Group protests Aero Construction’s alleged terror flights

Leader says First Amendment worked in Lenoir County

By Lee Raynor
Editor

Posted: 7:45 PM EST Friday January 06, 2006

A group of peace activists calling themselves “Stop Torture Now” wrapped yellow crime-scene tape around an Aero Contractors hangar at the Global TransPark Friday and called for the company to discontinue alleged CIA rendition flights.

Rendition flights are those that fly terrorists or terrorist suspects to a country where they can be tortured for information.

“Today, we’re doing a public awareness action … we’re doing the delivery of indictments to officials … we’re going to visit Aero directly,” protest leader Phillip O’Neill said. “We’re going to peacefully approach their front door, attempt to deliver them an indictment and we’re going to up the ante by asking that we be allowed in to inspect the premises, view their flight log and take depositions from their employees in light of the ACLU’s lawsuit that was filed in September that names Aero, this airport, the plane, were directly involved in the kidnapping and delivery for torture of a German citizen.”

The so-called indictments being delivered to GTP, Aero and Jetport officials have no legal standing, O’Neill agreed.

“It’s a people’s indictment,” he said. “In other words, it’s a serious indictment in that we have gathered together all the information that is available from a number of sources, including court cases that have been brought naming Aero, naming the CIA, in these rendition flights. We have fully compiled the facts as we have been able to ascertain them.”

Protestors also attempted unsuccessfully to deliver indictments to Jetport Manager Don Howard, GTP Director Darlene Waddell and other transpark officials, including Felix Harvey and his son-in-law John McNairy, a member of the GTP Authority board of directors.

The group visited Harvey’s office at Tidewater Transit and was told Harvey was not in and McNairy would be in a meeting for another hour. In most cases, the documents were left with a secretary or receptionist.

Stop Torture Now claims that Aero Contractors operates a CIA-owned Boeing 747 out of the GTP, and flies terror suspects to Guantanamo, Afghanistan and secret camps in Europe in violation of U.S. and international law.

“Any red-blooded American patriot who believes in the Pledge of Allegiance would say that torture in the name of our government is the wrong thing,” McNeill, who lives in Garner, said. “Most of our people are Christian pacifists – not Marxists, not socialists, not Communists. They’re people who go to church on Sunday and take the gospel very literally.”

Lenoir County Sheriff’s deputies looked on as the group put up the crime-scene tape and attempted to deliver an “indictment” to Aero employees in the building a short distance from the Kinston Jetport. No one answered the door to accept the papers. Protestors slid the “indictment” under the door and set up their demonstration on the lawn.

Most of the 21 members held up a sign saying, “Stop Aero Torture Taxi Now” Two women garbed in orange jumpsuits and wearing black cloth bags over their heads, sat on the asphalt driveway to symbolize prisoners captured in Iraq. A biting wind and temperatures in the mid-40s did not deter the protestors.

Two sheriff’s deputies’ cars were parked in Aero’s driveway property. On the roof of the adjacent building, two more deputies, dressed in camouflage outfits, watched the activity through binoculars.

“We’re here today just to make sure that peace is kept, that there’s no personal injury or physical damage to property and so forth,” sheriff’s Lt. Greg Ogren said. “This has been very beautiful.”

While no one was disorderly or damaged property, a moment came that could have resulted in an incident. The Aero building is backed by a chain-link fence surrounding that side of the airfield. A gate in the fence opens onto the Aero site. Jetport manager Don Howard, driving a pickup truck, approached the gate. An electronic sensor in the gate caused it to open. Protestors, who did not recognize Howard, saw the opening and began running toward the airfield, but a deputy called a halt. The deputy’s car was parked near the gate, which refused to close because of the proximity of the car to the sensor. The gate finally closed and protestors returned peacefully to the front of the Aero building.

“I’ve been arrested in Wake County, Johnson County, Wayne County, and now I come to Lenoir County and I don’t get arrested,” McNeill said. “That’s pretty nice. I’m very happy not to get arrested. It’s nice when the First Amendment works.”

Protestor Bill Ramsey said Aero Contractors works in this way: When the CIA needs a jet, it calls Aero Contractors and the 747 leaves Kinston and flies to Langley Field where it picks up a crew of CIA agents. Those agents direct the flight crew to fly to a specific location to pick up a detainee. Then the agents tell the pilot the final destination – Afghanistan, Guantanamo or a secret European camp.

Ramsey admits the mechanics of the transport are speculation.

“If we can’t see the flight logs, we can’t tell how they’re doing it,” he said. “We’ve been able to get logs from Europe. … This plane has flown to Europe.”

The protestors attempted to get flight log information from Federal Aeronautics Administration employees in the GTP flight tower but were told to leave by someone in the office who refused to give his name. The man threatened to call police if the group did not leave the property immediately.

One member of the group admitted that calling public attention to Aero’s alleged activities could also bring the company’s activities to the attention of terrorists and make the GTP a target for terrorism.

The campaign at the state-owned GTP was well organized. Protestors, arriving in cars with license plates from Illinois, North Carolina and Missouri, organized in the jetport parking lot to plan their strategy before moving on toward Aero Construction. McNeill directed members where to go when they reached Aero, where to put up the crime-scene tape and cautioned them not to run from deputies if an arrest attempt was made.

When the protestors reached Tidewater Transport later Friday afternoon and were unable to see McNairy or Harvey, they formed a circle in front of the building and prayed.

“Stop Terror Now” protested last year at Johnson County Airport where Aero Construction has another office. That airport’s runway is not long enough to accommodate a Boeing 747. Members of the group were arrested for disturbing the peace and went to trial Thursday. They were fined $50 each and placed on 12 months of unsupervised probation, but the court’s decision is being appealed.