Blackwater and CIA
Renditions
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While Blackwater
claims that “it is in effect an
extension of the U.S. military
because of its claimed status as part
of the Pentagon’s ‘Total
Force,’ Blackwater may actually
have been far more intertwined with
the workings of the military and
intelligence agencies than it would
ever let on.
Private Aviation
Companies Render Prisoners Across the
Globe
“The company
[Blackwater] has multiple contracts
with the U.S. government to provide
pilots and aircraft. Information on
the use of Blackwater’s planes
by the government is difficult to
obtain, but it has been well
documented that U.S. intelligence
agencies and the military have used private
aviation companies to
‘render’ prisoners
across the globe, particularly under
the Bush administration ‘war on
terror.’ Under the clandestine
program, prisoners are sometimes
flown to countries with questionable
or terrible human rights records,
where they are interrogated far from
any oversight or due process. To
avoid oversight, the government
has used small private aviation
companies – many with flimsy
ownership documentation – to
transport the prisoners. ‘Terrorism
suspects in Europe, Africa, Asia, and
the Middle East have often been abducted
by hooded or masked American agents,
then forced onto a Gulfstream V
jet,’ wrote investigative
journalist Jane Mayer in The New
Yorker magazine. The plane has
clearance to land at U.S. military
bases. Upon arriving in foreign
countries, rendered suspects often
vanish. Detainees are not
provided with lawyers, and many
families are not informed of their
whereabouts.’ While there is
nothing directly linking Blackwater
to extraordinary renditions, there is
an abundance of circumstantial
evidence that bears closer scrutiny
and investigation.” Blackwater,
253.
Air America Used for
Covert Ops
“From 1962 to
1975, the CIA used its secretly owned
airline Air America (which
simultaneously functioned as a
commercial airline) to conduct
covert or secretive operations that
would have sparked even more
investigation and outrage if made
public…
Private Aircraft
Transport Prisoners to Secret Prisons
Around the Globe
“Decades later,
the Bush administration, waging a war
many compared to Vietnam, clearly saw
the need for a clandestine fleet of
planes. Shortly after 9/11, the
administration started a program
using a network of private planes
some began referring to as the
‘new Air America.’ The
rendition program kicked into high
gear, as the United States began operating
a sophisticated network of secret
prisons and detention centers across
the globe, using the private aircraft
to transport prisoners.
Most of the planes
alleged to have been involved in
renditions under the Bush
administration’s war on terror
were owned by shell companies. In
contrast, Blackwater directly owns
its aviation division and has been
public and proud in promoting its
military involvement.
Blackwater Aviation
“Blackwater
Aviation was born in April 2003, as
the Iraq occupation was getting under
way, when the Prince Group acquired
Aviation Worldwide Services (AWS) and
its subsidiaries, including
Presidential Airways. The AWS
consortium had been brought together
in early 2001 under the ownership of
Tim Childrey and Richard Pere, who
‘focused on military training
operations and aviation transport for
the U. S. Government…
Blackwater-owned
Planes
Frequent Airports
Alleged
To Be Implicated in
Rendition
Program
“Blackwater
aircraft have made stopovers at Pinal
Airpark in Arizona, which used to be
home to the Air America Fleet. After
the public scrutiny forced the CIA to
dismantle its fleet and sell the
airpark, a company called Evergreen
International Aviation, whose board
included the former head of
CIA’s air operations subsequently
purchased it….
“…Blackwater-owned
planes frequented many airports
alleged to be implicated in the
rendition program.” –Blackwater,
255ff.
“’Typically,
the CIA [planes will fly out of these
rural airfields in North Carolina to
Dulles,’ according to the
authors of Torture Taxi.
“A glimpse of the
flight records of planes registered
to Blackwater subsidiaries Aviation
Worldwide Services and Presidential
airways revealed numerous flights
that follow these patterns and
frequent CIA-linked airports.” Blackwater,
256,257. [Our emphasis.]
There follows documentation of 8 such
examples of such aviation pattern in Blackwater.
Uzbekistan: Key
Destination for
Military and CIA
Renditions
“In addition,
though Blackwater’s aircraft in
Afghanistan flew normal circuits, the
company was also charged with flying
out of the country, including to
Uzbekistan…Uzbekistan has been
one of the ‘key
destinations’ for both U.S.
military and CIA renditions.
Prisoners are alleged to have been
brought there both for interrogation
and repatriation from Afghanistan.
Also, as it happens,
Blackwater’s planes in
Afghanistan operate out of Bagram, a
known U.S. –run detention and
torture facility. According to
Blackwater/Presidential’s
Afghanistan contract, all personnel
‘are required to possess a
Secret security
clearance.’…
“Black”
Contract With CIA
“Company
president Gary Jackson has been bold
in bragging of Blackwater’s
‘black’ and
‘secret’ contracts, which
are not publicly available or
traceable; he claimed these contracts
were so secret he could not tell
one federal agency about
Blackwater’s work with another. Under
the war on terror, Blackwater’s
first security contract was a
‘black’ contract with the
CIA, an agency with which it has deep
ties. And then there was this
development: In early 2005 [February
4, 2005], Blackwater hired the career
CIA spy many believe was responsible
for jump-starting the Bush
administration’s post –
9/11 rendition program: J. Cofer
Black, the former chief of the
CIA’s counter terrorism
center.” –Blackwater, 257,
258.
Legendary J. Cofer
Black: Close Access
“Since 9/11, few
people have had the kind of access to
President Bush and covert ‘war
on terror’ planning as
Ambassador J. Cofer Black. A
thirty-year CIA veteran, Black was a
legendary figure in the shadowy world
of international espionage.”
–Blackwater, 261. Black
played a central role in the capture
of the famed international terrorist,
“Carlos the Jackal” in
Sudan. After 9/11, having been marked
for death by Osama bin Laden,
“he enthusiastically seized a
key role in plotting out the
immediate U.S. response.” Two
days after 9/11 Black was in the
White House Situation Room, there to
brief the President on the kind of
campaign he had prepared for since
joining the agency in 1974 but had
been barred from carrying out.
Black’s Covert
Action Dreams Become Reality
“Black found
himself in the driver’s seat
with a Commander in Chief ready and
eager to make Black’s covert
action dreams a reality.” –Blackwater,
269. “That September, President
Bush gave the green light to Black
and the CIA to begin inserting
special operations forces into
Afghanistan.” –Blackwater,
269. Black told his men to bring
back Bin Laden’s head ‘in a
box filled with dry ice.” –Blackwater,
269.
“Tenet [Director
of the CIA] and his counter terror
chief, Cofer Black, were at Camp
David on Saturday, September 15,
laying out a plan to send CIA
officers into Afghanistan to work
with the local warlords against Al
Qaeda. The director returned to
headquarters late Sunday and issued a
proclamation to his troops:
‘We’re at war.’
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