Nov 16, 2006 9:21 pm US/Pacific
http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_321002154.html
SJ Company Said To Plan Alleged CIA Terror Flights
(CBS 5) SAN JOSE You've heard about Abu Ghraib prison,
Guantanamo Bay, and a host of other places where torture is
alleged to have happened. But you've probably never heard
that a company in downtown San Jose is said to have helped
the Central Intelligence Agency get prisoners to the alleged
torture sites.
The 16th floor of a gleaming tower on West Santa Clara
Street is home to the Jeppesen corporation's International
Trip and Flight Planning office.
But Charlotte Casey of South Bay Mobilization says they
should be called the travel agents of terror.
"I really felt ill, sick to my stomach, that this was
happening in San Jose," Casey said.
Casey is responding to an investigation by The New Yorker
magazine that said Jeppesen regularly arranges what they
call "spook flights" for the CIA.
Aboard Boeing 737 business jets were shackled and hooded
passengers accused of terrorism, The New Yorker reported in
its Oct. 30 issue. They were sometimes stripped nude and
chained to the cabin floor, the magazine said.
Casey said the CIA calls it "extraordinary rendition."
"They are basically kidnapped and taken to a third country
where they can be tortured," Casey said.
The Englewood, Colo.-based company has offices located
around the world and is a business subsidiary of Boeing,
according to the Jeppesen Web site.
Boeing allegedly provides the jets. Jeppesen reportedly
provides the logistics, flight plans, and even clearances
into places like Baghdad and Kabul where the passengers are
turned over as prisoners.
"The investigative analysis has shown that there have been
over 150 of these kinds of flights in the last few years,"
Casey said.
In fact, a former Jeppesen employee reportedly told The New
Yorker the company's managing director, Bob Overby, admitted
to the practice, saying, "We do all the extraordinary
rendition flights -- you know, the torture flights. Let's
face it, some of these flights end up that way."
In return, American flight crews get kickbacks, resort
vacations off the coast of Spain, using tax dollars, The New
Yorker uncovered.
"The fact that these horrors are being carried out in our
name, with our tax dollars, is completely unacceptable,"
Casey said.
Jeppesen would not comment Thursday.
The CIA also declined to comment.
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