Home > Tracing the CIA’s Planes: to Senator’s Office, Poland, Romania

Tracing the CIA’s Planes: to Senator’s Office, Poland, Romania

by Open-Publishing - Friday 4 November 2005
6 comments

Europe Attack-Terrorism Secret Services USA

News media reported Thursday that the group Human Rights Watch "claims records and other evidence point to POLAND and ROMANIA as countries that allowed their territory to be used by the CIA to hold top suspected al-Qaeda captives." We report that HRW knows that from tracing the movements of CIA planes and we provide a list of the planes.

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/131066/index.php

The HRW report clarifies earlier reports http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy... in the mainstream media that declined to reveal which countries.

How does Human Rights Watch know? Planespotters, that’s how. The aviation enthusiasts follow the travels of planes, take photos, and post the photos and locations to websites like http://www.Airliners.net , http://www.Planespotters.net , http://www.JetPhotos.Net and http://www.Jetspotter.com .

A Boeing 737 "leased" by the CIA to transport prisoners departed from Kabul, Afghanistan, and made stops at remote airfields in POLAND and ROMANIA before continuing on to Morocco and then to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to HRW. So POLAND and ROMANIA are two of the several Eastern European countries earlier reports only alluded to. We can be sure that planespotters soon will identify the rest.

The accompanying table shows the CIA shell companies and the planes they own, including the 737, which has the FAA-assigned tail number (N-number for US planes) N4476S. At least three of the planes, marked with asterisks, are used for "rendition" (kidnap-torture) flights.

HOW THE CIA’S AIRLINE WORKS

The plane is not really leased by the CIA. It is owned by a CIA shell company, Keeler and Tate Management, LLC. Like other CIA shell companies, it has no employees, no business premises, and no website. In lieu of these, it has a CIA-contracted lawyer who provides a mail drop, registers the company with the state and the planes with the FAA, and interfaces in other necessary ways with government agencies and the public. The lawyer provides many of the legal services needed by a normal company, including a place to serve legal papers and court documents on the company.

The address of Keeler and Tate is 245 E. Liberty St., Suite 510, Reno, Nevada 89501 (Washoe county). The corporation information provided to the Nevada secretary of state lists the resident agent as Steven F. Petersen, an attorney whose address is the same as Keeler and Tate’s.

The only company officer listed is Tyler Edward Tate of the same address. Some newspapers have tried to track down CIA shell company directors and have found that they almost always are fictitious persons, and once in a while figureheads — patriotic persons who lend their name in the name of patriotism. Tracing the officers of the shell companies is a futile exercise. Basically, the only real people working for the shell companies are the private attorneys.

The address of Keeler and Tate and of the lawyer Petersen is shared by Lexalt Group West, the law firm of Paul D. Laxalt and Peter D. Laxalt. Paul D. Lexalt is a former Republican senator from Nevada. His law firm specializes in "political public relations services." So does Petersen’s.

Laxalt, the former US senator whose address and phone number are used by the owners of the CIA’s 737 prison plane, was a close friend of Republican icon Ronald Reagan. When Reagan was president, Laxalt was referred to as the "First Friend."

Forum posts

  • My question is, why does the CIA register planes at all with the FAA? For the most part the planes in the phtos appear panted all grey. Why not just fly them w/o the "N" number.

    • Good question. They land at public airports and share the US airspace with thousands of other planes. Air traffic controllers need to keep track of aircraft in the air and on the ground to avoid collisions. Military airports have their own procedures to control traffic, but still need to identify planes for collision protection and national security.

      For security purposes, the CIA planes also must carry transponders to identify themselves. If the CIA or US military used unidentified planes overseas, they certainly would be forced down by fighter jets — or even shot down in some countries. In the US, secret transponder codes might keep the fighters at bay, but the CIA planes must share the airspace with ordinary air transport planes and general aviation planes and thus must be IDed.

      Even in the US, there are laws that must be obeyed. We still have a government of laws, not of men, as government officials now are finding out to their detriment.

      Even state laws on registering companies must be complied with. Law enforcement from the local police to the FBI are looking for law violations and violators. To avoid their unwanted attentions, it is best for the CIA to keep everything looking tidy, all the forms filed, etc.

      The CIA is well aware of the problem of aviation activities always being subject to "a thousand eyes." It is a problem they work around as best they can.

      Generally speaking, the media are very compliant in witholding information about CIA air operations, as the article points out. That helps the CIA a lot, but it is not necessarily in the public interest.

      Thank you.

      Clayton Hallmark

    • Nice read, great imagination. Look out for those black helicopters.

    • The press is simply not only compliant but more often complicit in cover ups and planted stories and in following the official Governments agenda.
      The Washington Posts reasons for not naming the countries because of Senior White House Officials request demonstrates the increasing intimidation that the Fourth Estate feels. Reporters who break unwritten rules become what is known in the journalism profession as ’radioactive thus quickly becoming unemployable.
      From beginning to end its the elite, the corporate agenda, the advertisers and the bottom line which take precedent over full disclosure of important information.
      The reader is left with what in some organizations is called: ’information on a need to know basis.’
      In America vital information is hard to come by. Much of the need to know stuff is extremely hard to get a timely fashion. When the shelf life of an important story and the spin has expired we usually learn a fuller picture but of course much to late to take any meaningful action should we had been so inclined.

      Here is one of Neil Postman’s analysis of one media form:
      "Television is altering the meaning of "being informed" by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation...Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information-misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information-information- that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing"

      More television programs are becoming like crack cocaine in that one gets an instant hit, short fast paced sound bites a collage of stock pictures with on the spot accidents and breaking trivia and a mindless emotive addiction can be reached for the habitual viewer where it becomes difficult to distinguish between the advertisement and the ’news’ or ’entertainment’ and the chatter of the program hosts goofing around. For children its a dumbing down experience and especially dangerous if one is interested in developing thinking skills in the young.

      Never believe anything until its officially denied .

      cheers, jt

    • Thanks JT and all.

      Someone has acutally written a related book, just out, "Operation Hotel California," by Guido Olimpio.

      For a synopsis, please see this Bellaciao article: http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9076

    • The Bu$h gang inflitrated the CIA with daddy Bu$h being head before he was v.p., they knew that the CIA has the power to do what ever it sets forth to do with no oversight. The Bu$h gang has always believed in doing its crimes out in plain sight, and if they get caught (Iran Contra, El Salvador war, etc., Neil Bush S & L fraud,etc. long list) they lie and distract and bribe and pardon, or put their cronies in charge. If you have been following their family history you will note that they are seasoned criminals.