- SAN DIEGO - A branch of the
U.S. Navy secretly contracted a 33-plane fleet that included two Gulfstream
jets reportedly used to fly terror suspects to countries known to practice
torture, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
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- At least 10 U.S. aviation companies were issued classified
contracts in 2001 and 2002 by the obscure Navy Engineering Logistics Office
for the "occasional airlift of USN (Navy) cargo worldwide," according
to Defense Department documents the AP obtained through a Freedom of Information
Act request.
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- Two of the companies - Richmor Aviation Inc. and Premier
Executive Transport Services Inc. - chartered luxury Gulfstreams that flew
terror suspects captured in Europe to Egypt, according to U.S. and European
media reports. Once there, the men told family members, they were tortured.
Authorities in Italy and Sweden have expressed outrage over flights they
say were illegal and orchestrated by the U.S. government.
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- While the Gulfstreams came under scrutiny in 2001, what
hasn't been disclosed is the Navy's role in contracting planes involved
in operations the CIA terms "rendition" and what Italian prosecutors
call kidnapping.
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- "A lot of us have been focusing on the role of the
CIA but also suspecting that certain parts of the armed forces are involved,"
said Margaret Satterthwaite, a New York University School of Law researcher
who has investigated renditions.
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- The Navy contracts involve more planes than previously
reported " other news outlets totaled 26 planes; the AP identified
33 planes.
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- Italian judges have issued arrest warrants for 19 purported
CIA operatives who allegedly snatched a Muslim cleric from Milan in 2003
and flew him to Cairo, according to FAA records cited by the Chicago Tribune,
aboard Richmor's Gulfstream IV. The jet belongs to a part-owner of the
Boston Red Sox, who told The Boston Globe that the team's logo was covered
when the CIA leased the plane. Another case involves two men taken from
Sweden to Egypt in 2001 aboard Premier's Gulfstream V.
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- Neither the CIA nor a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon
would comment for this story. Officials at the Navy Engineering Logistics
Office, or NELO, in Arlington, Va., didn't respond to messages requesting
comment.
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- Joseph P. Duenas, counsel for the logistics office, declined
to provide the contracts, saying they "involve national security information
that is classified."
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- The secrecy surrounding the deals makes it unclear why
NELO issued them, but one reason may be the office's anonymity " the
agency is so buried within the Pentagon bureaucracy that some career Navy
officials have never heard of it.
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- John Hutson, a retired rear admiral who was the Navy's
Judge Advocate General from 1997 to 2000 and is critical of the Bush administration's
detainee policies, said he was not familiar with NELO. Told of its activities,
Hutson said NELO employees could be held liable if they knew the planes
would be used for renditions. Human rights lawyers allege rendition flights
violate criminal law.
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- The office has been around since the mid-1970s, according
to a former employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because NELO's
activities are secret. NELO operates under different names: it's also known
as the Navy's Office of Special Projects and its San Diego location is
called the Navy Regional Plant Equipment Office.
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- None of those names is listed in the U.S. Government
Manual, the official compilation of federal departments, agencies and offices.
A man who answered the phone at NELO's Arlington office refused to give
his name or the agency's address, suggesting it may be classified.
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- In court documents filed in the case of a fired Office
of Special Projects whistleblower, government attorneys described the agency's
principal function as "the conduct of foreign intelligence or counterintelligence
activities."
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- The AP learned of the airplane contracts through a Freedom
of Information Act request that focused on a different subject " permits
granted to all 10 aviation companies that let them land at any Navy base
worldwide.
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- The permits list planes operated by the companies and
a contract number issued by NELO. The numbers provide some details about
the contracts, including when they were issued, but do not say when they
expire. In the documents the AP reviewed, contracts were issued in 2001
and 2002 and were cited on landing permits issued in 2004. The NELO contract
numbers also appear on permits issued in 2003 and 2004 that allowed seven
of the companies to buy fuel at military bases worldwide.
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- The permits list 31 planes under NELO contract other
than the two Gulfstreams. They include a small Cessna; three huge Lockheed
Hercules cargo planes; a Gulfstream 1159a; a Lear Jet 35A; a DC-3; two
Boeing 737s; and a 53-passenger DeHavilland DH-8 photographed by plane
spotters in Afghanistan.
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- Ownership of the planes is shielded behind a maze of
paperwork and elusive executives.
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- James J. Kershaw is listed as president of three of the
companies, located in Massachusetts, Tennessee and North Carolina. Two
other companies share the same vice president, Colleen Bornt. Extensive
public record searches could not locate either of them.
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- Record searches also failed to turn up information on
Leonard T. Bayard, whose firm bought Premier Executive Transport Services'
Gulfstream. The address of Bayard's firm is the Portland, Ore., office
of attorney Scott Caplan.
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- Asked if his client is a real person, Caplan replied:
"No comment."
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- ___
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- Associated Press writer Rukmini Callimachi in Portland,
Ore., contributed to this story.
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