According to records of approximately 3,000 flights obtained by Amnesty International and the research group TransArms, planes owned or chartered by the CIA and linked to the renditions programme, made stop offs in the UAE. The first plane, a Boeing 737, made a total of 5 stops in the UAE: four in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. The plane was first registered by a company called Stevens Express Leasing (SEL), then by Premier Executive Transport Services (PETS) and finally in 2004 by Keeler & Tate Management (KTM).Dubai is not a democracy and does not treat prisoners softly, so why go elsewhere? When the Skyway drug-smuggling scandal came to light, I began to wonder if these "rendition" flights are only about kidnapping and torture. Maybe those planes hold other cargo. We've been hearing a lot about spooky airlines lately...
Amnesty says all three firms are front companies set up by the CIA.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
CIA fronts and "renditions" in Dubai
This story in the Khaleej Times, the leading English-language newspaper in Dubai, identifies front companies involved in CIA-sponsored "rendition" flights.
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4 comments:
joe, i think you're on to something here. when the whole dubai port ownership scare was flaring up, my biggest concern was the fact that dubai is internationally notorious for being a crossroads for drugs and arms, an all too familiar combo, eh? no doubt these cia thugs are getting maximum payback for their airline investments: prisoners over, drugs back. arms over, drugs back.
what a scam.
Back to the MZM biz, more wrinkles
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000666.php
'Anybody remember the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center? That's the operation MZM spent so much time and money trying to win a contract to run. Mitchell Wade bundled thousands of dollars in illegal contributions to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure MZM got the deal. (Wade is also the top briber of Duke Cunningham.)
Until recently, a fellow named Joe James was MZM's number-two in charge of the center, the Martinsville (Va.) Daily reports. He recently stepped down "voluntarily."
Now, the paper tells us that James' wife -- FEC records identify her as May James -- worked at the Pentagon office which oversaw MZM's contract.'
Etc, etc, bla bla, it's all so damn cozy
That suggests shades of the CIA proprietary airline Air America during the Vietnam conflict.
The precedent is certainly there, and no doubt a new batch of willing adventurers.
Wayne Madsen has also been disseminating a lot of detailed info about flights suspected of being CIA fronts for rendition. I am not sure if these reported flights are included on Madsen's list, but there are apparently a great, great many. His Wayne Madsen Report website has a record of the ones his informants have reported to him.
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