Torture Liability for Rendition Aircraft Company

[kpete]

http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/mohamed_v_jeppesen_1stamendedcomplaint.pdf


by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 07:08:36 PM PST

On Monday, the Obama administration may answer some lingering questions about the parameters of our torture policies now that Bush is history. Oral argument is scheduled to address whether Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan can face trial on civil liability for torture based on its role in extraordinary rendition flights (pdf file). Five men claiming that they were tortured by the US alleged that Jeppesen transported the rendered prisoners to countries known for torture or to CIA black site prisons. A federal district court dismissed the lawsuit when Bush invoked the state secrets privilege. The issue is now on appeal before the 9th Circuit. This is not an either/or issue: The courts have authority to protect our national security, promote governmental transparency and redress harms to torture victims.

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/8/144032/8780/751/694895

[ddeclue]

1. Did Jeppeson specifically provide cartographic information

to the gov't that was only useful for flying prisoners to torture sites with knowledge of the intended purpose?

OR

Did they simply sell some charter company a generic navigation system database?

I truly doubt that Jeppeson knowingly did anything wrong here.

I could see going after the charter company however if they knew what the flights were about (which seems like it would be impossible not to know).

Jeppeson makes charts and maps not thumbscrews.

:crazy:

[gratuitous]

2. It appears that Jeppeson does a little more than make maps

According to the article, the allegation against them is that "Jeppesen transported the rendered prisoners to countries known for torture or to CIA black site prisons."

[ddeclue]

3. Jeppesen is NOT in the charter airline business that I've ever heard about.

Just because it is in print doesn't make it true.

Jeppesen sells maps and map databases. They don't fly charters.

The kind of charter people who do this kind of stuff fly old Convair 880's, Boeing 707's and 727's and DC8's, 9's and 10's with the windows painted over and no markings other than the tiniest N number on the tail they can get away with - try airports like Opa Locka in South Florida for instance.

Doug D.
Private Pilot, Aerospace Engineer

[Cerridwen]

4. From the filing...

16. In providing its services to the CIA, Jeppesen knew or reasonably should
have known that Plaintiffs would be subjected to forced disappearance, detention, and
torture in countries where such practices are routine. Indeed, according to published
reports, Jeppesen had actual knowledge of the consequences of its activities. A former
Jeppesen employee informed The New Yorker magazine that at an internal company
meeting, a senior Jeppesen official stated: “We do all of the extraordinary rendition
flights – you know, the torture flights. Let’s face it, some of these flights end up that
way.” Jane Mayer, Outsourced: The C.I.A.’s Travel Agent, The New Yorker, Oct. 30,
2006.
17. Further evidence of Jeppesen’s knowledge of the objectives of the rendition
program was recently highlighted in a report by Dick Marty, Rapporteur to the
Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe. Dick Marty, Secret Detentions and Illegal Transfers of Detainees
Involving Council of Europe Member States: Second Report 3 (Jun. 7, 2007), available
at http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2007/EMarty_20070608_NoEmbargo.pdf
. The Report states that Jeppesen falsified flight plans
submitted to European air traffic control authorities to avoid public scrutiny of CIA
flights. More specifically, according to the Report’s findings, Jeppesen intentionally
submitted “dummy flights” to various aviation authorities in order to conceal the true
flight paths of the rendition planes. (emphasis added)

There's much more in the document. I found this starting about page 6 or 7 of 74 pages.

[gratuitous]

5. I suggest you read the account

According to the evidence:

A former Jeppesen employee quit after learning first hand that he worked in the outsourcing torture business. During an internal corporate meeting, Bob Overby, a managing director, stated:

"We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights—you know, the torture flights. Let’s face it, some of these flights end up that way."

The Jeppsen employee was informed that two of its trip planners worked on the rendition flights, or, as another employee stated, "We do the spook flights."

A quick Google search shows that Jeppesen does indeed employ one Bob Overby. I don't know necessarily what Overby is talking about when he brags that Jeppesen does the extraordinary rendition flights, but it certainly appears that they knew what the flights were for, provided planning and logistics for those flights, and made arrangements for those flights to come down where they knew that some of the transportees were going to be tortured.

Sounds complicit to me.

[ddeclue]

7. Most likely they would have provided the PLANNING as in flight planning

but I doubt they actually owned the airplanes and employed the pilots directly.

I could see where they might have provided some kind of flight planning services either to the gov't or to a charter airline. I really doubt they are in the plane driving business though.

I would need to hear a lot more before I would be willing to be convinced that Jeppeson was actually complicit or knew the nature of the flights - merely because somebody posts something on the internet doesn't make it true.

Doug D.

[Cerridwen]

8. Ya mean like that goofy guy over at

Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe, Dick Marty?

185. The aviation services provider customarily used by the CIA,157 Jeppesen International Trip
Planning,158 filed multiple “dummy” flight plans for many of these flights. The “dummy” plans filed by
Jeppesen – specifically, for the N379P aircraft – often featured an airport of departure (ADEP) and / or
an airport of destination (ADES) that the aircraft never actually intended to visit. If Poland was
mentioned at all in these plans, it was usually only by mention of Warsaw as an alternate, or back-up
airport, on a route involving Prague or Budapest, for example. Thus the eventual flight paths for
N379P registered in Eurocontrol’s records were inaccurate and often incoherent, bearing little relation
to the actual routes flown and almost never mentioning the name of the Polish airport where the
aircraft actually landed – Szymany.
153

<snip>

187. Moreover, in certain instances PANSA took on the responsibility of filing the onward flight
plan for the next leg of the circuit after Szymany. We know that PANSA filed such flight plans in
instances where Szymany had been omitted completely from the original Jeppesen flight plans, and
where the aircraft was required to fly onwards from Szymany to a destination outside Poland. Similarly
in at least one instance where the aircraft flew onwards from Szymany to Warsaw – and thus did not
require initially to leave Polish airspace – PANSA simply navigated the onward flight without a flight
plan. (emphasis added)

[ddeclue]

9. Easy enough to look up the N number - it was NOT owned by Jeppesen:

Like I said, the owner is some relatively anonymous Florida company - and it looks like if Jeppeson has done something it's far less than it's being made out to be. It's not that Jeppesen owned the planes or flew in thumb-screws and testicle electrodes - they possibly filed false flight plans for a charter company - and we don't really know what they knew about the real purposes of these flights based on what you've put forth so far.

As far as it goes, what you have put forth thus far are apparently allegations by the plantiff not findings of fact by a court of law.

Here's the FAA registration info.

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=379P&cmndfind.x=6&cmndfind.y=15

FAA Registry
N-Number Inquiry Results
N379P is Assigned

Aircraft Description

Serial Number 4636379 Type Registration Corporation
Manufacturer Name NEW PIPER Certificate Issue Date 10/17/2008
Model PA46-350P Status Valid
Type Aircraft Fixed Wing Single-Engine Type Engine Reciprocating
Pending Number Change None Dealer No
Date Change Authorized None Mode S Code 51053177
MFR Year 2006 Fractional Owner NO



Registered Owner

Name SAPPHIRE VALLEY INVESTMENTS LLC
Street 1870 CUTLASS COVE DR
City VERO BEACH State FLORIDA Zip Code 32963-2818
County INDIAN RIVER
Country UNITED STATES

On edit:

Saphire Valley Investments is NOT a Florida Corporation according to SunBiz.org but here is what I've found at Manta.com -it's probably just some shell company owned by another shell company owned by THE company if you get my drift...

http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_5hkfv

Sapphire Valley Investments, Llc

1870 Cutlass Cove Dr, Vero Beach, FL 32963-2818

Contact Phone: [phone]
URL (web address):
Business Category: Investor in Vero Beach, FL
Industry (SIC): Investors, NEC
Business Information

This company profile is for the private company Sapphire Valley Investments, Llc , located in Vero Beach, FL. Sapphire Valley Investments, Llc's line of business is investor.
Company Name: Sapphire Valley Investments, Llc
Is This Your Company?
Address: 1870 Cutlass Cove Dr, Vero Beach, FL 32963-2818 (Map)
Alt Business Name:
Location Type: Single Location
Est. Annual Sales: $190,000
Est. # of Employees: 2
Est. Empl. at Loc.: 2
Year Started: 2008
State of Incorp:
SIC #Code: 6799
Contact's Name: Michael R Grilli
Contact's Title: Principal
NAICS: Miscellaneous Intermediation
Data above provided by D&B.

Click on the reports tab at the top of the page to research company background, detailed company profile, credit and financial reports for Sapphire Valley Investments, Llc.

[Cerridwen]

15. And IBM didn't provide the gas.

But they provided the tools to make it easier to track the people gassed.

Jeppson isn't being charged with "providing the gas" (in this case planes) they're being charged with making it easier to move the people to the places they aren't supposed to be moved to; and were well aware of what they were doing and that what they were doing was aiding and abetting criminal activities.

Note: I only use the IBM/gas scenario because I believe it's "well known" enough to explain my point.

[PSPS]

10. The New Yorker wrote an article about this in 2006

You can find it here: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/30/061030ta_talk_mayer

[ddeclue]

12. So the New Yorker puts Jeppesen's culpability somewhere in the middle

between innocent dupes and actually operating Club Torture Airlines.

Some people there probably knew some aspects of what they were doing but they weren't strapping on the electrodes to people's nuts personally. I would be more inclined to blame the actual charter operators and the CIA itself.

I find the New Yorker story to be more reasonable than the OP based on what I know about this.

Doug D.

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

[bobthedrummer]

11. K&R, thanks kpete for posting this!

:hi:

[peacetalksforall]

13. C'mon. Bush said We Don't Torture. Perhaps those carried also stayed two

nights at Majorca (or was it Mallorca) with the pilots and the CIA guys - a little music, dance and drink, tapas, wine with dinner, early to bed, a few swims and laying around reading the newspapers to each other while learning some new Spanish words.

What was it - 4.3 trillion missing from the DOD? Or just lost?

Did anyone ever ask Cheney, Bush, or Rice what they meant by We Don't Torture in the legal sense? Oh that's right - they didn't die as a result of the torture. But, aren't they now saying that there were plenty of deaths?

Slow, steady. Get them.

How many families might have been rescued with all that money? They spread it around for their friends. Contracts without morals.

JUST FOR FUN - do you think any of the people involved in rendition are going to lose their house?

How did this country get taken like this? The power of false patriotism.

New heros tonight - the guy who quit and the ACLU.

[Senator]

14. K&R

[omega minimo]

16. ,