'Torture Taxis' Make Regular Stops in Las Vegas

Is torture an acceptable tactic to use in the war against terror?

The Bush Administration recently acknowledged that some forms of coercion are being used by American agents against suspected terrorists. But human rights advocates say the U.S. is actively supporting the use of more extreme techniques. And the people who are involved are making regular visits to Las Vegas.

This is the story of so called rendition planes, otherwise known as torture taxis. They are civilian aircraft often owned by companies suspected of being fronts for the CIA. The planes are used to travel abroad, kidnap suspects, and take them to dark places at the ends of the earth, from which few ever return.

It sounds like a faraway intrigue, except these alleged torture planes have made Las Vegas a regular pit stop. The I-Team has the video to prove it.

The Beech B-200 that flew into the North Las Vegas Airport on a warm July afternoon looked a lot like the other private planes that land every few minutes, but this one had a block on it, meaning it was extremely difficult to track its movements.

The I-Team watched as its pilot unloaded bag after bag and then loaded them all into a waiting Clark County van. The identity of the pilot isn't known, but we know plenty about the plane.

Trevor Paglen said, "These planes show up in and around Las Vegas fairly regularly. The Beech craft you photographed, we see a lot. It's quite clearly controlled by CIA, if not out rightly owned by CIA."

Trevor Paglen is a doctoral candidate at University of California, Berkeley and the author of the book about the so-called torture taxis, or what the CIA calls rendition planes.

Trevor Paglen said, "What this means in normal English is kidnapping people."

Prior to 9/11, the CIA used rendition planes to snatch terror suspects and bring them to the U.S. for trial. After 9/11, in the words of one CIA official, the gloves came off.

Today, there are no trials, no extraditions. Using an ever-changing array of fictitious companies, the CIA has created a fleet of rendition planes that have been used to kidnap and then transport hundreds of suspected terrorists to secret prisons operating inside the world's most brutal regimes.

The prisons have been described as hellholes where horrible tortures are inflicted. Surrogates do the dirty work so the Americans can deny involvement.

It can be argued that America needs to be tough on terrorists, but too often, the wrong guys get scooped up and then tortured. Khaled al Masri, a German citizen, was a kidnapped off the street and flown to a secret prison near Kabul, Afghanistan. He was tortured for five months but was released after his tormenters realized they had the wrong guy.

Al Masri filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, as well as against a Reno, Nevada company called Keeler and Tate, the listed owner of the plane used to transport al Masri. The plane is so well known to aviation watchers that it has a nickname - the Guantanamo Express.

Keeler and Tate is a company in name only. Its listed owner doesn't exist. Before the plane was transferred to this company, it was owned by other phony companies linked to the CIA.

The same is true for a Gulf Stream jet we spotted in October at McCarran Airport. It used to be owned by Braxton Management, but was recently sold to a Montana, LLC. Its numbers have been changed, but this same plane is a regular fixture on the rendition route, repeatedly visiting places known to house secret prisons. It's also a Las Vegas regular, often jumping from McCarran to Nellis and back, sometimes staying only a few minutes.

The little Beech craft seen at North Las Vegas is owned by aviation specialties, another shell company widely known as a CIA front. Why the rendition planes are visiting here so often is anyone's guess. But there is little doubt they are part of a program that has ignited scorn and disgust all over the world.

Trevor Paglen said, "The question is not who they are. We already know a lot of these are bad guys. The question is who are we? Are we going to become like them? We're saying yes, this is who we are. We want to torture people, disappear people and this will become a normal part of what the U.S. government does, and that is very frightening."

European leaders, even strong allies of the U.S., have called for an end to rendition flights after highly publicized incidents where CIA agents abducted private citizens right off the streets of several countries without seeking legal authority to act.

One reason for so many rendition flights to La Vegas is the possibility that the planes are being used to transport counter-terrorism commands for training here, perhaps at the Nevada Test Site. The planes are reportedly used for functions other than the transports of prisoners.

Send your comments to Investigative Reporter George Knapp at gknapp@klastv.com