This page describes several aircraft that are alleged in media reports to have been used in the practice of
extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism, euphemistically-named policy of state-sponsored abduction in a foreign jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The best-known use of extraordinary rendition is in a United States-led program during th ...
, the extralegal transfer of prisoners from one country to another.
N313P

N313P was a tailnumber assigned to a
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...
that the ''Chicago Tribune'' reported on Tuesday, February 6, 2007, flew from
Tashkent
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
to
Kabul
Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
, on September 21, 2003, and then to
Szczytno-Szymany International Airport
Olsztyn-Mazury Airport () is an international passenger airport in the North-East of Poland, branded as the gateway to the Masurian Lake District. It is located near Szymany, Szczytno County, Szymany, some 10 km from the centre of Szczytno ...
in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, landing at 9 p.m. "It stayed on the ground for 57 minutes before taking off for
Baneasa Airport in
Bucharest, Romania
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
, an airport that, according to the
Marty Report, 'bears all the characteristics of a detainee transfer or drop-off point,'" states author Tom Hundley on page 14 of the ''Tribune''. The 737 then continued on to
Rabat, Morocco
Rabat (, also , ; ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. It is also the capital city of the Rabat-Salé ...
, and
Guantanamo Bay, the Marty Report said. In 2004 the plane was used to render LIFG leader
Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Bouchar to Libya.
"The registered owners of both planes
oeing 737, N313P, and Gulfstream V, N379Pappear to be
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
front companies. Previous attempts by the ''Tribune'' to contact the owners produced a trail of non-existent people at unlikely addresses, or law firms that did not want to discuss the nature of their interest in aviation. Both planes have been involved in rendition cases documented by the ''Tribune'', other media and
EU investigators," states the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' on page 14.
[Hundley, Tom]
"Remote Polish airstrip holds clues to secret CIA flights"
''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'', Tuesday, February 6, 2007, Volume 160, Number 37, page 1, 14.
N379P
N379P was a tailnumber assigned to a
Gulfstream V
The Gulfstream V (Model GV, pronounced "G-five") is a large, long-range business jet aircraft produced by Gulfstream Aerospace, derived from the previous Gulfstream IV. It flies up to , up to and has a range. It typically accommodates four c ...
executive jet. The aircraft has been reported in several press sources as a
U.S. Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, t ...
prisoner transport, also known as "
Guantánamo
Guantánamo (, , ) is a municipality and city in southeast Cuba and capital of Guantánamo Province.
Guantánamo is served by the Caimanera port near the site of a U.S. naval base. The area produces sugarcane and cotton wool. These are traditi ...
Bay Express". The craft has been reported to being used to transport suspected
terrorists
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
to undisclosed locations for either
extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism, euphemistically-named policy of state-sponsored abduction in a foreign jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The best-known use of extraordinary rendition is in a United States-led program during th ...
or into the
CIA prison system. It has been the subject of criminal complaints and parliamentary inquiries.
According to an in-depth investigation into the worldwide network of detention and interrogation facilities employed in the
War on Terror, by the British
Guardian
Guardian usually refers to:
* Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another
* ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper
(The) Guardian(s) may also refer to:
Places
* Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...
newspaper, (March 2005):
Background
The first media mention of N379P was six weeks after September 11, 2001, when, according to the ''Chicago Tribune,'' a Pakistani newspaper reported that a student at the
University of Karachi
The University of Karachi (; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (which is ...
and a citizen of
Yemen
Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...
, had been seen being forced onto the plane at
Jinnah International Airport
Jinnah International Airport () , formerly Drigh Road Airport or Karachi International Airport, is Pakistan's busiest international and domestic airport, and handled 7,267,582 passengers in 2017–2018. Located in Karachi, the largest city a ...
by Pakistani security officers on the morning of October 23, 2001. The ''Chicago Tribune'' reported on the aircraft again on February 6, 2007, stating that N379P departed
Washington Dulles International Airport July 27, 2003, and flew to
Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the foreland of the Taunus on its namesake Main, it forms a contin ...
according to FAA records. The FAA then records the Gulfstream taking off from
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
, on July 31, 2003, bound for
Glasgow, Scotland
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, and then return to Dulles. The ''Tribune'' then states that Polish aviation records indicate that N379P landed at
Szczytno-Szymany International Airport
Olsztyn-Mazury Airport () is an international passenger airport in the North-East of Poland, branded as the gateway to the Masurian Lake District. It is located near Szymany, Szczytno County, Szymany, some 10 km from the centre of Szczytno ...
, a remote airfield at
Szymany, Poland, at 2:58 a.m. on July 30, 2003, after a flight from Afghanistan. How the aircraft moved from Frankfurt to Tashkent remains unreported.
The Szymany airport is located southwest of the
Stare Kiejkuty intelligence base in northern Poland.
The executive jet with the tail number N379P was again brought to public attention by
Swedish TV4's documentary, ''Det brutna löftet'' ("The broken promise"), aired May 17, 2004. The documentary claimed that the expulsion of two men,
Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad al-Zery—ordered by the Cabinet—to Egypt on December 18, 2001, was carried out by hooded U.S. agents. The plane booked by the
Swedish Security Police (SÄPO) was cancelled when another plane arrived—N379P—a
Gulfstream V
The Gulfstream V (Model GV, pronounced "G-five") is a large, long-range business jet aircraft produced by Gulfstream Aerospace, derived from the previous Gulfstream IV. It flies up to , up to and has a range. It typically accommodates four c ...
executive jet supplied by the firm (
Premier Executive Transport Services, Inc.) which works exclusively for the U.S. Defense Department.
Agiza and al-Zery were arrested and brought to Bromma airport in Stockholm where Swedish police handed them over to hooded operatives. The two prisoners had their clothes cut from their bodies by scissors, without their hand- and footcuffs being loosened. The naked and chained prisoners were given suppository of unknown kind inserted into their anus, and diapers were put on them. They were forcibly dressed in dark overalls. Their hands and feet are chained to a specially designed harness. On the plane, both men are blindfolded and hooded. The plane took off at 21.49 and set course towards Egypt.
Later on, when the Gulfstream's log books came into a journalist's hands, the wider scope became clear:
Appearance in fiction
N379P appears in the episode "Hundrede dage" of the Danish TV series ''
Borgen'' which focuses on the problems for the Danish prime-minister caused by the revelation of rendition flights landing at Thule. In addition, a Gulfstream V that is being used to carry out an extraordinary rendition appears in Jason Trask's 2011 novel ''I'm Not Muhammad'' (Red Wheelbarrow Books).
N596GA
N596GA was the tailnumber of a Gulfstream V, which has also been mentioned in print as a possible transport for the CIA program of extraordinary rendition. According to a 2008 article by writer Dave Willis, the plane was ordered in 1999 by the United States Air Force as a
C-37A, serial ''99-0405'', and was rolled out as N596GA but only briefly took up its military serial before reverting to the civil registration, issued on September 20, 2001, nine days after the
9-11
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
attacks. It was registered to National Aircraft Leasing of Greenville, New Castle County in Delaware, "and is believed to have been used by the
Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System
The Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS), nicknamed "Con Air", is a United States Marshals Service airline charged with the transportation of persons in legal custody between prisons, detention centers, courthouses, and oth ...
s (JPATS), managed by the
U.S. Marshals Service. JPATS is responsible for moving prisoners and non-US citizen criminals around and has its own fleet of aircraft, as well as frequently leasing others. N596GA is also said to have been used in the CIA's programme of extraordinary rendition against terrorist subjects."
[Willis, Dave, "''Distinguished Airlift''", Air Forces Monthly, May 2008, Stamford, Lincs, UK, page 79.]
N85VM
N85VM was the tail number of a
Gulfstream IV
The Gulfstream IV (or G-IV or GIV) and derivatives are a family of twinjet aircraft, mainly for private or Business jet, business use. They were designed and built by Gulfstream Aerospace, a General Dynamics company based in Savannah, Georgia, ...
which newspaper reports have speculated may have been used as a
US Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
or CIA prisoner transport.
[Edes, Gordon, "CIA uses jet, Red Sox partner confirms", ''The Boston Globe'', March 21, 2005](_blank)
/ref> Plane logs obtained by reporters show that the plane was in Cairo on February 18, 2003, the same day that the radical Egyptian cleric Abu Omar arrived in Cairo after being abducted in Italy, leading reporters to speculate that the Gulfstream IV may have been the plane used to render Abu Omar.[Crewdson, John, "Jet's Travels Cloaked in Mystery", ''Chicago Tribune'', March 20, 2005, archived at CommonDreams.org](_blank)
American and Italian intelligence officers were later charged with Abu Omar's abduction.[Wilkinson, T. (2006).]
''The Los Angeles Times'', July 7, 2006.
In addition to the trip to Cairo, between June 2002 and January 2005, the aircraft made 51 trips to Guantánamo Bay, as well as 82 visits to Dulles International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport ( ) – commonly known by its former name of Dulles International Airport, by its airport code of IAD, or simply as Dulles Airport – is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located w ...
and Andrews Air Force Base
Andrews Air Force Base (Andrews AFB, AAFB) is the airfield portion of Joint Base Andrews, which is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force (USAF). In 2009, Andrews Air Force Base merged with Naval Air Facility Washington to form ...
. It also visited U.S. air bases at Ramstein and Rhein-Main in Germany, Afghanistan, Morocco, Dubai, Jordan, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic.
See also
* Aero Contractors (US)
* Air America (airline)
Air America was an American passenger and cargo airline established in 1946 and covertly owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1950 to 1976. It supplied and supported covert operations in Southeast Asia during the Viet ...
* Southern Air Transport
* Tepper Aviation
References
{{reflist, colwidth=30em
External links
Planepictures
(includes database of alleged rendition flights/planes)
Penal imprisonment
Extraordinary rendition program
Lists of aircraft