Suit: Jeppesen assisted CIA
ACLU says company helped agency fly terrorism suspects to secret jails
By Chris Walsh, Rocky Mountain News
May 31, 2007
A lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that Arapahoe County-based Jeppesen knowingly helped the Central Intelligence Agency fly terrorism suspects overseas to secret jails where the prisoners were tortured.
The American Civil Liberties Union claims Jeppesen, a 73-year-old company that offers a host of flight-planning and navigation services, provided support to at least 15 aircraft that made 70 flights to clandestine locations since December 2001.
During those flights, suspects allegedly were stripped, blindfolded, chained down - one even made to wear a diaper.
The ACLU says the suspects were tortured and subjected to other forms "of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" at overseas locations under the CIA's so-called extraordinary rendition program.
Officials at Jeppesen, a subsidiary of Boeing Co., had no immediate comment. The company, though, stressed that it doesn't provide flights and knows little about its clients' intentions.
"We have thousands of customers who do tens of thousands of flights a day that we'll support with information in some fashion," said company spokesman Mike Pound. "There are some things we have to know, such as what route the airplane is going to take. But it isn't necessary to know why somebody is making a trip, and it is not our practice to ask."
The Jeppesen name is familiar to many locals: Denver International Airport's main terminal is named after Elrey Jeppesen, who founded the company and was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame. The company provides everything from flight charts and weather data to training and software. It employs 1,400 in Colorado and has offices worldwide.
Jeppesen has been linked to the covert CIA flights before.
In 2006, an article in The New Yorker claimed Jeppesen regularly arranges CIA "spook" flights to overseas locations. The magazine quoted a former worker who said a top-level executive admitted that the company participates in the flights.
Since then, peace activists and others have protested outside the company's offices in San Jose, Calif., home of Jeppesen's International Trip and Flight Planning Office, which is said to have organized the flights.
ACLU attorney Ben Wizner said Jeppesen could not have been ignorant of the purpose of CIA flights.
"Either they knew or reasonably should have known that they were facilitating a torture program," he said. Companies "are not allowed to have their head in the sand and take money from the CIA to fly people, hooded and shackled, to foreign countries to be tortured."
The lawsuit says Jeppesen participated in everything from providing aircraft crew with weather, route information and hotel accommodations to facilitating customs clearance and securing landing permits from foreign governments.
Jeppesen's parent, Chicago-based Boeing, is not named in the lawsuit. Boeing spokesman Tim Neale said company officials typically don't comment on lawsuits and had not seen this one, nor would they confirm the allegations that Jeppesen provided services to the CIA.
"Jeppesen has a confidentiality clause with all its customers," he said.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District, does not name the CIA as a defendant. The Bush administration has insisted it receives guarantees of no torture from countries receiving terror suspects.
Jeppesen history
• Ralph Latimer persuaded the Denver City Council to name Denver International Airport's terminal after aviation legend Elrey Borge Jeppesen, who moved to the city in 1941 and was here until his death in 1996. Capt. Jeppesen was the first person to exit the first plane to land at DIA on the airport's opening day- Feb. 28, 1995.
[email protected] or 303-954-2744. Rocky wire services contributed to this report.
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ACLU says company helped agency fly terrorism suspects to secret jails
By Chris Walsh, Rocky Mountain News
May 31, 2007
A lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that Arapahoe County-based Jeppesen knowingly helped the Central Intelligence Agency fly terrorism suspects overseas to secret jails where the prisoners were tortured.
The American Civil Liberties Union claims Jeppesen, a 73-year-old company that offers a host of flight-planning and navigation services, provided support to at least 15 aircraft that made 70 flights to clandestine locations since December 2001.
During those flights, suspects allegedly were stripped, blindfolded, chained down - one even made to wear a diaper.
The ACLU says the suspects were tortured and subjected to other forms "of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" at overseas locations under the CIA's so-called extraordinary rendition program.
Officials at Jeppesen, a subsidiary of Boeing Co., had no immediate comment. The company, though, stressed that it doesn't provide flights and knows little about its clients' intentions.
"We have thousands of customers who do tens of thousands of flights a day that we'll support with information in some fashion," said company spokesman Mike Pound. "There are some things we have to know, such as what route the airplane is going to take. But it isn't necessary to know why somebody is making a trip, and it is not our practice to ask."
The Jeppesen name is familiar to many locals: Denver International Airport's main terminal is named after Elrey Jeppesen, who founded the company and was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame. The company provides everything from flight charts and weather data to training and software. It employs 1,400 in Colorado and has offices worldwide.
Jeppesen has been linked to the covert CIA flights before.
In 2006, an article in The New Yorker claimed Jeppesen regularly arranges CIA "spook" flights to overseas locations. The magazine quoted a former worker who said a top-level executive admitted that the company participates in the flights.
Since then, peace activists and others have protested outside the company's offices in San Jose, Calif., home of Jeppesen's International Trip and Flight Planning Office, which is said to have organized the flights.
ACLU attorney Ben Wizner said Jeppesen could not have been ignorant of the purpose of CIA flights.
"Either they knew or reasonably should have known that they were facilitating a torture program," he said. Companies "are not allowed to have their head in the sand and take money from the CIA to fly people, hooded and shackled, to foreign countries to be tortured."
The lawsuit says Jeppesen participated in everything from providing aircraft crew with weather, route information and hotel accommodations to facilitating customs clearance and securing landing permits from foreign governments.
Jeppesen's parent, Chicago-based Boeing, is not named in the lawsuit. Boeing spokesman Tim Neale said company officials typically don't comment on lawsuits and had not seen this one, nor would they confirm the allegations that Jeppesen provided services to the CIA.
"Jeppesen has a confidentiality clause with all its customers," he said.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District, does not name the CIA as a defendant. The Bush administration has insisted it receives guarantees of no torture from countries receiving terror suspects.
Jeppesen history
• Ralph Latimer persuaded the Denver City Council to name Denver International Airport's terminal after aviation legend Elrey Borge Jeppesen, who moved to the city in 1941 and was here until his death in 1996. Capt. Jeppesen was the first person to exit the first plane to land at DIA on the airport's opening day- Feb. 28, 1995.
[email protected] or 303-954-2744. Rocky wire services contributed to this report.
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