CIA Intrigue Shadows Jet
A plane human rights watchers have been following worldwide as it allegedly airlifted terrorism suspects has ties in Oregon
Just who is Leonard Thomas Bayard?
Bloggers around the world are chattering about Bayard and his Oregon company, Bayard Foreign Marketing LLC, new owner of a corporate turbo-jet the CIA supposedly used to ferry terrorism suspects to overseas torture chambers. The Washington Post and The Boston Globe wrote prominent stories about him this month.
And yet nobody can find him anywhere.
Somehow, Bayard avoided the kinds of public record lists that include people who hold driver's licenses, own land, are registered to vote, have been married, divorced, killed or convicted. He or his company apparently pulled together the money to buy a multimillion-dollar Gulfstream V jet last month, yet they appear nowhere in federal corporate or regulatory filings.
His lawyer, Portland corporate attorney Scott Caplan, insists Leonard Bayard is a real person. If so, he's doing an awfully good job of hiding it.
The mysterious Mr. Bayard caught the world's attention Dec. 1, when Federal Aviation Administration records first listed his obscure company as owner of a particular airplane that has become notorious among human rights advocates.
Swedish authorities claim U.S. agents used that plane -- before Bayard owned it -- to whisk accused terrorism suspects out of the country to Egypt, where the prisoners claim they were tortured. The jet, Gulfstream serial number 581, has been linked to several other clandestine prisoner transfers. Its FAA registration number has changed at least twice this year.
Before Bayard acquired the jet, it belonged to a Massachusetts company, Premier Executive Transport Services Inc. This month The Washington Post traced Premier to several shadowy individuals with recently issued Social Security numbers.
Leonard Bayard seems to have no Social Security number at all. But he can, apparently, sign his own name.
Bayard's signature appears, tantalizingly, in neat script at the bottom of an August corporate filing with the Oregon Secretary of State's office. The handwritten document identifies only one owner of Bayard Foreign Marketing, "Leonard Thomas Bayard." It lists the company's business address as Caplan's downtown Portland law office, and Caplan as the company's registered agent.
A call placed to the phone number listed on Bayard's business registration reached an answering service operator, who would not say where she was located but said she had never met Leonard Bayard.
For his part, Caplan won't say whether he's met Bayard: "I really can't say anything about the client," he said, though, when pressed, Caplan said he is positive Bayard does exist.
Tom Malinowski doubts you'll ever meet him, though. Malinowski, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch in Washington, D.C., thinks the CIA invented Bayard.
"It's a common practice to maintain front companies, and so that's the suspicion here," Malinowski said. "One has to surmise that the agency is using them to cover its tracks."
If so, the CIA hasn't done an especially good job of it. Human rights organizations, hobbyist plane spotters and news reporters around the world have frequently recorded the Gulfstream's movements since October 2001, when it was allegedly used to ferry a terrorism suspect out of Pakistan.
Since then, the plane has been cited several times for alleged involvement in what the CIA calls "extraordinary renditions," the practice of sending suspected terrorists to other countries for interrogation. In December 2001, for example, the two Egyptian suspects were allegedly deported from Sweden to Egypt on the Gulfstream V only hours after the government there quietly denied their applications for asylum and before lawyers could file appeals.
The Swedish government, which had second thoughts after the case received press attention, says the deportation was coordinated by the U.S. government and that assurances the prisoners' rights would be protected were violated, according to a July report in The Washington Post. The Post reported that the Egyptian suspects' attorneys and family members allege the pair were tortured when they arrived in Egypt.
The Post and The Boston Globe have reported several similar allegations involving prisoners transported on Bayard's Gulfstream jet, all before the Oregon company took ownership this month.
At this point, Malinowski said, the CIA has apparently given up on keeping the airplane secret.
"Their cover has been blown," he said, and if the agency unloaded its plane and bought another, watchdogs would catch on right away and start tracking the replacement jet.
"Why waste money selling one perfectly good plane and buying another perfectly good plane?" Malinowski asked. "They can't undo what's been done."
Mike Rogoway: 503-294-7699, mikerogoway@news.oregonian.com. Researchers Margie Gultry and Lynne Palombo contributed to this report.
Just who is Leonard Thomas Bayard?
Bloggers around the world are chattering about Bayard and his Oregon company, Bayard Foreign Marketing LLC, new owner of a corporate turbo-jet the CIA supposedly used to ferry terrorism suspects to overseas torture chambers. The Washington Post and The Boston Globe wrote prominent stories about him this month.
And yet nobody can find him anywhere.
Somehow, Bayard avoided the kinds of public record lists that include people who hold driver's licenses, own land, are registered to vote, have been married, divorced, killed or convicted. He or his company apparently pulled together the money to buy a multimillion-dollar Gulfstream V jet last month, yet they appear nowhere in federal corporate or regulatory filings.
His lawyer, Portland corporate attorney Scott Caplan, insists Leonard Bayard is a real person. If so, he's doing an awfully good job of hiding it.
The mysterious Mr. Bayard caught the world's attention Dec. 1, when Federal Aviation Administration records first listed his obscure company as owner of a particular airplane that has become notorious among human rights advocates.
Swedish authorities claim U.S. agents used that plane -- before Bayard owned it -- to whisk accused terrorism suspects out of the country to Egypt, where the prisoners claim they were tortured. The jet, Gulfstream serial number 581, has been linked to several other clandestine prisoner transfers. Its FAA registration number has changed at least twice this year.
Before Bayard acquired the jet, it belonged to a Massachusetts company, Premier Executive Transport Services Inc. This month The Washington Post traced Premier to several shadowy individuals with recently issued Social Security numbers.
Leonard Bayard seems to have no Social Security number at all. But he can, apparently, sign his own name.
Bayard's signature appears, tantalizingly, in neat script at the bottom of an August corporate filing with the Oregon Secretary of State's office. The handwritten document identifies only one owner of Bayard Foreign Marketing, "Leonard Thomas Bayard." It lists the company's business address as Caplan's downtown Portland law office, and Caplan as the company's registered agent.
A call placed to the phone number listed on Bayard's business registration reached an answering service operator, who would not say where she was located but said she had never met Leonard Bayard.
For his part, Caplan won't say whether he's met Bayard: "I really can't say anything about the client," he said, though, when pressed, Caplan said he is positive Bayard does exist.
Tom Malinowski doubts you'll ever meet him, though. Malinowski, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch in Washington, D.C., thinks the CIA invented Bayard.
"It's a common practice to maintain front companies, and so that's the suspicion here," Malinowski said. "One has to surmise that the agency is using them to cover its tracks."
If so, the CIA hasn't done an especially good job of it. Human rights organizations, hobbyist plane spotters and news reporters around the world have frequently recorded the Gulfstream's movements since October 2001, when it was allegedly used to ferry a terrorism suspect out of Pakistan.
Since then, the plane has been cited several times for alleged involvement in what the CIA calls "extraordinary renditions," the practice of sending suspected terrorists to other countries for interrogation. In December 2001, for example, the two Egyptian suspects were allegedly deported from Sweden to Egypt on the Gulfstream V only hours after the government there quietly denied their applications for asylum and before lawyers could file appeals.
The Swedish government, which had second thoughts after the case received press attention, says the deportation was coordinated by the U.S. government and that assurances the prisoners' rights would be protected were violated, according to a July report in The Washington Post. The Post reported that the Egyptian suspects' attorneys and family members allege the pair were tortured when they arrived in Egypt.
The Post and The Boston Globe have reported several similar allegations involving prisoners transported on Bayard's Gulfstream jet, all before the Oregon company took ownership this month.
At this point, Malinowski said, the CIA has apparently given up on keeping the airplane secret.
"Their cover has been blown," he said, and if the agency unloaded its plane and bought another, watchdogs would catch on right away and start tracking the replacement jet.
"Why waste money selling one perfectly good plane and buying another perfectly good plane?" Malinowski asked. "They can't undo what's been done."
Mike Rogoway: 503-294-7699, mikerogoway@news.oregonian.com. Researchers Margie Gultry and Lynne Palombo contributed to this report.
posted by R7 | 12/30/2004 08:08:00 PM
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