Above is N168D, a turboprop C-135 operated by Aero Contractors. It has a
long record of involvement in "extraordinary rendition" -- or
kidnapping foreigners to be tortured by other countries or in secret
offshore prisons -- as documented by investigators for
the European
Union and
other human rights groups. It was seen and photographed by the Aero
hangars in mid-July 2007. Its legal "owner" is Devon Holding & Leasing of
Lexington NC, a CIA shell company.There are numerous other torture-linked operations in North Carolina. A map of the sites that have been identified as of summer 2007 is here.
This Gulfstream jet N478GS was photographed when it
landed at the Fayetteville NC airport in late November 2007. It is operated by
Centurion Aviation Services, which has also been identified as a CIA front
company by the same investigations cited in relation to N168D.
A fascinating and chilling account of one of its clandestine flights
from Afghanistan to a crash-landing in Romania, where the CIA maintained a secret prison, was
published in the Chicago Tribune.
For two more recent news articles about Centurion,
click here.
For more information on the broader background of these torture flights, go to the NC Stop Torture Now site. Then google these items: "Professor Alfred McCoy," "Ghost Plane", "Jane Mayer" ; or go to www.sourcewatch.org and type "rendition" in the search box; or read this report from the Center for Human rights & Global Justice at New York University Law School. Then follow some of the many links there. And prepare to be shocked.