Suspected CIA plane visited Finland in summer 2001

The human rights organisation Amnesty International is urging aviation officials around the world to take action to block the leasing of aircraft for possible international prisoner transport.
      Amnesty made its appeal in a report issued on Wednesday, in which it accuses the US Central Intelligence Agency of secretly transporting terrorist suspects. One of the planes listed in Amnesty’s report once landed in Finland.
      According to Amnesty, the United States circumvents international aviation regulations by setting up front companies, and by leasing planes from private companies to take prisoners to countries where they have been beaten and tortured.
     
Amnesty says that one of the planes, a Gulfstream IV (registration number N85VM, changed to N227SV in September 2004) landed at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport on June 18th, 2001. The plane left Westchester County Airport in New York State on the previous evening.
      Frank Johansson, Executive Director of the Finnish section of Amnesty international said on Wednesday that it cannot be proven if that plane was being used by the CIA at that time. There is also no knowledge of possible cargo or passengers on the flight.
      Finland’s Civil Aviation Administration confirmed to the Finnish News Agency STT that the plane had landed in Finland.
      Johansson says that the aviation company in question has admitted that it had rented the plane to the CIA, and that the aircraft had landed dozens of times at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay.
     
The Amnesty International website also wrote about three other suspected CIA flights landing in Finland. Johansson said that this was a mistake: those who drafted the report had accidentally placed the Estonian city of Pärnu in Finland.
      Last autumn, a Finnish newspaper reported that a Hercules transport plane suspected of having been rented by the CIA, had stopped in Helsinki in 2003. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs later said that there was no indication that the plane had been used in prisoner transport.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland disappointed with U.S explanation of suspected CIA flight (9.12.2005)
  Defence Staff says it was asked for permission for alleged CIA flight (28.11.2005)
  Finland and EU want to know more about suspected CIA prisoner flights (24.11.2005)
  No evidence of CIA prisoner transport flights through Finland (16.11.2005)

Links:
  Amnesty International: Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and ‘disappearance’