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Liverpool FC co-owners jet used by CIA in extraordinary rendition
Documents brought to light in a New York court have exposed connections between a coowner of Liverpool Football Club and so-called torture flights carried out by the US government. A private jet owned by Phillip Morse, vice-president of Liverpool FCs parent company Fenway Sports Group, was hired to a firm working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) more than 55 times between 2002 and 2005. It was used to abduct or extraordinarily render terrorism suspects from locations in Europe to countries including Thailand, Malta, Egypt, Libya, Djibouti and Azerbaijan, where they were allegedly tortured during interrogation. It is also believed to have been used for at least 50 trips to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Evidence brought to light in the court reveals that the company Morse paid to lease out his jet, Richmor, asked US government officials to change the registration number on the planes tail after negative publicity had linked it to rendition flights.

LOCAL FEATURE

A Gulfstream IV, of the type owned by Phillip Morris. Photo: Toshinori Baba

Court case
In 2005, following a European Parliament rendition investigation, Morse told a Boston Globe reporter that there was nothing devious or clandestine about the registration change. He said he was unaware what his plane was being used for and that his company was not dealing directly with the CIA but with an intermediary government agency, more like a travel agency for government business. A number of other companies hired their planes out to the US government. But the full extent of their involvement was kept secret until recently, when one
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of the firms sued another in a dispute over fees. Human rights group Reprieve obtained a trove of over 1,500 operational and legal documents from the court case, which it says offer an unprecedented insight into the US governments extraordinary rendition programme. The cache of documents disclosed in this civil case shows rendition in a new light, said Clare Algar, executive director of Reprieve. They reveal how Mr Morse was concerned about using his plane after it had been used for rendition flights and show flight operators referring to CIA agents and their invitees being flown around the world. But while the documents give us extra insight into the reality of rendition flights, we must remember the purpose of rendition to fly people to black sites where the rule of law cannot protect them. Morses plane, a Gulfstream IV worth more than 19 million, was rented out at a cost of $4,900 (3,100) an hour which works out at around $800,000

(506,000) per week. In between being used to transport terror suspects around the world, it was used by members of top US baseball team the Boston Red Sox, also co-owned by Morse.

Snatched
In 2003 the jet was used to render a Muslim cleric known as Abu Omar from Italy to Egypt. Omar, whom American authorities accused of plotting terrorism, was snatched by CIA agents on a Milan street in broad daylight on 17 February. Federal Aviation Administration records show Morses plane landed in Cairo early the next morning. Omar was subsequently imprisoned in Tura, 20 miles south of Cairo, where he claims he was twice raped, suffered electroshock treatment and lost the hearing in his left ear due to repeated beatings. He was eventually released by the Egyptian government in 2007, after a state security court ruled that his detention was unfounded. An Italian judge later convicted, in absentia, 23 CIA operatives over the kidnapping.

The head of the US abduction operation, Robert Seldon Lady, told Reuters in 2009 that he was only responsible for carrying out orders, adding: When you work in intelligence, you do things in the country in which you work that are not legal. Its a life of illegality... But thats our job. Were at war against terrorism.

Torture denied
Under international law it is illegal to deport or extradite a detainee to any country where there are substantial grounds for believing he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. The US government admits secretly transferring terrorism suspects to third countries, but denies it has ever engaged in torture or handed suspects over to be tortured. Liverpool FC referred a request for comment to a communications officer for the Boston Red Sox. The officer had not responded to emails from The Big Issue in the North at the time of going to press.
RYAN GALLaAGHER

THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH 19-25 SEPTEMBER 2011