Contract Dispute Reveals Rendition Program Details; Lawyers Surprised CIA Didn’t Object
Lawyers representing two companies linked to the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program are surprised the agency never objected to contract litigation that played out in an upstate New York courtroom.
The plaintiff, Richmor Aviation, had supplied a private plane to a one-man aircraft brokerage business called Sportsflight for a cost of $4,900 an hour, the Washington Post reports. Sportsflight guaranteed Richmor 50 hours of flight time a month. Richmor sued over a billing dispute, and the resulting court documents “offer a rare glimpse of the costs and operations of the controversial rendition program,” the Post says.
The Gulfstream jet flew at least 1,258 hours and 55 missions to transport terrorism suspects for the CIA, according to the Post and the Guardian. Lawyers for both companies are surprised they never heard from the CIA, which usually invokes the state secrets privilege to shut down litigation over the rendition program, the Post says.
William Ryan was the lawyer for Richmor, which was awarded more than $1 million in a bench trial. “I kept waiting for [the government] to contact me. I kept thinking, ‘Isn’t someone going to come up here and talk to me?’ ” he told the Post. “No one ever did.”
