How US firms turned CIA torture flights into profits

And continuing our fall, rather rapid long fall only a decade plus, into the crowded slimy gutter of those we once strongly condemned and think we can still do so, as those that fully support thus also support if done to a U.S. soldier or civilian, anywhere, now as well. And just think, the major execs of these companies are more then likely in the non-tax brackets of same decade.

How US firms profited from torture flights

Court documents illustrate how US contracted out secret rendition transportation to a network of private companies

31 August 2011 - The scale of the CIA's rendition programme has been laid bare in court documents that illustrate in minute detail how the US contracted out the secret transportation of suspects to a network of private American companies.

The manner in which American firms flew terrorism suspects to locations around the world, where they were often tortured, has emerged after one of the companies sued another in a dispute over fees. As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the mass of invoices, receipts, contracts and email correspondence – submitted as evidence to a court in upstate New York – provides a unique glimpse into a world in which the "war on terror" became just another charter opportunity for American businesses.

As a result of the case, the identities of some of the corporations involved in the rendition programme have been disclosed for the first time, along with the names of some of the executives who knew the purpose of the flights.

One unintended consequence may be that some of those corporations and individuals are now at risk of being sued in proceedings brought on behalf of the al-Qaida and Taliban suspects who were the victims of the programme. read more>>>

Extraordinary rendition: a backstory

Used since the Reagan era, extraordinary rendition was stepped up after 9/11 to extract intelligence from suspected terrorists

31 August 2011 - Extraordinary rendition dates back to the Reagan years and was first used against suspected Islamists in the late 1990s.

After 9/11, it was stepped up as a means of extracting intelligence from terrorism suspects, and in subsequent years hundreds of people are believed to have been "rendered" around the world through countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Afghanistan and Morocco.

Some suspects have alleged they were tortured in the countries to which US rendition crews took them. In the words of former CIA agent Robert Baer: "If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear – never to see them again – you send them to Egypt." read more>>>

And on 9/11 the first question by the arrogant apathetic masses in this country was "why do they hate us so?", gee I wonder why, Not!