Dobbsworld
06-12-2005, 03:50
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051205/CIA05/TPInternational
Seven mystery planes landed in Canada
By JIM BRONSKILL
Monday, December 5, 2005 Page A10
Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- A mysterious Twin Otter plane owned by an alleged CIA front turned up in Northern Ontario this fall, raising unanswered questions about why it was there.
It's the latest twist in a perplexing saga of aircraft controlled by apparent shell companies of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Flight data obtained by The Canadian Press indicate the DeHavilland DHC-6-300 aircraft landed in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in early October after taking off from Michigan's Jackson County Airport.
From there, the 22-seat turboprop made the short trip to another airport just southwest of the hamlet of Bar River, Ont. A Bar River airport official said that out of respect for customers' privacy, he would not discuss planes that use the facility.
"I suggest you don't pursue this any further," said the official, who asked not to be named. "I have no knowledge of any CIA aircraft."
Planes that stop in Bar River generally do so for refuelling or maintenance, he added.
The airport is home to a company that specializes in work on DeHavilland aircraft. There is no record of the plane leaving Bar River.
The alleged CIA Twin Otter had flown to Jackson, Mich., from Johnston County Airport in Smithfield, N.C., a facility singled out by the New York Times as a hub for covert American air operations.
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration records show the aircraft, with tail number N6161Q, is registered to Aviation Specialties, Inc., one of seven firms identified by the Times as having CIA connections.
The address of the difficult-to-trace company is an anonymous Washington post-office box.
The plane is among at least seven aircraft owned by alleged CIA front companies that, according to flight data, have landed at Canadian airports in the past six months, including three in Newfoundland and one in Nunavut.
Several European countries have begun investigations into charges that planes owned by the CIA landed at airstrips in their cities. Concern has focused on reports some of the planes may have been transporting terrorist suspects to foreign prisons.
A CIA spokesman declined to comment on reports of Canadian landings.
More questions than answers surround a flurry of recent allegations about CIA flights to various countries pieced together from air registries, media stories and sightings by aircraft enthusiasts documented on plane-spotting websites.
A woman who answered a phone number that appears in corporate records for Path Corp. -- a Delaware firm identified as one of the CIA shell companies -- said it was an incorrect listing.
Captions accompanying Internet photos of the N6161Q Twin Otter note the prominent antennas on its upper fuselage. The plane has reportedly been to Nevada, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Malta and an airport in Shannon, Ireland.
Last week, Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had reassured him the airport had not been used for "anything untoward."
Ms. Rice is expected to respond this week to concerns about allegations of secret CIA jails said to hold terrorism suspects in Eastern Europe.
In Canada, the Bloc Québécois has repeatedly pressed the federal government for details about the alleged CIA flights, accusing the Liberals of hiding information.
In a recent letter to Bloc MP Serge Menard, Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said there was no credible information to support suggestions that two flights mentioned by the Bloc had been transporting terrorism suspects or otherwise engaging in illegal activities on Canadian soil.
Reports indicate dozens of CIA-linked flights may have landed in Canada during the last four years.
Zuwena Robidas, a Public Safety Department spokeswoman, said further inquiries are still under way.
The Foreign Affairs Department has said it will bring any matters of concern to Washington's attention.
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But wait, here's more:
http://www.ltvnews.com/viewarticle.php?id=4155
MP Martin on CIA Activities
Darren Taylor
LTVNews.com
Monday, December 5 2005, 3:27PM
There’s usually nothing mysterious about Twin Otter planes landing and refueling in Northern Ontario—but an October quick stop at the airport in Bar River by one such plane has raised eyebrows.
The plane’s ownership was traced to the American Central Intelligence Agency—the CIA—which has made several such plane landings across Canada in recent months.
The landing of the CIA plane in Bar River comes with several reports by European countries that agency aircraft have used airstrips in their countries—possibly to transport terrorism suspects to foreign prisons.
No one in Bar River is talking, the CIA certainly isn’t talking, and the federal government seems to have sloughed off concerns raised by opposition MPs about these landings in Canada.
And that has Sault MP Tony Martin concerned.
Martin, speaking to LTV Monday, said “the federal government needs to be concerned. Canada has a reputation for peacekeeping, our humanitarian efforts are the envy of many nations. We need to keep that reputation clean and clear.”
“The government should be asking the Americans what they’re doing, who and what they’re shipping through our country. I’ve heard that Germany is concerned about this too.”
Martin pointed to the example of Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who the Americans detained in New York and deported to Syria, suspecting he had terrorist ties. Arar spent a year there before returning to Canada, claiming he had been tortured in a Syrian jail.
“We are a sovereign nation, we don’t have to be pushed around by anybody, we have to let the Americans know what they can and can’t do, and if there is anything untoward going on, we need to be challenging that.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am still spluttering over this one. How on earth can our much-ballyhooed Liberal government justify aiding and abetting human torture by allowing the transport of detainees through our sovereign airspace to parts unknown?
I damn well want to see this issue get raised during the current election campaign.
Your thoughts?
Seven mystery planes landed in Canada
By JIM BRONSKILL
Monday, December 5, 2005 Page A10
Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- A mysterious Twin Otter plane owned by an alleged CIA front turned up in Northern Ontario this fall, raising unanswered questions about why it was there.
It's the latest twist in a perplexing saga of aircraft controlled by apparent shell companies of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Flight data obtained by The Canadian Press indicate the DeHavilland DHC-6-300 aircraft landed in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in early October after taking off from Michigan's Jackson County Airport.
From there, the 22-seat turboprop made the short trip to another airport just southwest of the hamlet of Bar River, Ont. A Bar River airport official said that out of respect for customers' privacy, he would not discuss planes that use the facility.
"I suggest you don't pursue this any further," said the official, who asked not to be named. "I have no knowledge of any CIA aircraft."
Planes that stop in Bar River generally do so for refuelling or maintenance, he added.
The airport is home to a company that specializes in work on DeHavilland aircraft. There is no record of the plane leaving Bar River.
The alleged CIA Twin Otter had flown to Jackson, Mich., from Johnston County Airport in Smithfield, N.C., a facility singled out by the New York Times as a hub for covert American air operations.
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration records show the aircraft, with tail number N6161Q, is registered to Aviation Specialties, Inc., one of seven firms identified by the Times as having CIA connections.
The address of the difficult-to-trace company is an anonymous Washington post-office box.
The plane is among at least seven aircraft owned by alleged CIA front companies that, according to flight data, have landed at Canadian airports in the past six months, including three in Newfoundland and one in Nunavut.
Several European countries have begun investigations into charges that planes owned by the CIA landed at airstrips in their cities. Concern has focused on reports some of the planes may have been transporting terrorist suspects to foreign prisons.
A CIA spokesman declined to comment on reports of Canadian landings.
More questions than answers surround a flurry of recent allegations about CIA flights to various countries pieced together from air registries, media stories and sightings by aircraft enthusiasts documented on plane-spotting websites.
A woman who answered a phone number that appears in corporate records for Path Corp. -- a Delaware firm identified as one of the CIA shell companies -- said it was an incorrect listing.
Captions accompanying Internet photos of the N6161Q Twin Otter note the prominent antennas on its upper fuselage. The plane has reportedly been to Nevada, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Malta and an airport in Shannon, Ireland.
Last week, Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had reassured him the airport had not been used for "anything untoward."
Ms. Rice is expected to respond this week to concerns about allegations of secret CIA jails said to hold terrorism suspects in Eastern Europe.
In Canada, the Bloc Québécois has repeatedly pressed the federal government for details about the alleged CIA flights, accusing the Liberals of hiding information.
In a recent letter to Bloc MP Serge Menard, Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said there was no credible information to support suggestions that two flights mentioned by the Bloc had been transporting terrorism suspects or otherwise engaging in illegal activities on Canadian soil.
Reports indicate dozens of CIA-linked flights may have landed in Canada during the last four years.
Zuwena Robidas, a Public Safety Department spokeswoman, said further inquiries are still under way.
The Foreign Affairs Department has said it will bring any matters of concern to Washington's attention.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
But wait, here's more:
http://www.ltvnews.com/viewarticle.php?id=4155
MP Martin on CIA Activities
Darren Taylor
LTVNews.com
Monday, December 5 2005, 3:27PM
There’s usually nothing mysterious about Twin Otter planes landing and refueling in Northern Ontario—but an October quick stop at the airport in Bar River by one such plane has raised eyebrows.
The plane’s ownership was traced to the American Central Intelligence Agency—the CIA—which has made several such plane landings across Canada in recent months.
The landing of the CIA plane in Bar River comes with several reports by European countries that agency aircraft have used airstrips in their countries—possibly to transport terrorism suspects to foreign prisons.
No one in Bar River is talking, the CIA certainly isn’t talking, and the federal government seems to have sloughed off concerns raised by opposition MPs about these landings in Canada.
And that has Sault MP Tony Martin concerned.
Martin, speaking to LTV Monday, said “the federal government needs to be concerned. Canada has a reputation for peacekeeping, our humanitarian efforts are the envy of many nations. We need to keep that reputation clean and clear.”
“The government should be asking the Americans what they’re doing, who and what they’re shipping through our country. I’ve heard that Germany is concerned about this too.”
Martin pointed to the example of Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who the Americans detained in New York and deported to Syria, suspecting he had terrorist ties. Arar spent a year there before returning to Canada, claiming he had been tortured in a Syrian jail.
“We are a sovereign nation, we don’t have to be pushed around by anybody, we have to let the Americans know what they can and can’t do, and if there is anything untoward going on, we need to be challenging that.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am still spluttering over this one. How on earth can our much-ballyhooed Liberal government justify aiding and abetting human torture by allowing the transport of detainees through our sovereign airspace to parts unknown?
I damn well want to see this issue get raised during the current election campaign.
Your thoughts?