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Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Details For The Enemy

This from the New York Times:

SMITHFIELD, N.C. - The airplanes of Aero Contractors Ltd. take off from Johnston County Airport here, then disappear over the scrub pines and fields of tobacco and sweet potatoes. Nothing about the sleepy Southern setting hints of foreign intrigue. Nothing gives away the fact that Aero's pilots are the discreet bus drivers of the battle against terrorism, routinely sent on secret missions to Baghdad, Cairo, Tashkent and Kabul.

When the Central Intelligence Agency wants to grab a suspected member of Al Qaeda overseas and deliver him to interrogators in another country, an Aero Contractors plane often does the job. If agency experts need to fly overseas in a hurry after the capture of a prized prisoner, a plane will depart Johnston County and stop at Dulles Airport outside Washington to pick up the C.I.A. team on the way.

Aero Contractors' planes dropped C.I.A. paramilitary officers into Afghanistan in 2001; carried an American team to Karachi, Pakistan, right after the United States Consulate there was bombed in 2002; and flew from Libya to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the day before an American-held prisoner said he was questioned by Libyan intelligence agents last year, according to flight data and other records.

While posing as a private charter outfit - "aircraft rental with pilot" is the listing in Dun and Bradstreet - Aero Contractors is in fact a major domestic hub of the Central Intelligence Agency's secret air service. The company was founded in 1979 by a legendary C.I.A. officer and chief pilot for Air America, the agency's Vietnam-era air company, and it appears to be controlled by the agency, according to former employees.

Behind a surprisingly thin cover of rural hideaways, front companies and shell corporations that share officers who appear to exist only on paper, the C.I.A. has rapidly expanded its air operations since 2001 as it has pursued and questioned terrorism suspects around the world.


Why on earth is the New York Times reporting all of these details to us? If Aero Contractors really is supposed to be a secret air service for the CIA is it really the Times' responsibility to divulge that to the public regardless of how "thin" the "cover" is for the operation?

Heck, just in the excerpt above the Times reveals the name of the company, where the planes take off from, some history of their operations and a little bit of standard operating procedure. If you click through to the link above they've even got a picture of one of the planes that are used including a description of the model and a clearly visible registration number.

Now tell me, why is the Times reporting this information to us? If the CIA is using a charter company as a cover for covert missions to capture terrorist leaders what exactly is the big deal? Isn't that exactly what we want the CIA to be doing?

Whose side is the New York Times on?

Comments

Avatar for LoadTheMule

How secret can it be if the NYT found out about it?

Aero Contractors is one of those ‘open’ secrets.  Anyone in the intelligence game (or who studies up on it) knows what the company does.

Regards…

LoadTheMule on May 31, 2005 at 05:05 am
Rob
Rob
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I guess I’m just not understanding the point of the article.  Isn’t this exactly what the CIA is supposed to be doing?  Why is this information appearing in the Times, even if it is an “open secret.”


The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

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Rob on May 31, 2005 at 07:05 am
Avatar for 2Hotel9

My quess would be that they are a compromised asset. CIA has a history of doing what the Brits call"shoping" an asset once they are compromised. Pitch their bloody ass out into the water and see what comes by for a chunk. Not nice, it is useful for finding which way information flows.

2Hotel9 on May 31, 2005 at 01:06 pm
Avatar for Say Anything » More Selective Outrage Over B

[...] As the L.A. Times, Democrats and others lecture us all about the importance of the various forms of cover used by the CIA to conduct its missions lets take a moment to a appreciate this little blast from the past. [...]

Avatar for Robb

Thanks for the link. I am a fellow blogger doing battle with leftist co-workers. They have been preaching “morals” to me about Karl Rove’s role in the Valarie Plame Blame Game. I just wanted to let you know that you’re doing a great job and to continue what your’re doing.

Robb on July 18, 2005 at 05:08 am
Rob
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Thanks Robb...but I don’t see where I linked you.


The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

robport.gif border=0

Rob on July 18, 2005 at 10:07 am
Avatar for Say Anything - North Dakota’s Most Popular P

[...] It would also appear as though the New York Times article about secret CIA flights (which I posted about here back in May) is going to get some attention as well: [...]

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