Don't Expect to get an Exit Row Seat

From Bob Harris, here's a report form Sunday's London Times (I was able to link from Harris's site--they MIGHT request subscriber info) about the flying the not-so-friendly-skies--and that's the good part. After landing, you'll find yourself a bit worse off than in a hotel without concierge:

AN executive jet is being used by the American intelligence agencies to fly terrorist suspects to countries that routinely use torture in their prisons. The movements of the Gulfstream 5 leased by agents from the United States defence department and the CIA are detailed in confidential logs obtained by The Sunday Times which cover more than 300 flights.

Countries with poor human rights records to which the Americans have delivered prisoners include Egypt, Syria and Uzbekistan, according to the files. The logs have prompted allegations from critics that the agency is using such regimes to carry out “torture by proxy” — a charge denied by the American government.

Witnesses described seeing the prisoners handed to US agents whose faces were masked by hoods. The clothes of the handcuffed prisoners were cut off and they were dressed in nappies covered by orange overalls before being forcibly given sedatives by suppository...

Witnesses have claimed that the suspects are frequently bound, gagged and sedated before being put on board the planes, which do not have special facilities for prisoners but are kitted out with tables for meetings and screens for presentations and in-flight films...

"A charge denied by the American government..." Of course. By now, most folks have probably forgotten about the case of Maher Arar, a CANADIAN who was deported to Syria, where he was tortured for almost a year--just because he'd apparently met someone who might or might not be an Al Qaeda member. Since the general public has been fed a steady diet of Scott Peterson for so long, it doesn't surprise me that Arar is likely forgotten--or that the American government thinks they can get away with denying the facts--I mean, shit, it's not like the facts ever mattered in Iraq...

Still--I don't think you'll hear any complaints about the in-flight movie and/or food service either...