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Silent Terror Consent
February 10th, 2005 at 09:52 Björn Hallberg
The Independent has an article outlining how "UK airports are believed to be operational bases for two executive jets used by the CIA to carry out ‘renditions’ of terror suspects."
While Britain will not deport suspects being held without charge at Belmarsh prison, their version of Guantanamo, they seem willing to pass along information about its citizens and residents to the US authorities and line them up for proxy torture, abuse and legal neglect. Also, Britain has in many cases been a base of operations for the so called torture flights on their way to or from an assignment, taking prisoners to Egypt and Jordan from countries including Sweden and Indonesia. International conventions never applied here. Legal rights were waived. The suspects were dropped off in the "gulag of secret CIA hellholes" for torture and storage.
One notorious rendition occurred in Sweden in December 2001 when a team of masked US agents arrived to transfer two Egyptian dissidents, both accused of terrorist involvement, to Cairo. Both complained later of torture.
"Later in Sweden this man, Mr Zehry, was arrested and this information could only have come from the British authorities. They are completely responsible. It’s criminal," Mr Sirri said.
It makes sense. I was always wondering why Sweden would so easily buy into American propaganda. We seldom do. But coming from Britain it would explain the error of judgement. It’s unfortunate that Britain fails to see where their loyalties should lie. As long as Europe does not unite against the common enemy, we will be ineffective and weak. The US is using pre-EU sentiments to sow discord among European nations. Well, sadly for them, it will not work much longer.
As for the follow-up in Sweden, the process is ongoing. The Swedish security police is in an overall bad mood. They have openly expressed dismay at being implicated in this dirty business and would like to see some political accountability. Yeah right. Wouldn’t we all.
Someone in the government cleared the deportation in 2001. And obviously that someone was likely the late Minister for Foreign Affairs, Anna Lindh. Ironically it is not acceptable to dishonor the dead or dwell on past events. How convenient for some. Alive or dead, if she signed the deportation forms, she ought to be made responsible so we can get on with more pressing matters than assigning blame.
I tend to agree with Jan Guillou on the matter. It’s nothing short of a scandal. Swedish authorities should demand the return of Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed Al Zery, offer them our sincerest apologies and economic compensation. And these civilian-in-disguise air planes, N581GA, N379P, N8068V, N44982, N313P, N4476S or whatever they may be today, should be tracked and never allowed to enter Swedish airspace ever again. If they try to sneak in anyway they should be offered the hospitality of the Swedish Air Force.
Entry 29 filed under: North America. This entry was posted 3 years, 9 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.
I agree that it is important for a constellation of websites and bloggers to monitor this aircraft as it moves around the world. The C.I.A., was clearly authorized by President Bush, agreed to with Vice-President Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to interrogate prisons with harsh methods in relative terms. The relative terms are relevant !! in terms of what Americans will put up with.
In the absence of information, many Americans will not care what happens to these prisoners. But, since print and television media of the United States is now nearly coopted by corporate ownership, someone has to keep track of these jokers.
I read this thread relating to the planes of Premier Executive Transport Services>>Keeler & Tate>> Bayard Foreign xxxxx for the first time in NEWSWEEK. NEWSWEEK, it may be, came to the story late. Certainly, the story has been on the web for nearly a month, so it is possible that activists such as this website are doing the entire world a service by tracking this elusive aircraft.
At the same time, I would recommend that someone delve into Evergreen Airlines. Working at Wright Patterson AFB, OH, USA, I saw many Evergreen Airlines aircraft loading and unloading material at the airbase over 20+ years. I looked them up in the telephone book, and got the weird kind of details that have been uncovered when one looks into Keeler & Tate, et al.
Evergreen Airlines may be worth looking into because they still exist, and I suspect they were flying into Wright Patterson to haul away material stored there for C.I.A. activities in either Afghanistan or Central and South America. While Evergreen may no longer be the preferred cover corporation, study of their past activities could give insight into how this current front company is operating.
The American public need to be confronted with these details. The Bush Administration is clearly the darkest, most sinister, secretive administration in American history. They do NOT do well when their secrets are exposed.
Since there is no longer a “Daniel Ellsberg” in the Pentagon, leaks of the proportion of “The Pentagon Papers” won’t occur. There are now heavy penalties for anyone leaking the kind of things Ellsberg did during the Vietnam War era. BUT … the more the secrets are exposed, the more the C.I.A. will have to dance …
There are signs coming from inside the C.I.A., that once again, they’ve been dumped on. Betrayed in more ways than one by Bush, et al. This is because Rumsfeld wants to control everything. And Bush is not opposed to Rumsfeld controling so much, because he and Cheney and Rummy are now the inner triangle of power.
The efforts of people across the world to stay on this will help document these flights. Imagine that on each flight, someone is being transported somewhere to be tortured, so they can provide information that may or may not be accurate. The American people, I believe, will NOT condone torture when the stakes have not been documented as “severe.”
Torture is not something Americans will shine to. But, unless the details are surfaced, and documented, particularly by bloggers, many Americans will not believe torture is being conducted by Americans. There were 24% of the American public opposed to the Iraq War. Roughly 49% of the voting public voted for John Kerry, who stood for some closure on this war.
1% more voted for other candidates. If the United States, under the Bush team, continue to suffer casualties in Iraq, or Bush continues to hammer on Iran, North Korea and Syria — he WILL try and launch yet another war.
The man wallows in his reputation as a “war-time President.” Without a war, he will find life very boring. He is dangerous because he is a dry drunk alcoholic, with Attention Deficit Disorder. He thrives on crises and drama. He salivates at the idea that he will go down in history as the “greatest war time president in American history.”
Every time someone uncovers another little bit of secrecy imposed by the Bush Administration, more people wise up. More people grow skeptical of whatever the man says. Millions of us KNEW this in 2000, and voted against him. More millions knew it in 2004. Still, there were roughly 1,500,000 more folks who voted for Bush than the others.
It will be documented information that comes from the web bloggers that helps convince more Americans that Bush is a dangerous man. It is important to document carefully, and accurately, as much information about this plane, with the changing tail numbers, so that a record can be established to some day wind up on CNN.
Once a story like this hits CNN, it will have it’s own life. Feed this information to CNN when you have it.
The wider the venue, the more impact. Because even CNN can be bought and controlled. The evidence needs to be even more over-whelming now than during the Vietnam/Watergate era.
And finally, yes, the people of Europe are in a great position to let THEIR leaders know that cooperation with Bush on his efforts to confront and dominate the entire Middle East won’t get them re-elected in your countries. The United States is in a position, now, where the European Union can stand as a counter-balance to American aggression.
The EU, in particular, CAN slam the brakes on Bush’s continued imperialistic agenda by simply saying: your track record on Iraq was horrific. WE will decide when inspections are done for Iran, Lebanon, Syria, North Korea … not the United States. And until WE and the UN are satisified that inspections PROVE, beyond a shadow of doubt that these nations are prepared to attack other nations … nothing will happen that we will support.
George Bush is a bully.
It is a given that standing up to a bully often silences the bully, and, that if challenged publicly, they suffer profound shame and humiliation, and are never the same again. Europe, in particular, working with Russia or China, can bring a pause in Bush’s Imperialism
This effort is just one of many underway to bring more and more pressure to bear on European countries to distance themselves from George Bush.
It may seem impossible, but it isn’t.
Thanks for your good work.
Thank you for your input!
I wish there was more I could do to document and follow up on these practises but all I have, too, is the benefit of, a as of yet, free Internet and a less corporate and state controlled media. Also I doubt any such plane will be flying this way any time soon. Sweden has proved to be a rather difficult and unwilling “ally”. After all, this entire story line and the revelation builds largely on what happened in Sweden in 2001.
Yes, I also hope that Americans have the ability, if presented with the truth of the matter, to empathize with the people who have fallen victim to pointless and cruel outsourced torture. But with the constant stream of propaganda, fear and demonizing of the “other side” (whoever they really are, those pesky evildoers). Emotionally potent oversimplification as some would call it. Can the truth beat even that?
As much as I would like to bash the man and the office he holds I have also seen these last couple of years, that the alternative is often just as bad. After all, presidential candidates don’t just grow on trees, they are shaped by their social background, and the political orientation they happen to choose. And perhaps more insidious. Take Clinton for example. I went from bashing Clinton to rioting over Bush and then it hit me that what I was doing was counterproductive in many ways. And they, the powers that be, obviously know that. I also come back to Chalmers Johnson often and his remark that Clinton was a much better and seemless imperialist than Bush. But both have the same agenda, more or less, or rather the people who pull the strings have the same agenda.
As far as the EU is concerned I feel a bit let down. When push comes to shove, the EU again fails to deliver any kind of unified message. We could slam the brakes, but we do not, and I can’t understand why. We, or should I say our governments, have largely bought into the “war on terror” for example. It is likely that they too see the usefulness of keeping the people on their toes. No one ever got reelected by just doing their job. It’s quite a problem we have here. Creating a union of nation-states, not just territories or states. On the one hand we can’t act as one if we keep to ourselves and save for example a national foreign policy. On the other hand we have proven time and again that when we try to create a commission to lead the union, it becomes an elitist bunch of rotten eggs. Basically everyone sends their worst cases of nepotistic, corrupted rejects to serve. The parliament is working slightly better but I foresee elitism getting the better end of that deal. And elitist in Europe aren’t that different from America. They’ve probably been acquainted on some level. They feel kinship and they protect more or less the same social privilege. If they ever slammed the brakes, it would not be because we, the people demanded it. Rather if their positions or their wallets were in danger.
But yes, China, Europe, Russia could make all the difference. And I agree with your analogy of bullies. It would be a good thing to take stand. Before Bush and more importantly his cronies have become so lost in their illusions of grandeur and imperialistic enterprise that there is no stopping them. At least not in any civilized manner.