Britain accused over CIA's secret torture flights

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UK airports are believed to be operational bases for two executive jets used by the CIA to carry out 'renditions' of terror suspects.

Report by Stephen Grey and Andrew Buncombe

10 February 2005

<snip> Britain is also an operational base for two executive jets regularly used by the CIA to carry out so-called "renditions". One Gulfstream jet - used for taking prisoners to Egypt and Jordan from countries including Sweden and Indonesia - has called regularly at Luton, Glasgow, Prestwick and Northolt airports.

A Boeing 737 jet, used for the transfer of prisoners, passed through Glasgow airport on Monday morning on its way to Iraq. Both jets are white and unmarked, apart from their US civilian registration. Inquiries suggest they are owned by US companies that exist only on paper and which are almost certainly a front for the CIA. <snip>

But the planes used by the CIA have left a trail. The Gulfstream, then registered as N379P, was first spotted landing at Shannon airport, Ireland, in spring 2003. Its registration number, since changed, was logged by members of a peace camp. They only learnt that it was the rendition plane when they were later contacted by Swedish journalists investigating the torture of the two Egyptians. "It just looked like a civilian plane," said Edward Horgan, 59, from Limerick, one of the witnesses to its landing.

American journalists have revealed the plane is formally owned by Bayard Foreign Marketing, which lists its headquarters as the address of a lawyer in Portland, Oregon. There is no evidence that Thomas Bayard, whose signature appears on documents filed with the local authorities, is a real person. When The Independent called the firm, there was nobody there, just an answering machine. <snip>

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=609538

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Render Chambers?

To reduce, convert, or melt down (fat) by heating.