At www.whitehouse.gov, it says, “President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history.” Except, it turns out, when the subject is how the previous administration flew kidnapped detainees to be tortured.
The President and his new Attorney General have chosen to stand by the Bush administration position of “state secrets” in the ACLU’s rendition case against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan for its role in the extraordinary rendition program, claiming that torture and rendition victims should not be granted their day in court.
As is amply documented, Jeppesen DataPlan played travel agent for the “torture taxis” in which the CIA transported dozens, perhaps hundreds of detainees. The taxis’ destinations included countries like Egypt and Morocco, where torture during interrogation has been routine and brutal. And they included CIA “black sites” in Romania, Poland, and Afghanistan.
The extraordinary rendition program begs the question — who provided the “taxis” — the pilots, planes, and maintenance? In a number of cases, Aero Contractors of Smithfield, North Carolina. Headquartered at the Johnston County Airport, just 30 minutes from Raleigh, Aero Contractors is a nominally private company that was founded in 1980 by Jim Rhyne, a CIA pilot. Rhyne set up Aero specifically to fly the type of shady CIA missions previously flown by Air America, the CIA front airline of the 1950s-70s.
