A CIA front company, Aero Contractors, ran “torture taxi” flights out of the Johnston County airport in North Carolina for years. The flights crossed there Atlantic, picked up prisoners from Iraq, Afghanistan and other places, and took them to secret prisons, Guantanamo, and other torture sites overseas. (This is not a rumor; the New York Times among others “outed” the operation years ago.)
Supposedly torture was banned by presidential order in 2009. Yet Aero Contractors has since expanded and tightened its security; so something secretive is still going on there.
A dogged band of local folks have been protesting these flights since about 2005. They call themselves NC Stop Torture Now. Over the years they’ve carried on many different kinds of actions, and have own awards for their inventiveness and persistence. Here’s one of their protests in front of Aero’s hangars:
Over the years, the Stop Torture Now protests have taken many forms, but most included appeals to authorities to investigate what was going on there, as being in violation of national and international law.
These pleas have so far been ignored. But the activists have not given up. When one tactic was brushed aside, they thought up another one.
Now, as 2013 arrives, these activists are taking yet another new tack: led by Allyson Caison, one of the group’s stalwarts, they have adopted the highway in front of Aero, and will be “cleaning up torture” right on its doorstep. Take a bow, Allyson:
The adaptability as well as persistence of NC Stop Torture Now has put it in the forefront of the long-term effort to get an accounting for the US torture program. And as one of the group’s mottos says: Accountability Today Will Stop Torture Tomorrow.
More on this torture cleanup program is here.
