The newspaper
said on Monday that th
e Gulfstream V turbojet has been seen at US military bases
around the world, often loading up hooded and shackled suspects and
delivering them to countries known to use torture
.
The daily investigated the ownership of the jet,
tail number N379P,
which has been
spotted in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya,
Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan,
according to the newspaper.
The officers of the plane's corporate owner, Premier Executive
Transport Services, are all listed with dates of birth in the 1940s,
1950s and 1960s, but with social security numbers issued since 1998.
However, the newspaper was unable to locate any further business or credit information on them or on the company.
The CIA refused to comment, but such "proprietary" or front
corporations are standard procedure for the agency, former
operatives told The Washington Post.
Worrying
The "rendering" of suspects to countries that employ
interrogation techniques banned in the US is worrying
and could violate the UN Convention on Torture, World Organisation
for Human Rights USA executive director Morton Sklar said
.
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|
Rights groups say Guantanamo
Bay is a concentration camp |
The article confirmed much of a 14 November article
published in the British weekly newspaper The Sunday Times which obtained flight
plans for the plane, which, it said, always departed from
Washington and had visited the US navy base at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, where about 550 suspects are held.
Swedish television programme Cold Facts reported that in
December 2001, the jet took hooded prisoners to Egypt,
according to The Washington Post, which confirmed the Swedish report
independently.
The paper said the plane, with hooded crew members speaking with
US accents, loaded two Egyptian nationals and took off at 4.30am
for Cairo.
It said airport officials and amateur plane spotters, some using
binoculars, had logged multiple sightings of N379P at several US
military airports and fuelling stations.