US 'used front companies' to hide CIA flights

[UpInArms]

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=52&story_id=29054&name=US+%27used+front+companies%27+to+hide+CIA+flights

LONDON - Amnesty International appealed Wednesday to governments and firms that have tolerated secret US flights which transported terrorism suspects to other countries for interrogation to be more aware of their own responsibility.

The US Central Intelligence Service (CIA) used private aircraft operators and front companies to avoid declaring the so-called rendition flights to aviation authorities, the human-rights watchdog charged.

Governments shouldn't allow kidnappings on their territory and aircraft leasing firms should not allow their aircraft to be used for such purposes or else they are accomplices in severe breaches of human rights, Amnesty said.

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Amnesty said it had analysed the movements of planes directly linked to the CIA between 2001 and 2005, specifically aircraft that transported high-profile rendition detainees, such as Khaled al-Masri, Maher Arar and Abu Omar.

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"The latest evidence shows how the administration is manipulating commercial arrangements in order to be able to transfer people in violation of international law," said Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary general. "It demonstrates the length to which the US government will go to conceal these abductions."

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CIA made '185 rendition flights through Britain'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2119613,00.html

CIA aircraft used in secret flights to transport terrorist suspects around the world made nearly 200 calls at British airports over the past five years, according to a report released today.

The report called Below the Radar: secret flights to torture and “disappearance” by Amnesty International is the latest investigation into the Bush Administration’s controversial policy of “rendition”, whereby suspected terrorists are moved to detention centres around the world.

Amnesty tracked four unmarked CIA planes out of a fleet of 26 being used. They are said to have made 185 calls at British airports including Stansted, Gatwick, Luton, Glasgow International, Glasgow Prestwick and Edinburgh.

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