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Thursday 27 sepTember 2018
Citizens' group wants prosecution over CIA rendition program
By EMERY P. DALESIO
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North
Carolina state and local
officials should prosecute
participants in a CIA pro-
gram that ferried terror-
ism suspects to secret sites
where they were tortured,
an advocacy group seek-
ing to stir action over the
former U.S. policy is de-
manding.
Prosecution is one of doz-
ens of recommendations
to be released Thursday
by the private, 11-member
North Carolina Commis-
sion of Inquiry on Torture.
The academics, lawyers,
retired military officers and
clergy who make up the
self-appointed group held
a public teach-in in Raleigh
last year. speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, as she leaves the Senate chamber after releasing
a report on the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques at secret overseas facilities after the 9/11
Such non-governmental in- terror attacks.
quiry commissions have no
private air carrier, whose
website says it originated
due to a "market need for
dependable and discreet
airlift," operates out of a
county airport about 30
miles (50 kilometers) south
of Raleigh and 50 miles
(80.5 kilometers) east of Fort
Bragg, home to the Army's
anti-terrorist Delta Force
and other Special Opera-
tions units.
Flights operated by Aero
Contractors delivered at
least 49 people to secret
CIA sites from Thailand to
Poland or to foreign intel-
ligence services for interro-
gation and possible torture,
said the group's report,
which relied on the work of
In this Dec. 9, 2014, file photo, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. an academic at London's
University of Westminster
who studies the CIA pro-
Associated Press gram.
"Instead of holding Aero
official power, though oth- accountable, the State of
ers succeeded in bringing North Carolina and John-
attention to American mili- ston County until now have
tary atrocities in Vietnam effectively endorsed its
and war crimes in Bangla- activities. This support has
desh during that country's taken the form of hosting
1971 civil war. the company's headquar-
The anti-torture activists ters at the Johnston County
now say they want gov- Airport and providing it with
ernment admissions and various airport and other
compensation for those county services," the re-
tortured. State and county port said. Aero Contractors
legal authorities also should president Dolph Overton
prosecute the pilots and IV and other company of-
others involved in transport- ficials did not return phone
ing prisoners since Washing- calls or emails seeking
ton won't under "laws that comment on the commis-
criminalize kidnapping, ag- sion's statements. The CIA
gravated assault, false im- declined to comment.
prisonment, and conspira- Neither North Carolina At-
cies to commit such unlaw- torney General Josh Stein
ful acts," the group said. nor Gov. Roy Cooper, who
In the years after the Sept. served as attorney gen-
11, 2001, attacks by al-Qa- eral for 16 years before
eda terrorists on the United Stein took over last year,
States, CIA interrogators have given any indication
employed tactics like simu- they wanted to explore
lated drownings and mock the state's ties to the CIA
executions that are now detention and interroga-
widely viewed as torture. tion program shuttered by
A 2014 report released by President Barack Obama
then-Senate Intelligence in 2009. Nor have any local
Committee chairwoman prosecutors.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Spokesmen for Cooper did
California Democrat, con- not respond when asked
cluded the agency under- why he hasn't investigated
stated the brutality of the or discussed North Caro-
techniques, while overstat- lina's connections to the
ing the value of information CIA program. "Based on
obtained by using them. our understanding of the
The group's focus on North situation, this appears to
Carolina springs from the be a federal matter," Stein
reported involvement in spokeswoman Laura Brew-
the CIA program of Aero er said in an email. Cooper
Contractors Limited. The and Stein are Democrats.q