CIA rendition flights exposed in billing dispute

WASHINGTON - The CIA's secret rendition programme --to whisk terrorist suspects in the dark of night to CIA black sites for interrogation-- has been exposed in a billing dispute between contractors in New York, according to media reports. The flight logs for a Gulfstream IV plane leased by a one-man Long Island firm are among the 1,500 pages of documentation in court records filed in conjunction with a 2009 breach-of-contract suit filed in Columbia County, New York. The records show, among other things, a curious itinerary for the plane over a four-day period in August 2003--northern Virginia's Dulles airport, Bangkok, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, Tripoli, Ireland. "The Gulfstream IV's itinerary, as well as the $339,228.05 price tag for the journey, are among the details about shadowy CIA flights that have emerged in a small Upstate New York courthouse in a billing dispute between contractors," WP pointed out. The two contractors involved in the litigation are Richmor Aviation, an aviation services firm based in Hudson, NY; and Sportsflight, based in Long Island, NY, which hired Richmor to conduct several flights, apparently at the behest of the CIA.

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