This article is from page 15 of the 2006-06-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
A PRIVATE jet leased by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to allegedly transport Al Qaeda suspects through Shannon Airport was eventually sold by its owners following intensive media coverage in Ireland of the plane’s suspect movements and activities around the world.
Massachusetts based Premier Executive Transport Services sold the Gulfstream V jet, registration number N379P, to a company in Oregon in November 2004. The move followed claims of the plane’s involvement in the alleged covert transfer of suspects to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and an Egyptian prison where they were allegedly tortured.
News of the sale surprised anti war activists in Ireland who only a month earlier made a formal complaint to gardaí about the plane’s regular visits to Shannon Airport. The jet’s new owners, an Oregon based company called Bayard Foreign Marketing, declined to comment at the time about the purchase or what the aircraft would be used for.
The corporate-style Gulfstream aircraft, dubbed the Guantanamo Bay Express by local anti war groups, has visited Shannon at least fourteen times since January 2002 and has allegedly been used by the U.S. to “effectively kidnap so-called high-value targets and transport them around the world”.
On January 31st 2003, prominent Limerick based activist Tim Hourigan published details of U.S. military aircraft activity through Shannon. The extensive list included the Gulfstream jet which left Shannon for Washington DC at 12.30pm on January 18, 2003 and is known to have visited Shannon on several occasions before and since.
Commenting on news that the jet had been sold, Mr. Hourigan said, “Obviously changing the planes registration didn’t work for them so they sold the plane in order to get rid of the evidence. It is clear that the U.S. wants to keep its dirty deeds secret.” Mr. Hourigan also believes that the sale of the jet was prompted by the exposure by anti war groups in Ireland and abroad of the missions the plane has been used for.
Revelations in a Swedish television documentary broadcast in May 2004 claimed that two men were expelled from Sweden and transported to Egypt on December 18, 2001. According to “The Broken Promise” programme, the operation was carried out by hooded US agents travelling on board the same Gulfstream jet N379P.
The two men, Muhammad Al Zery and Ahmed Agiza, were alleged to have had connections with terrorist groups and to have been involved in Islamic movements in Egypt. Ahmed Agiza fled from Egypt to Pakistan and later Iran before finally arriving Sweden in September 2000 with his wife and children. Muhammad Al Zery, an acquaintance of Agiza, fled from Egypt in 1991 and arrived in Sweden in August 1999.
A request by Premier Executive Transport Services to transfer the plane’s registration to the new owners was filed on November 29, 2004. The bill of sale also filed with the Federal Aviation Authority confirms that the plane was sold two weeks earlier on November 16.
A month earlier, in October 2004, a group of mid west based peace activists made a formal complaint to gardaí in Shannon, following claims that the jet was being used by the US military to illegally transport Al Qaeda suspects toGuantanamo Bay in Cuba and Egypt. The group claimed that the jet regularly passed through Shannon Airport contrary to the United Nations Convention Against Torture.