Book: CIA Pilots Lived in Luxury Between Kidnappings

What I find so remarkable is that people think no one will find out. I can just imagine someone at the CIA thinking, “okay, we’ll authorize this, lie here, fabricate the truth there, and no one will ever know.”
How can anyone be so naive? And the intelligence community should know better than anyone. Over the next several years, dozens, if not hundreds, of abuses will come to light because it’s the nature of people to talk. And with so much electronic communication (i.e., paper trail), it will only get worse.
I’m not sure if the cause is arrogance or stupidity, although I’m thinking it’s a strong dose of both.

Lest someone doubt my facts, this quote is from UPI correspondent Pamela Hess, September 15, 2006:
“Chiarelli said he has lately come to believe that if there is a sectarian civil war in Iraq, the casualties will be far beyond what anyone now expects. He recently visited a 25-year old battlefield in Maysan province bordering Iran where it is said a million troops died during in the Iran-Iraq war.”
“I would just be very, very careful that if we consider the fact that if we’re not successful … the lens we look at and think about the casualties that could occur in that civil war may be totally different than what would really happen, based on recent experiences in this country,” he said.”

The government doesn’t even bother to try to lie anymore. They don’t feel they have to so long as an indifferent Americam public buys into the whole “war on terrorism” lie. Since all the sheep believe in Bush’s god, all the government has to do is, as Delay did in his mugg shot, say that jesus is embodied in the crook and all will be tolerated.
How Odd.

Whatever it takes to get the terroists off the streets… it’s all fine by me.

Rhonda Schwartz-in your posted article about “CIA Pilots Lived Life in Luxury Between Kidnappings”, what do you mean by severe interrogation sessions”

Why are we publishing this information? Personal gain or an axe to grind? We all know it happens – why tell the world?

Even at 5 star hotels there is a government rate that is significantly lower than standard rates. Just because they are staying at The Ritz doesn’t mean they are paying a terribly high rate. The 4 star I worked at charged government people less than the Howard Johnson’s standard rate.
Where would you stay if you were given that information?

First, lets remember just because someone published a book, does not make every word or statement in that book the unbiased truth. I am old enough to know that there are 2 sides to every story and somewhere in the middle you will find the truth.
As for any flight crews, even if they are CIA employees they are most likely not fully trained agents, so for them to put their life on the line for our freedom then the least we can is take any and all 1 sided stories with a grain of salt.

My hat is off to the brave men and women. Rhonda Schwartz makes it sound like a cake walk traveling around the globe hunting down these thugs. I can’t imagine more dangerous work in the name of national defense. And let’s not forget, who knows if this information is true? The CIA and the NSA do SECRET stuff, remember? We may never know and we shouldn’t care. These people are doing their jobs, period. SO what if they had a good time here and there. You don’t here about them sleeping in their crew seats or eating MRE’s, or getting shot at. The press only prints what it thinks will be interesting, not important. I’d buy them all a cold beer if they weren’t in some far-off hell-hole kicking the crap out off the bad guys.

Why not worry about what Abu Omar was doing or planning, instead of what CIA was drinking and eating?

Gee. I hope they shared the drinks and food with their captive.

When people travel on business, government or private,they tend to choose the more expensive accommodation allowed. What’s the real motive behind this kind of reporting anyways? Where do jounalists stay when they are on assigments?

I can stomach this alot easier than the crooked politicians. Let them enjoy a few perks considering the risks they are taking. The only risk politicians seem to be willing to take is seeing if they will get caught or not…..

Let them have what they want; they are at risk; while those fat ass congressmen cash their fat paychecks and wait for their pensions to kick in; and chase little boys around their offices.
And also the fools who steal money and set up contracts to benefit theirselves; while our american soldiers fight and die for nothing.
Vietnam Vet

Who cares, as long as they got who they needed to they can do whatever they want. Of course we’re going to lie to the Italians…it’s called espionage for a reason.

Where has our nation’s integrity gone? First the CIA kidnappings are illegal. Secondly there are regulations that the CIA agents are not to use first class accommodations & consume expensive drink & food. They have now been found out, so let’s hold them accountable. Using the “everybody does it” excuse is too weak. This information is now public and should be further investigated. Then appropriate action.

OUR GOVERNMENT HAS HAD TOO MUCH MONEY TO SPEND FREELY i make 12.00 per hour with no health insurance, shamely, but if i were working for cia im sure id be paid way more. our government, athletes and stars need to be more considerate of others who dont have muchi always hear about all these donations-why do we still have people living on the streets in this great country. cant we clean up our own home first then help others?

LETS HAVE AN AMISH PRESIDENT TO FORGIVE, THE WHOLE WORLD WOULD FIGHT TO PROTECT US.

Just another Republican problem of no oversite and close the eyes to corruption. If you think this is ok for them to dine on taxpayer money then you should pay for it out of your own check not mine. They hide them overseas to skirt the laws here in this country. How about they send you overseas and interogate you when you get a traffic ticket.

The excesses of this administration never fail to amaze me. The legality of renditions aside… CIA personnel should have decent accomodations. But luxury is another matter. They should be fiscally responsible. Aren’t we supposed to be in a war? That extra money could be buying equipment for our brave soldiers. If we’re going to splurge on bottles of wine, they should go to our brave men and women on the front lines. I’d rather see them get treated than some CIA pilot who is in no more danger than any other pilot in the sky… unless you consider the fact he’s stocked his plane with wine and is probably flying drunk.

Total speculation, but if you are posing as a corporate pilot or airline pilot in a foreign country and want to maintain your cover, do you stay in a rathole in a crummy part of town, or in the better hotel near the airport where other pilots are staying??
Wine? No excuse. I’m guessing some of these guys were contractor pilots and not CIA…and thought they wouldn’t get caught.

We have only begun to reap what we (CIA etc.) have sewn. If we the people do not soon retake OUR government we the people will be the targets. History repeats itself only when people stop paying attention.

C’mon, people–if you were violating the Geneva Conventions (we’re talking about torturing people who haven’t even been accused of anything, and have no legal representation), you’d be stressed out, too. These CIA agents were doing truly disgusting things on our behalf. We owe them the most luxurious time-off possible, especially since some of them may face war crime tribunals once this fiasco is over and the world realizes how destructive and un-American we’ve been in the name of “national security.”

I have no problem with these guys eating well and staying at a decent place for the night, luxury or otherwise. I also don’t have any problem with the CIA taking care of a terrorist problem on the streets of Italy, regardless of any Italian investigations that are affected. “Renditions” is a word I haven’t seen in this context before, but if it means terrorists disappear in some kind of extra judicial manner, great.
As for taxpayer money being “wasted”, a waste would be to spend tens of thousands of dollars checking to see if these guys were entitled to a few hundred dollars worth of perks.

WOW, Im a Canadian, and our spys drink beer! I think if I was away from my family catching bad guys at great risk, I’d like a glass of wine and a nice bed too. Is the US media that starved for a story?

Hey! I just wrote a book too! In it, I stated that the moon is made of green cheese…must be true.

Poor CIA…always gettn’ a bad rap! They deserve more than this! Com’on America! They’re keepn’ us safe anyways, that’s more then I can say for congress…bunch’a perves!

These pilots are basically stupid. If you’re secretly flying terrorists to secret prisoners, you have a clandestine/covert operation going. That means keeping things secret.
They didn’t do a very good job at it, did they? One of the basic rules that they should have followed is, “don’t bring attention to yourself.” This is basic, first grade stuff.

What an interesting group of bloggers and comments!
Regards,
Keith Knutsson

There is a BIG difference between CIA Operatives and CIA PILOTS. The CIA Operatives are the people under cover who take all the risks, where as the CIA Pilots are not that much different than the pilots for the US Marshalls Service who transport federal prisoners from one federal prison to another or to courts.

Here are the Fed Travel Regs…we all use them to stay at very nice hotels at the government rate …anything more and it comes out of your own pocket…daily food allowance varies with location…exception are if no safe lodging is available you may be reimbursed for higher rates …but this has to be approved by the Gov travel office…generally not very friendly people…reality sucks – fantasy is the stuff of MSM headlines.

Sounds like Omar traveled in style to his harsh interrogation. Never rest, never finish.