Anti-torture group seeks to sway commissioners

North Carolina Stop Torture Now took its case to the Johnston County Board of Commissioners last week. On Monday, about 25 members of the group held a vigil outside the courthouse. Later, they asked commissioners to end the county airport's role in alleged "extraordinary rendition" flights by Aero Contractors Ltd. Stop Torture Now claims that Aero Contractors flies terror suspects around the globe for torture and interrogation at CIA "black sites" and in Third World countries. The group asked commissioners to require the Johnston County Airport Authority to sign an anti-rendition-flight pledge. Under the pledge, the authority would bar the use of the airport for rendition flights and refer the matter to law enforcement. "Johnston County's role in hosting Aero Contractors is known throughout the world and is giving our state a black eye," Christina Cowger, a resident of Raleigh, told commissioners during their meeting. "Aero Contractors is an arm of the CIA." According to a 2007 story in The Los Angeles Times, German authorities arrested three Aero Contractors employees that year. Among them was a pilot living in Clayton. The employees were charged with "kidnapping and causing serious bodily harm to Khaled Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent" in 2004. A 2005 New York Times article described Aero as "a major domestic hub of the Central Intelligence Agency's secret air service." Joan Walsh, a member of Stop Torture Now, said the group decided to come to commissioners after the Airport Authority refused to sign the pledge. "With the new administration, we thought it was the right time to bring it up again," Allyson Caison of Stop Torture Now said as she stood outside the courthouse before the meeting. Several people, including Veterans for Peace members, held signs and posters along Second Street. "Obama Says Stop Torture," read a large piece of cardboard. "Obama don't know a thing about torture; get a job," one passerby said. The board did not take action at the meeting. Chairman Wade Stewart said they would consider the request, but board members who spoke at the meeting did not seem inclined to sign the pledge. "Obama has not yet outlawed extraordinary rendition," Stewart said. "It's a situation very much in development." Vice Chairman Allen Mims said he saw no problem with Aero Contractors. "That company's been out there longer than we've had terrorists," he said. "We aren't an investigative body; if they're just doing business, they're not doing anything in Johnston County that's illegal." Cowger responded that the company could be accused of conspiracy to torture, "very much a crime in this case." At the end of the meeting, after many of the Stop Torture Now members had left, Commissioner Tony Braswell said he supported Aero. "If what they do out there resolves the war on terror, I have no problem with it," he said. "It's a legitimate company doing business out there." When contacted, Aero Contractors declined to comment. Walsh said the group would keep up its efforts. "If not this week, we'll be back next month," she said.