US court documents reveal inner workings of CIA renditions

Paper trail casts light not only on destinations and planes, but on the finance and logistics of the renditions programme
    • The Guardian,
    • Jump to comments ()
Binyam Mohamed
If Richmor Aviation was allowed to bring its case in the open, why weren't Guantánamo detainees Binyam Mohamed (above) and Bisher al-Rawi given their day in court? Photograph: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images



The documents cast light not only on destinations and planes, but also on the inner workings of the programme: its financial and logistical dimensions.

They show how, in May 2002, contractors hired by the US government sought the use of a private Gulfstream jet for government missions. Richmor Aviation offered the N85VM, on the understanding that it should be in the air at any time given 12 hours' notice.



While many of these itineraries had already come to light, the disclosures in this case add new dimensions to the existing evidence.

Page after page of invoices lay out the financial record of the operations, including catering bills, crew costs, flight planning charges, overflight permissions and other assorted mechanisms that made the programme as a whole possible.



Most astonishingly, these documents are a matter of public record. They are not classed as sensitive, they are not confidential: anyone who wants a copy can order them and peruse them at leisure.

In 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Reprieve brought a case against a trip planning company, Jeppesen, arguing that it had participated in arrangements for certain renditions flights.

The US government swiftly stepped in and shut the case down, on the basis that to argue it would reveal state secrets. The ACLU appealed to the supreme court, which in May 2011 declined to consider the case. In the same month, Richmor's litigation concluded, after unveiling this mass of documentation.

You have to ask yourself: if Richmor was allowed to bring its case in the open, why weren't Guantánamo detainees Binyam Mohamed and Bisher al-Rawi given their day in court? This case removes all doubt that what the CIA seeks to protect in renditions cases is not a genuine 'state secret' so much as its own prerogatives.

Latest posts

Today's best video

Today in pictures