US-EU MEETING OF JANUARY 22, 2003, IN ATHENS

[Dec. 13, 2005] Human rights activists are up in arms about operations like the following. European governments cooperated, but now that the rights people have exposed the operations, European governments deny any knowledge of CIA flights and abductions (even though Dick Marty, the president of the EU's European Council, stated this week the illegal acts probably had occurred). Charges by an Italian prosecutor say that Robert Seldon Lady and 21 other American CIA agents and military members of a US "special removal team" kidnapped Muslim cleric Abu Omar off a street in Milan, Italy, and whisked him off to Egypt for questioning under torture in February 2003. Now they stand indicted, wanted, and subject to arrest in 160 nations. Lady claims, through Italian lawyer Daria Pesce, that the Italian government knew in advance of the operation, and I am sure this is right. The CIA had standing permission for this type of operation, the document shows, and Italy is one country where local intelligence and the CIA operate jointly in what is called a CTIC (Counter-Terrorist Intelligence Center).

Just the month before the Imam Rapito (cleric kidnapping) in Milan, representatives of the US Justice and State Departments met with officials of the European Union in Athens, Greece, on matters of "justice and home affairs." One of the action items resulting from this meeting read like this (see  https://dhs.riigikantselei.ee/ELdocs.nsf/e4053b6b4c0cc4d0c2256d12003fe6c4/6F8F7D053FEC3768C2256DD5005E1A92/$File/st05762.en03.pdf ) :

"Both sides [EU, US] agreed on the areas where cooperation could be improved i.a. [inter alia (Latin: among other things)], the exchange of data between border management services, *increased use of European transit facilities* to support the return of *criminal/inadmissible aliens*, co-ordination with regard to false documents training (US side will provide the EU with a paper suggesting modalities for the coordination of false documents training) and improving the *cooperation in removals*."

The CIA landings at European airports and airspace that are so much in the news? That's the above-mentioned "increased use of European transit facilities." Abu Omar? He was an Egyptian wanted in Egypt for membership in an anti-government organization, apparently considered a "criminal alien" under the EU-US agreement above. (Italian prosecutors say he would be in prison in Italy if the US hadn't snatched him off to Egypt.) As for the kidnapping CIA-man Lady and the other US citizens stand accused of, the quote from the meeting calls that "cooperation in removals." The CIA calls it "extraordinary rendition" and calls the rendition team a "special removal unit"; but the European Union, and Italy specifically, have agreed to cooperation with the US in such "removals," as the above link shows.

Planespotter hobbyists and human rights groups like Human Rights Watch have been documenting the CIA kidnapping flights, which inevitably sometimes lead to CIA-operated jails, exposing the CIA flights and prisons. Europeans doing this have forced investigations by elements of some of the very European governments that HAVE AGREEMENTS for the CIA snatches and flights. Most of the investigations can be expected to be coverups; but the information they evince could help in lawsuits, which in turn could curtail the kidnappings and flights.

US FIRMS, PERSONS TO BE SUED FOR CIA'S TORTURE, EVILS

Aero Contractors (NC) and its former president Norman Richardson, Richmor Aviation (NY) and its owner Mahlon Richards, CIA shell companies and their lawyers like Dean Plakias (MA) and Scott Caplan (WA) -- these are but a few of the many US firms that could potentially be served legal actions by victims of CIA kidnapping and torture, based on the existence of the landmark lawsuit filed Dec. 6 by CIA victim Khaled el-Masri of Germany. Already Aero and Plakias have heard from Masri's lawyers. Then there are CIA officials like James Pavitt, its retired DDO (Deputy Director for Operations). The DDO reportedly is the specific officer who approves kidnappings and torture measures for specific victims. The DDOs can be gone after. Pavitt was the DDO from Aug. 1999 to Aug. 2004, succeeded by Stephen Kappes (Aug. to Nov. 2004). The Nation says the DDO since Nov. 2004 is Jose Rodriguez.  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20041213/vest

BESIDES PERSONS ALREADY CHARGED, who else might be liable, criminally or civilly, for Abu Omar's Feb. 2003 abduction from Italy and transport via US planes and air bases to Egypt? Omar, when briefly released, called home to report what happened to him and got rearrested for that. He was tortured and maimed, allegedly in the presence of Mr. Lady, and remains imprisoned by his Egyptian torturers.

There are numerous current and retired employees of the CIA's Operations Directorate who potentially could be sued for CIA renditions and related abuses. Some of them have signed fat book contracts and are reaping large speaking fees bragging about their outrages. An example is Michael Scheuer, the McLean, VA, man who was in charge of snatchs from 1995, when the first victim was seized, until June 1999. There were some 50 victims in that period. Since 9/11, there have been 150 to 200 snatches.

I will let the CIA retirees rest with this quote from Scheuer: "I try to be a good Christian, and I don't want to see anyone treated badly; but I am paid to protect Americans, so if the lawyers said it was okay, it was okay." This blasphemous non sequitur shows what we are up against, those of us who still believe what the US Declaration of Independence says: "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Note the word "alien" in the EU-US agreement ("criminal/inadmissible aliens") and note the word "unalienable" in the Declaration.


AERO CONTRACTORS is another potential defendent and is being sued by Khaled el-Masri and the ACLU. Aero Contractors is a real, rather than a shell, company that provides the pilots and flight crews for most CIA planes. The planes are owned by the CIA through phony companies fronted by lawyers. However, the victims' lawyers can serve papers on the lawyers, who are known, and thus secure liens in US courts against the CIA's planes.

A list of CIA shell companies for owning aircraft (while leaving actual operations to Aero Contractors and other CIA contractors) appears at the end of this article, along with their agents (lawyers) for legal service.


COUNTERTERRORIST INTELIGENCE CENTERS (CTICs) -- JOINT SPY NESTS

Working directly with at least a score of CIA operatives, a Counter Terrorism Intelligence Center (CTIC) combines key personnel from a country's security forces and armed forces. The CTIC relies heavily on the CIA for its structure, guidance, and funding. Two agencies -- the US CIA and the Italian SISMI, for example -- share facilities, equipment, and information on a daily basis. That is why the CIA fugitive Robert Seldon Lady is right: the Italian secret service knew in advance about the kidnapping he is accused of, and the operation had the approval of high Italian officials, likely Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi himself. Most governments never publicly acknowledge the existence of CTICs, but they exist in over two dozen countries, likely including the following:

COUNTRIES WITH CTICs (Partners in CIA Renditions and Flights)

EUROPE
1. Albania
2. Britain
3. Czech Republic
4. France
5. Germany
6. Italy
7. Macedonia
8. Poland
9. Portugal
10. Romania
11. Spain
12. Sweden

ASIA
13. Indonesia
14. Malaysia
15. Pakistan
16. Thailand
17. Uzbekistan

MIDDLE EAST
18. Egypt
19. Jordan
20. Libya
21. Morocco
22. Saudi Arabia
23. Turkey
24. Yemen

OTHER
25. Australia
26. Canada

Now one can see why the above are the origination and destination points of the CIA flights in the news, despite denials from their governments. The governments of these countries are complicit in CIA flights, and it is up to the citizens of these countries to make them stop illegal activities by bringing lawsuits and forcing investigations. In Europe, EU bodies like the European Council possibly can get the EU to penalize members of the EU -- or prospective members like Poland and Romania -- to stop the flights and disallow CIA detention centers.

According to Congressional testimony earlier this year by the Director of the National Clandestine Service (who fomerly was called the Deputy Director for Operations), the CTICs have been responsible for the arrest of over 3000 persons.
 http://www.refdag.nl/artikel/1238465/CIA%20spil%20van%20groot%20antiterreurnetwerk.html Clearly, human rights groups have their work cut out for them in accounting for all of these people.

The CIA Deputy Director for Operations (now the Director of the National Clandestine Service) oversees CIA flights and airplanes, using aircraft-holding companies -- shell companies represented by private attorneys in the US. Most of these already are well known from newspaper reports. The known shell companies appear below. Besides these, there are real companies with actual operations, including the provision of pilots (Aero Contractors, Ltd); avionics (Pegasus Technologies, Inc.); cargo plane (civilian C-130) operation (Tepper Aviation, Inc.); charters (Richmor Aviation, Inc.); and both ownership and operation of planes (Presidential Airways, Inc., and Aviation Worldwide Services, Inc., divisions of the large security firm Blackhawk USA).

AVIATION SPECIALTIES INC.
PO BOX 9891
FRIENDSHIP HEIGHTS STATION POST OFFICE
4005 WISCONSIN AVE, NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20016 US
(District of Columbia County)
Most Co. planes registered to above.
Additional Address:
10601 BALTIMORE AVE
SUITE 300 (3RD FLOOR)
BELTSVILLE, MD 20705
(Prince George's County)
Raytheon (Beech) B200C, S/N BB-1823 registered to above.
LAWYER: DOUGLAS R. THOMAS
(Now at AS Address: Leslie Silverman, Gregory R. Caruso)
Thomas lent his address for the one plane, didn't
register Co. with state (MD), was disbarred in 2000.
He also lent his address for RAPID, below.

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BAYARD FOREIGN MARKETING, LLC
755 PITTOCK BLOCK
921 SW WASHINGTON ST
PORTLAND, OR 97205 US
(Multnomah County)
LAWYER: SCOTT D. CAPLAN (same address)
of Jordan, Caplan, Paul & Etter

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CROWELL AVIATION TECHNOLOGIES, INC
339 WASHINGTON ST STE 202
DEDHAM, MA 02026 US
(Norfolk County)
LAWYER: DEAN PLAKIAS (same address)
of Hill & Plakias (practice: family law)

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DEVON HOLDING & LEASING, INC.
129 WEST CENTER STREET # 2
LEXINGTON, NC 27292-3009
(Davidson County)
LAWYER: Mark E. Klass
Klass is now a judge. He incorporated STEVENS (below).
Davidson County Hall of Justice, 110 W. Center St.,
P.O. Box 1064 Lexington, NC 27293-1064
(336) 249-0351
(Now at 129 W Center St. is attorney Carroll C. Wall.)

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KEELER AND TATE MANAGEMENT, LLC
KEELER AND TATE MANAGEMENT, LLC
245 E LIBERTY ST STE 510
RENO, NV 89501 US
(Washoe County)
LAWYER: STEVEN F. PETERSEN (same address), political PR
SAME OFFICE: Paul D. Laxalt (ex-US Senator), Peter D. Laxalt,
Frank R. Petersen

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PATH CORPORATION
413 REHOBOTH AVE PO BOX 305
REHOBOTH BEACH, DE 19971 US
(Sussex County)
LAWYER: UNKNOWN
(Now at PATH's address is Barbara-Cherrix O'Leary, real estate lawyer.)

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PREMIER EXECUTIVE TRANSPORT SERVICES, INC.
(Same address, same lawyer as CROWELL above.)
339 WASHINGTON ST STE 202
DEDHAM, MA 02026 US
(Norfolk County)
LAWYER: DEAN PLAKIAS (same address)
of Hill & Plakias (practice: family law)

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PRESCOTT SUPPORT COMPANY
555 MARRIOTT DRIVE, SUITE 350
NASHVILLE, TN 37214
(Davidson County)
LAWYER: MARK E. MORRISON

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RAPID AIR TRANS INC
RAPID AIR TRANSPORT INC
10601 BALTIMORE AVE
SUITE 300 (3RD FLOOR)
BELTSVILLE, MD 20705 US
(Prince George's County)
LAWYER: DOUGLAS R. THOMAS, bankruptcy lawyer
(Same Office: Leslie Silverman, Gregory R. Caruso)
Thomas lent his address for Rapid "Trans" and "Transport"
as well as AVIATION SPECIALTIES (above).
Thomas registered "Trans" with the state for a time,
"Transport" not at all. He was disbarred in 2000.

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STEVENS EXPRESS LEASING INC
8130 COUNTRY VILLAGE DR STE 101
CORDOVA, TN 38016 US
(Shelby County)
LAWYER: DOUGLAS R. BEATY (Same address),
real estate lawyer
Company was incorporated by Mark E. Klass
(see DEVON), now a judge in Lexington, NC.