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US MILITARY PLANES CRISS-CROSS EUROPE
USING BOGUS CALL SIGNS
Jon Swain and Brian Johnson-Thomas in RomeThe Sunday Times (UK), February 19, 2006
THE American military have been operating flights across Europe using a call sign assigned to a civilian airline that they have no legal right to use.
Not only is the call sign bogus — according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) — so, it appears, are some of the aircraft details the Americans have filed with the air traffic control authorities.
In at least one case, a plane identified with the CIA practice of “extraordinary rendition” — transporting terrorist suspects — left a US air base just after the arrival of an aircraft using the bogus call sign.
The call sign Juliet Golf Oscar (JGO) followed by a flight number belongs, says the ICAO, to a now bankrupt Canadian low-cost airline called Jetsgo of Montreal.
But for several years and as recently as last December it has been used selectively by both the American air force and army to cover the flights of aircraft to and from the Balkans.
These range from Learjet 35 executive jets to C-130 transport planes and MC-130P Combat Shadows, which are specially adapted for clandestine missions in politically sensitive or hostile territory.
A Sunday Times analysis of flight plans and radio logs has placed these aircraft at locations including Tuzla in Bosnia, Pristina in Kosovo, Aviano, the site of a large joint US-Italian military air base in northern Italy, and Ramstein in Germany, the headquarters of the US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE).
On December 11, 2004, USAFE in Ramstein filed a flight plan for a Learjet 35 to fly from Tuzla to Aviano. The flight plan was copied to 15 addressees including Tuzla airport, Aviano airport and a mysterious recipient labelled “xxxxxxxx.”
The aircraft’s identity was given as JGO 80, the flight was a Learjet 35 operated by the Department of Defence and the registration was 99999E.
The status of the flight was given as “humanitarian”. But it was also given as “state”, which means government, and as “protected”, which means diplomatic.
During the time the plane was in the air, USAFE changed some of the flight plan timings and at the same time the registration changed. The aircraft metamorphosed into 40112E but continued to be a Learjet 35 and was still JGO 80 and a humanitarian, government and diplomatic flight.
While the Learjet was on the ground at Tuzla, an Ilyushin 76 was loading a cargo of 45 tons of surplus weapons and ammunition sold off by the Bosnian military and destined for Rwanda in defiance of a UN embargo.
The Ilyushin left Tuzla, flew over Italy and headed south in the direction of Africa. The American Learjet took off 55 minutes later.
In a report exposing arms trafficking to war-torn central Africa, Amnesty International has suggested that “US security authorities were engaged in a covert operation to ferry arms to Rwanda in the face of political opposition from the European Union”.
...
A USAFE spokesman last week said American aircraft using the JGO call sign were performing “Joint Guard Operations” for the Nato/European peacekeeping mission in the Balkans.
However, inquiries have shown that the military operation called “Joint Guard” ended in 1998. They also show that none of the US aircraft deployed in it match ones using the JGO call sign.
A spokesman for the ICAO said: “Our records indicate that the designator JGO is still assigned to Jetsgo and the ICAO does not assign the same code to two operators.”
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Pakistan Says U.S. Strike
Violated Its Sovereignty
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said in a Jan. 26 interview that a U.S. airstrike this month which killed some 18 civilians near the country’s border with Afghanistan was a “violation of sovereignty.”In an interview with CNN at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Musharraf said he believed around five or six al-Qaida figures had died in the raid.The U.S. airstrike on Jan. 13 targeted Ayman al-Zawahri, deputy to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in the remote Bajaur tribal region along the border with Afghanistan, according to American officials.Pakistani intelligence officials have said Zawahri was not there at the time of the attack, but that at least four al-Qaida figures were killed.“We were disappointed,” Musharraf told CNN, which issued a partial transcript of the interview prior to broadcast.“Intelligence is coordinated between our two countries, and there is cooperation on both sides at a strategic and tactical level. So it’s a disappointment and we hope this is not to be repeated,” he added.“But at the same time, while we are angry at the violation of sovereignty by the U.S., I am also angry at the violation of sovereignty by al-Qaida.”The attack prompted Pakistan to lodge a formal protest with Washington and sparked anti-U.S. demonstrations in several parts of Pakistan.
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