Are the CIA Still Using Shannon Airport?

  • Posted on: 15 April 2020
  • By: shannonwatch
Body: 

On Monday April 13th, just after 6.30pm, a Lockheed 382G-44K-30 landed at Shannon Airport. It arrived from Eglin Air base in Florida USA. On Tuesday morning at 8.04am it took off, flying to Yerevan, which is the capital of Armenia.

The plane, with registration N2679C, has a history of involvement with CIA torture rendition flights. It was previously registered as N8183J, and is owned by Q2P LLC. It had been owned by Rapid Air Trans Inc.

The plane is operated by Tepper Aviation, Inc. which is based at the Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview, Florida.

According to Sourcewatch Tepper Aviation has a long association with the CIA. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was widely reported to be flying weapons into Angola to arm the UNITA rebels. More recently it has been linked with the practice of extraordinary rendition. See, for example The Rendition Project's list of CIA shell companies that includes Tepper Aviation, and identifies N8183J as one of the aircraft used for renditions.

The plane has been recorded at Shannon in the past. It was even photographed there sometime in 2008 when it was using registration number N8183J. See https://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/3306551699/.

In March 2006 BBC News reported that the Transport Secretary Alistair Darling confirmed that 6 US planes linked to extraordinary rendition had used UK airports a total of 73 times since 2001. These included N8183J which had landed 12 times.

What was this plane doing at Shannon on Monday last? Is it still being used to do illegal torture flights or other illegal acts for the CIA?

These questions need to be answered by the government.