Ha’aretz is reporting that flights used by the CIA to transport terrorist suspects stopped over in Tel Aviv. The “straw” company owning the plane, Prescott Support, is apparently a front for the CIA. The interesting thing, though, is that you can go here and have a look at photos of the plane in question. It seems to get around, with photos being taken as far back as 2001, in a variety of places including Malta, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Iceland, USA, Portugal, Malaysia and Singapore.

IOL have reported some more details regarding the rendition Khalid Rashid. They state that the airline company AVE that is linked to the plane used in the rendition, is the latest incarnation of Phoenix Aviation i.e. they’re both one in the same, which clears that up. They also revealed more details about the deportation:

Meanwhile, a Lenasia-based radio station, Channel Islam, reported on Friday night that it had established, following a special investigation, that a Gulfstream II jet (with registration A6-PHY) left Mombasa, Kenya, at 11am on Saturday, November 5, last year. It landed at Lanseria at 2.52pm, where passengers and crew cleared customs. The jet departed for Waterkloof Airforce base at 6.42 the next morning, where Rashid was waiting with Joseph Swartland, a senior immigration official.

It has also been revealed that Execujet, an international handling company at Lanseria, checked at least six people from the Gulfstream into the Palazzo Hotel at Monte Casino.

In papers before the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday, the Minister of Home Affairs said there were five crew members and four passengers on board when the plane left Waterkloof. However, the flight plan only mentions a pilot and one crew member.

They also revealed that Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service gave a report on Rashid to the South African Secret Service sometime last year which claimed that “Rashid was not involved in terror in the UK and had never been to the United States.” Finally, IOL also said claimed that Rashid’s family’s lawyer, Zehir Omar, is taking the case to the International Criminal Court.

It seems that an incredible story is brewing in South Africa over the suspected rendition of Khaled Rashid. As the European Parliament releases their investigation into the American CIA’s practice of “rendition” (i.e. kidnapping), Reuters reports that lawyers for Rashid’s family have claimed that, “Beyond a reasonable doubt this was a case of rendition. Here is a man who was kidnapped, sent to a military base and whisked away to who knows where. This is not the kind of thing that happens in a democracy.”

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Perhaps European investigators who are complaining of stonewalling by the US government in their investigation into the secret CIA detention centers and prisoner rendition should give ABC News and the Washington Post a call. Chances are, they know something they’re not telling. Have a look at this very interesting exchange between Brian Ross, Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC News, and Ed Schultz provides wonderful insight into how the media will often apply self censorship to themselves:

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