US trying to stifle case that cites Shannon Ireland involvement rendition

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Sunday October 21, 2007 02:23

by anon

IAA and Gov rubberstamping kidnap and torture. US stfile case

ACLU V Jeppesen

In July 2002, Ethiopian citizen Binyam Mohamed, while in CIA custody, was stripped, blindfolded, shackled, dressed in a tracksuit, strapped to the seat of a plane and flown to Morocco where he was secretly detained for 18 months and interrogated and tortured by Moroccan intelligence services.

238. Flight records from July 2002 confirm that the Gulfstream V jet aircraft
owned and operated by Premier Executive Transportation Services (“PETS”) and Aero
Contractors Limited (“ACL”) departed Islamabad, Pakistan on July 21, 2002 at 5:35 p.m.
and arrived in Rabat, Morocco, the next morning, July 22, 2002 at 3:42 a.m. before
departing Rabat an hour later, at 4:44 a.m., for Shannon, Ireland, arriving there at 7:21
a.m. Then departing on 23rd to Dulles Washington and then on to Johnston County NC.

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/29920prs20070530.html

The U.S. government asked a federal court late on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit against a unit of Boeing Co that charges the firm helped fly suspects abroad to secret prisons."Allowing plaintiffs' claims to proceed would risk the disclosure of highly classified information concerning the alleged 'intelligence activities, sources, and methods' of the CIA," said the filing, signed by Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bucholtz.

The American Civil Liberties Union first filed a complaint in May accusing Jeppesen Dataplan Inc of providing flight and logistical support to at least 15 aircraft on 70 "extraordinary-rendition" flights.The complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleged Jeppesen "falsified flight plans to European air traffic control authorities to avoid public scrutiny of CIA flights."

The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of five men who say the CIA had them flown to foreign prisons for interrogations and torture.

http://www.myantiwar.org/view/133105.html

http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/mohamed_v_jeppesen_1s...t.pdf

On information and belief, in advance of the departure of both aircraft,
Jeppesen was responsible for, inter alia, itinerary, route, and fuel planning for the flights
from (i) Washington, D.C. to Ireland; Ireland to Cyprus; Cyprus to Morocco; Morocco to
Kabul; Kabul to Algiers; and Algiers to Spain; (iii) Pakistan to Morocco; Morocco to Ireland;