WASHINGTON (AP) — A hidden network of U.S. companies headed by a prominent defense contractor played a key role in secret post-9/11 flights that transported terror suspects to overseas prisons.
Documents filed in a New York court case show that the firms aiding in the “extraordinary rendition” flights ranged from a major government contractor, DynCorp, to flight companies and even caterers that stocked the planes with fruit platters and bottles of wine.
The documents detailing the program’s logistics stem from a four-year legal battle between a New York air charter company that supplied corporate jets and crews to the government and a private aviation broker that lined up the flights.
Operations at the CIA-run prisons in foreign countries were halted in 2009.