Rendition aircraft
This page describes several aircraft that are alleged in media reports to have been used in the practice of extraordinary rendition, the extralegal transfer of prisoners from one country to another.
This article is about specific aircraft alleged to have been used in rendition flights. For general discussion of investigations and controversies, see Extraordinary rendition.N596GA[edit]
N596GA was the tailnumber of a Gulfstream V, which has also been mentioned in print as a possible transport for the CIA program of extraordinary rendition. According to a 2008 article by writer Dave Willis, the plane was ordered in 1999 by the United States Air Force as a C-37A, serial 99-0405, and was rolled out as N596GA but only briefly took up its military serial before reverting to the civil registration, issued on September 20, 2001, nine days after the 9-11 attacks. It was registered to National Aircraft Leasing of Greenville, New Castle County in Delaware, "and is believed to have been used by the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation Systems (JPATS), managed by the U.S. Marshals Service. JPATS is responsible for moving prisoners and non-US citizen criminals around and has its own fleet of aircraft, as well as frequently leasing others. N596GA is also said to have been used in the CIA's programme of extraordinary rendition against terrorist subjects."[8]
N85VM[edit]
N85VM was the tail number of a Gulfstream IV which newspaper reports have speculated may have been used as a US Department of Defense or CIA prisoner transport.[9] Plane logs obtained by reporters show that the plane was in Cairo on February 18, 2003, the same day that the radical Egyptian cleric Abu Omar arrived in Cairo after being abducted in Italy, leading reporters to speculate that the Gulfstream IV may have been the plane used to render Abu Omar.[10] American and Italian intelligence officers were later charged with Abu Omar's abduction.[11]
In addition to the trip to Cairo, between June 2002 and January 2005, the aircraft made 51 trips to Guantánamo Bay, as well as 82 visits to Dulles International Airport and Andrews Air Force Base. It also visited U.S. air bases at Ramstein and Rhein-Main in Germany, Afghanistan, Morocco, Dubai, Jordan, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic.[10]