Aero Contractors (US)

Aero Contractors Ltd., a private charter company based in Smithfield, North Carolina, is said to provide discreet air transport services for the Central Intelligence Agency.

The company was founded in 1979 by the late Jim Rhyne, a former pilot with Air America. The company has 26 planes and 79 employees and operates from the tiny Johnston County Airport.

On May 31, 2005, the New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/31/national/31planes.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=6087acc3480a296c&ex=1275192000 C.I.A. Expanding Terror Battle Under Guise of Charter Flights] ] reported that the company was heavily involved in extraordinary rendition, the transport of terrorism suspects to countries where they can be tortured to extract information. An Aero Contractors plane was used in the transport of Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen who was pulled from a bus on the Serbia-Macedonia border and held for three weeks. He was drugged and beaten before being flown to Afghanistan on a Boeing Business Jet operated by Aero Contractors. El-Masri was released after five months.

Aero Corporations operates under several different shell companies, including Stevens Express Leasing, Inc., Premier Executive Transport Services, Aviation Specialties, Inc., and Devon Holding and Leasing, Inc. [ [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/dt/617/617722/617722en.pdf European Parliament Working Document No 4 on the flights operated by the CIA in Europe] ]

A book published in September 2006, "Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA Rendition Flights" includes many details about Aero Contractors' involvement in extraordinary rendition.

Pilots alleged to work for Aero Contractors

*James Kovalesky (alias James Richard Fairing)Christina Stefanescu, " [http://www.netzwerkrecherche.de/newsletter/44/nr-jahrestagung-2007-zusammenfassungen.pdf Wie enttarnt man einen CIA-Kidnapper? (How does one unmask a CIA kidnapper?)] " (PDF), "Zusammenfassungen zur nr-Jahreskonferenz 2007 (Summaries to the NR yearly conference 2007)", page 22, "netzwerkrecherche.de", 2007.] [ [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_Kovalesky_(alias_James_Richard_Fairing) James Kovalesky (alias James Richard Fairing)] , SourceWatch, July 27, 2007.]
*Eric Robert Hume (alias Eric Matthew Fain) [ [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Eric_Robert_Hume_(alias_Eric_Matthew_Fain) Eric Robert Hume (alias Eric Matthew Fain)] , SourceWatch, July 27, 2007.]
*Harry Kirk Elarbee (alias Kirk James Bird) [ [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Harry_Kirk_Elarbee_%28alias_Kirk_James_Bird%29 Harry Kirk Elarbee (alias Kirk James Bird)] , SourceWatch, July 26, 2007.]

ee also

*Jeppesen
*Rendition aircraft

References

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulch6mf6FBw Youtube video of protest at Aero Contractors, March 18, 2007]

"Portions of this article were taken from [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Aero_Contractors_Ltd. "Aero Contractors Ltd."] , at "SourceWatch", a wikiproject of the Center for Media & Democracy which is licensed under the GFDL. The list of original authors and the article's edit history can be viewed [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Aero_Contractors_Ltd.&action=history here] ."