist, Riduan Isamuddin, who had been captured in Thailand and would spend the next three years being shuttled among secret prisons operated by the CIA.

- snip -

The August 2003 flights — and dozens of others to locations such as Bucharest, Romania; Baku, Azerbaijan; Cairo; Djibouti; Islamabad, Pakistan; and Tripoli, Libya — were organized by Sportsflight, a one-man aircraft brokerage business on Long Island. It secured a plane from Richmor Aviation, based near the Columbia County Airport in Hudson, N.Y. Richmor eventually sued Sportsflight for breach of contract. In the process, the costs and itineraries of numerous CIA flights became part of the court record.

In other cases, the government has invoked the “state secrets” privilege to shut down litigation over the CIA program, but the case in Columbia County proceeded uninterrupted in an almost empty courtroom. There were only two witnesses at the bench trial: Richmor President Mahlon Richards and Sportsflight owner Donald Moss.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ny-billing-dispute-reveals-details-of-secret-cia-rendition-flights/2011/08/30/gIQAbggXsJ_story.html

[Hell Hath No Fury]

18. Hey, Obama --

want my vote in 2012? Open a serious investigation into war crimes and the contracting fraud.

[valerief]

19. There is no contracting fraud in war. War is all about illegal/immoral contracts. It's a racket. nt

[No Elephants]

24. Why not add a demand that he end the practice of rendition?

[EFerrari]

20. Kick

[Judi Lynn]

21. Documents Reveal Secrets of CIA Rendition Program

Source: PBS

Documents Reveal Secrets of CIA Rendition Program
September 1, 2011, 4:00 pm ET by Azmat Z. Khan

A billing dispute between contractors in an upstate New York courthouse has revealed documents detailing sensitive information about the CIA’s controversial rendition program.

The CIA program — in which the agency captures and flies terror suspects for interrogation at covert prison sites in countries like Egypt, Syria and Morocco — has long been shrouded in secrecy.

But now documents from a trial in Columbia County provide rare details about the costs — tens of millions of dollars — and operations of the program, including sensitive material like the plane’s logs of air-to-ground phone calls. In one instance, the rendition of a terror suspect cost almost $340,000.

The records offer a new trail for the movements of prominent terror suspects “who vanished into the CIA ‘black site’ prisons.” They also reveal the extent to which private companies — like the contractor DynCorp — have been involved in the program.

Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/iraq-war-on-terror/documents-reveal-secrets-of-cia-rendition-program/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FrontlineEditorsNotes+%28FRONTLINE+-+Latest+Stories%29

[sabrina 1]

22. Torture Inc. And we wonder why they won't end it.

It is big business. And it shows the depths to which the world has sunk that those who make the most money in today's world, make it from crimes against humanity.

So, hundreds of thousands of dollars to 'rendition' one suspect, but no money for the sick and the elderly and disabled. They have to 'share the sacrifice', whatever that is supposed to mean.

All the while this was going on, the US Government was partners with Dictators like Mubarak who was providing the service of torture to them. He is not the only one who should be on trial.

[Supersedeas]

23. a legacy of torture and black site prisons--maybe Eric Holder was right

We are a Nation of Cowards.

[defendandprotect]

25. kr