Report: Navy flew terror suspects to foreign torture sites

By Seth Hettena
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO — A branch of the 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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

The Navy contracts involve more planes than previously reported — other news outlets totaled 26 planes; the AP identified 33 planes.

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.

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.

Joseph P. Duenas, counsel for the logistics office, declined to provide the contracts, saying they “involve national security information that is classified.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Associated Press writer Rukmini Callimachi in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this story.

Ownership of the planes is shielded behind a maze of paperwork and elusive executives.

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.

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, Oregon, office of attorney Scott Caplan.

Asked if his client is a real person, Caplan replied: “No comment.”

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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.

Here's an example of having too many cops on the street.
A reverse sting prostitution runs into an alleged sting "practice" solicitation. Give me a fucking break! Get a job you guys!

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Two Clay Detectives Suspended After 'Practice' Solicitation


Story by News4Jax

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Two Clay County sheriff's officers are on administrative leave as the result of an incident Friday at a Jacksonville motel.

A Clay County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said the two undercover officers were on duty at the time and allegedly propositioned an undercover Jacksonville Sheriff's Office deputy posing as a prostitute at a Westside motel. When the plainclothes Clay officers indicated that they wanted sex, Jacksonville deputies detained them.

The officers claimed that they were practicing for their own undercover vice operations and the proposition was not real.

"There was absolutely no special treatment," Assistant State Attorney Jay Plotkin said. "This is not any different from any other case where facts come in and there are unanswered questions."

Plotkin said there wasn't enough information Friday afternoon to arrest the Clay County deputies.

"There are concerns that have been brought to our attention as to whether there has been criminal intent in this case or not." According to the police report, the decoy "acknowledged verbally that (the Clay County sergeant) wanted to have oral sex" and that the detective who was with him nodded his head in agreement.

The Clay County Sheriff' s Office said that the sergeant and detective work in the same unit investigating narcotics and prostitution cases and that both of the deputies have clean service records with the department.

If the Clay County officers were working undercover, they were doing so outside of their jurisdiction, but not by much more than a block. The motel where they were stopped is close to the Duval-Clay county line.

The two unnamed officers were not arrested or cited, but an internal investigation is under way. The incident, which was audio taped, will also be reviewed by the state attorney's office.

Former White House Official Arrested
By VOA News



Federal investigators have arrested a former top procurement official in the Bush administration on charges of making false statements and obstructing an investigation.

David Safavian was arrested Monday, after resigning as head of the White House's procurement policy office on Friday.

Federal prosecutors charge that in his previous position, as chief of staff of the General Services Administration, Mr. Safavian concealed his efforts to help lobbyist Jack Abramoff buy real estate from the government.

Prosecutors also said Mr. Safavian denied Mr. Abramoff had any interest in doing business with the government, while seeking clearance to accompany Mr. Abramoff to Scotland for a golfing trip.

Mr. Abramoff is the subject of several investigations probing alleged fraud of Indian tribes who are his clients. Congressional Democrats have raised questions about Mr. Abramoff's ties to House Majority leader Tom Delay (R-Texas).

Why This Soldier Can't Support This War
by Justin Gordon

I was a captain with the 2nd Battalion 4th Field Artillery during the invasion of Iraq. My active duty commitment to the military ended in May 2004. In January 2003, I requested a transfer to this battalion to fill an officer vacancy because it was the first battalion from Fort Sill to mobilize during the pre-invasion build up. I, like the rest of us, still felt the deep emotions that followed 9/11. I was told of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and links to al-Qaeda. I wanted to do my part to protect America.

From March 20 to May 12, 2003, the 4th Field Artillery moved from Kuwait, through the Karbala gap, into Baghdad before the city capitulated, to Tikrit, and finally back to Kuwait. Along the way, I saw firsthand what death and destruction look like. I learned what it feels like to realize that your life may end in a few minutes, but my personal experiences back then pale in comparison to the violence that is currently happening in Iraq every single day.

This is not why I oppose the war. I would do it again if my actions were protecting American citizens, but this is not what we are doing in Iraq.

The justification for Iraq frequently changes, and since the weapons of mass destruction theory has been debunked, I have not heard a worthwhile nor just reason for staying the course.

Prior to the invasion of Iraq, the administration told us that war was an absolute last resort, and then it did everything it could to fix intelligence and convince America and the rest of the world that our only course of action was to invade.

After it was proven that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, our just cause magically changed. In his inaugural address on Jan. 21, 2005, President Bush stated that "the best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world." Expanding freedom at gunpoint has great costs and may not yield the results one would want. Spreading freedom has cost the lives of 1,900 Americans and thousands of Iraqi civilians. It has cost us our credibility as a leader of the free world. It has also cost us $250 billion so far. At the current rate of $6 billion a month, to stay the course for another five years would cost $11,000 per American household. Even if we ignore the costs of spreading freedom, the outcome is still problematic. Regarding the recent draft of the Iraqi constitution, there's a strong chance that we're going to spread sharia law and create an Islamic state that any ayatollah would be proud of, a state where women and non-Muslims have less freedom than they did under Saddam Hussein.

When spreading freedom didn't seem to be working out too well, President Bush on June 28, 2005, stated that "there is only one course of action against them [terrorists]: to defeat them abroad before they attack us at home." The fighting them over there so that we don't have to fight them over here rationalization is illogical and immoral for several reasons. It makes an assumption that there are a finite number of terrorists and that at some point we will have killed them all. This is not so. Our presence in Iraq creates terrorists and jihadists faster that we could hope to kill them. Many terrorists and foreign fighters have arrived in Iraq to gain real-life experience using American soldiers as targets. Two months ago, when terrorists detonated bombs in their transit system, the people of London realized that fighting them over there doesn't stop them from attacking your home. Are we any safer than the people of London? Are we any safer than we were four years ago? Recently, Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc comparable to a worst-case scenario for a terrorist attack. The only difference is that Katrina warned us days ahead of time, whereas a terrorist will not. The lack of leadership in evacuating, delivering aid, and stabilizing the region following this catastrophe underlines how we have made no progress in protecting American lives since 9/11.

Fighting them over there is immoral for two reasons. First, it means that we're fighting our war in someone else's home and they get to suffer for it. Second, it means that we're using our soldiers as bait.

This is not what I call supporting our troops. The military is not a sports team, and war is not a football game. It's very real. As a nation, we have to ask ourselves if what we're doing is right. Are we having a positive impact in Iraq? Is our presence there protecting American citizens? The answers are overwhelmingly no, and this is why I cannot support the war.

How New Orleans Was Lost
by Paul Craig Roberts

Chalk up the city of New Orleans as a cost of Bush's Iraq war.

There were not enough helicopters to repair the breached levees and rescue people trapped by rising water. Nor are there enough Louisiana National Guardsmen available to help with rescue efforts and to patrol against looting.

The situation is the same in Mississippi.

The National Guard and helicopters are off on a fool's mission in Iraq.

The National Guard is in Iraq because fanatical neoconservatives in the Bush administration were determined to invade the Middle East and because incompetent Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld refused to listen to the generals, who told him there were not enough regular troops available to do the job.

After the invasion, the arrogant Rumsfeld found out that the generals were right. The National Guard was called up to fill in the gaping gaps.

Now the Guardsmen, trapped in the Iraqi quagmire, are watching on TV the families they left behind trapped by rising waters and wondering if the floating bodies are family members. None know where their dislocated families are, but, shades of Fallujah, they do see their destroyed homes.

The mayor of New Orleans was counting on helicopters to put in place massive sandbags to repair the levee. However, someone called the few helicopters away to rescue people from rooftops. The rising water overwhelmed the massive pumping stations, and New Orleans disappeared under deep water.

What a terrible casualty of the Iraqi war – one of our oldest and most beautiful cities, a famous city, a historic city.

Distracted by its phony war on terrorism, the U.S. government had made no preparations in the event Hurricane Katrina brought catastrophe to New Orleans. No contingency plan existed. Only now after the disaster are FEMA and the Corps of Engineers trying to assemble the material and equipment to save New Orleans from the fate of Atlantis.

Even worse, articles in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and public statements by emergency management chiefs in New Orleans make it clear that the Bush administration slashed the funding for the Corps of Engineers' projects to strengthen and raise the New Orleans levees and diverted the money to the Iraq war.

Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune (June 8, 2004): "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Why can't the U.S. government focus on America's needs and leave other countries alone? Why are American troops in Iraq instead of protecting our own borders from a mass invasion by illegal immigrants? Why are American helicopters blowing up Iraqi homes instead of saving American homes in New Orleans?

How can the Bush administration be so incompetent as to expose Americans at home to dire risks by exhausting American resources in foolish foreign adventures? What kind of "homeland security" is this?

All Bush has achieved by invading Iraq is to kill and wound thousands of people while destroying America's reputation. The only beneficiaries are oil companies capitalizing on a good excuse to jack up the price of gasoline and Osama bin Laden's recruitment.

What we have is a Republican war for oil company profits while New Orleans sinks beneath the waters.

* * * * *

On the day Katrina devastated New Orleans, America lost its most optimistic pundit, Jude Wanniski, who died of a heart attack at age 69. Jude often misplaced his optimism, but he was never without it. Jude never gave up on anyone and would invest his persuasive talents on everyone who would listen and even on those who wouldn't. Jude was not an economist, but he understood long before most economists that fiscal policy changed incentives and affected aggregate supply in contrast to the Keynesian emphasis on aggregate demand. Jude rose to fame as the publicist for supply-side economics. As a journalist, he was a natural. Robert Bartley, the Wall Street Journal editorial page editor, once told me that Jude had the best nose for news of any journalist he had ever known. Those he favored with his missives will miss his insights.