NORTH CAROLINA
STOP TORTURE NOW

PO Box 50345
Raleigh, NC 27650
e-mail via:
contact AT ncstoptorturenow.net

(919) 834-4478
(evenings, or messages during business hours)

NCTSN MEMBERS, ALLIES SET TO APPEAL CONVICTION IN SECRET TRIALS

FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER : CENTURION DENIES LINKS TO RENDITION FLIGHTS

GHOST PLANES STILL FLYING - N478GS: MET ON ARRIVAL TO SHANNON, TWO ANTI-TORTURE ACTIVISTS DETAINED (Nov. 28)

LONDON TIMES: SECRET FLIGHT LOGS REVEAL EUROPEAN COMPLICITY IN RENDITION EUROPEAN MP's CALL GUANTANAMO TREATMENT TORTURE
(Nov. 25)

HOUSE VOTES TO END RENDITION PROGRAM (Nov. 14)

MUKASEY CONFIRMED (Nov. 8)

TORTURE CASE AGAINST PRIVATE CONTRACTOR GOES FORWARD (Nov. 6)

OCT. 27 MARCH, RALLY IN SMITHFIELD

The award winning video of the Oct. 27 "Peace Rally and Walk of Remembrance ..." can be seen at: <http://www.vimeo.com/425389>

PBS' FRONTLINE INVESTIGATES EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

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Fayetteville Observer reports on planespotting at KFAY; Centurion Aviation Services

Dec. 23 - The Fayetteville Observer covered NCSTN's ongoing effort to directly monitor and photograph aircraft linked to torture flights at stop-overs in North Carolina.

The story focused on the August 29 arrival of N475LC at KFAY, which is documented at our planespotting page.

A Centurion Aviation spokesman denied involvement with the CIA's program of kidnap and torture, noting: “We are obliged to protect the privacy of our clients with regards to the nature of their business ... ”

However, Fager later photographed a different aircraft, a Gulftstream IV with FAA registration: N478GS, at Fayetteville Regional/Grannis Field and Irish allies who met the plane in Shannon were detained when they demanded a police investigation of the plane's mission and cargo.

In spite of Centurion officials' denial of involvement in rendition, reporting in the Chicago Tribune describes a very suspicious crash and subsequent disappearance of passgengers on one of the jet's landings in Bucharest.

And, while Centurion denies involvement in rendition flights, the ACLU has gathered evidence that another rendition-linked company, Jeppesen DataPlan, openly told employees what services they provided the CIA.

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Irish allies arrested meeting N478GS on arrival at Shannon

NCSTN planespotters had photographed the rendition-linked aircraft at Fayetteville Regional / Grannis Field, November 28

N478GS arrived at Shannon 1:30 a.m., November 29. Two Irish allies, alerted by NCSTN went to the airport in the public viewing gallery and had already requested the police to search the plane if it arrived. Instead, police arrived and arrested the anti-torture activists as the plane arrived at the terminal building.

The activists were released after about an hour.

Via e-mail, one of the activists wrote: "It will become an important test case to challenge why the Irish police have not (been) investigating or searching these CIA planes ..."

The plane they met has been linked to secret prisons served by rendition flights was photograhed on the tarmac at Fayetteville Regional, November 28.

The twin-engine Gulfstream IV with FAA registration number N478GS is the one that crash-landed in Romania last year, and is registered to L-3 IS, LLC of Great Falls, Montana.

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NCTSN members set to appeal convictions handed down in secret trial

(~From reports by BILL SIZEMORE, The Virginian-Pilot, © December 6, 2007)

In a courtroom closed to the press and public, protesters were sentenced to jail on December 6, for re-enacting a Baghdad shooting incident at the front entrance of Blackwater USA.

Dec. 6, Currituck County — In a courtroom closed to the press and public, protesters were sentenced to jail Wednesday for re-enacting a Baghdad shooting incident at the front entrance of Blackwater USA.

District Judge Edgar Barnes cleared the courtroom after trying one of the protesters, Steve Baggarly of Norfolk, in public. The remaining six were then tried, convicted and sentenced behind closed doors.

Katy Parker, legal director of the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she had never before heard of a similar action being taken by a North Carolina judge.

“It’s a clear violation of constitutional rights, not only of the defendants but the press and public,” Parker said. “They have a right to a public trial, so any trial that goes on behind closed doors is a farce.”

A festival of hope in support of the arrested actvists is planned the evening before their appeal, beginning at 7 p.m., Monday, January 21 at the Norfolk Catholic Worker, Sadako Sasaki House 1321 West 38th St., Norfolk, Virginia. Phone: 757-423-5420

In the Oct. 20 demonstration at Blackwater’s Moyock headquarters, the protesters drove a small station wagon, covered with simulated bullet holes and smeared with red paint, onto Blackwater’s property.

The scene was intended to mimic that in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, when an Iraqi doctor and her son died in a fusillade of gunfire as their car approached a Blackwater diplomatic convoy.

They were among 17 Iraqis killed in the incident, which prompted a federal grand jury investigation and a demand from the Iraqi government that Blackwater’s security contractors be banned from the country. Blackwater USA has also been linked to the operation of aircraft that support the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

Others convicted were Beth Brockman of Durham, N.C.; Mark Colville of New Haven, Conn.; Peter DeMott of Ithaca, N.Y.; Mary Grace of Madison County, Va.; Laura Marks of Ayden, N.C.; and Bill Streit of Louisa County, Va.

Brockman and Marks are NCSTN members.

Read more ... (external link)
Learn about the protest at: BlackwaterWatch (external link)

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PEACE RALLY & WALK OF REMEMBRANCE FOR VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF WAR AND TORTURE

Smithfield, NC - Nearly 350 peace, justice and human rights supporters gathered in the seat of Johnston County for a march and rally and at the headquarters of Aero Contractors in a memorial for victims and survivors of war and torture.

As the Smithfield Herald put it in their coverage Tuesday, Oct. 30: "For an afternoon, Smithfield is home to the debate over the War on Terror."

Video and photos from the event:

The award winning video of the Oct. 27 "Peace Rally and Walk of Remembrance ..." can be seen at: <http://www.vimeo.com/425389>

Collected Photos / Videos / Headlines (courtesy John Booth)

More Photographs and Narrative (courtesy Quaker House)

We marched through the town's business hub - from the First Baptist Church, past the Town Hall, opposite the Ava Gardner Museum and past the veterans' memorial statues at the county courthouse.

Paced by the steady cadence of a marching drum, we walked slowly, sang songs and raised both boisterous chants and hands clenched into the silent, but powerful symbol of peace. Passing motorists waved encouragement even as opponents of our message hurled insults from across the street as well as just steps away from our children.

In the Town Commons, the group cheered speakers including:
Iraq War Veteran Sgt. Jimmy Massey; youth leaders in the NCSTN coalition; psychologist Art Eccleston, ACLU-Georgia attorney and human rightsactivist Azadeh Shahshani, history professor and NCSTN activist Jerry Surh, scholars and activists from the Center for Theology and Social Analysis in St. Louis, and enjoyed performances by Hip Hop Education and the Rainbow ReSisters.

The day ended with a memorial just outside the gates of Aero Contractors' headquarters, where demonstrators walked solemnly to the perimeter fence - through throngs of counter-protesters - to hang images of survivors and victims on the chain link structure.

NCSTN is particularly grateful to all the volunteers who made this event a positive and peaceful one. In particular, we thank those who co-sponsored or endorsed the action.

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NEWLY REVEALED FLIGHT LOGS POINT TO EUROPEAN COMPLICITY IN TORTURE

Nov. 25 — Stephen Grey reports that "(S)ecret flight plans of American military planes have revealed for the first time how European countries helped send prisoners, including British citizens, to the Guantanamo Bay prison camp."

Europe's leading watchdog on human rights alleged that European countries had breached the international convention against torture by giving the US secret permission to use its airspace.

Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, said: "What happened at Guantanamo was torture and it is illegal to provide facilities or anything to make this torture possible. Under the law, European governments should have intervened and should not have given permission to let these flights happen."

Read more ... (external link)

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HOUSE VOTES TO END CIA RENDTION PROGRAM

Nov. 14 — The Democrats' $50 billion Iraq funding bill that passed the House would effectively end CIA renditions, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU, one of the largest nonprofit organizations fighting the Bush Administration on torture and civil liberties issues, lauded House members for passing the bill, which faces a rocky road in the Senate.

The Iraq funding measure revises the Army Field Manual to prohibit torture and abuse, including waterboarding, and authorizes an array of specific interrogation tactics. It specifically states that CIA operatives must adhere to these rules as well.

Read more ... (external link)

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MUKASEY CONFIRMED

Nov. 8 — The Senate confirmed Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general, approving him despite Democratic criticism that he had failed to take an unequivocal stance against the torture of terrorism detainees.

Presidential candidates, Senators Clinton, Biden, Obama, and Dodd all missed the vote.

Read more ... (external link)

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TORTURE CASE AGAINST PRIVATE CONTRACTOR GOES FORWARD

Nov. 6 — In a key victory in the struggle to end torture, a federal court ruled today that the lawsuit against a private military contractor in Iraq should be heard by a jury of Americans. The action was filed in 2004 against CACI and Titan, both of which were named in the military investigation of the Abu Ghraib scandal. The Center for Constitutional Rights, Burke O’Neil LLC, and Akeel Valentine brought the suit as a class action on behalf of the hundreds of Iraqi torture victims. The same firms filed an action on October 11 against Blackwater USA for the killing of innocent bystanders at Noori Square in September.

The court today ruled that the case could go forward against CACI, whose employees worked as interrogators in the prison. The court found that that there was a dual chain of command where corporate employees were obliged to report abuse up the chain of command at CACI. The court dismissed the claims against Titan, whose employees worked as translators, reasoning that the military exercised exclusive control over the translators.

Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, stated, “This will send a message to all contractors that they cannot act with impunity outside the law ...”

Read more ... (external link)

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PBS' FRONTLINE INVESTIGATES EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

PBS aired an extensive investiagiton of extraordinary rendition in early December 2007.

Read more or watch the video ... (external link)

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updated 11 March 2008, JMcI