Rendition Circuit: 5-10 January 2004
Rendition of Hassan bin Attash and Ali al-Hajj al-Sharqawi from Jordan to Afghanistan
On 8 January 2004, Hassan bin Attash and Ali al-Hajj al-Sharqawi were both rendered from Jordan - where they had been held and tortured by Jordanian intelligence for 16 and 23 months respectively - to Afghanistan, where they were secretly detained in the CIA site known as the 'Dark Prison'. Both men were transferred onboard the CIA-owned Boeing 737 with registration number N313P.
- Click here for more on Hassan bin Attash's detentions and treatment
- Click here for more on Ali al-Hajj al-Sharqawi's detentions and treatment
- Click here for more on N313P
Analysis
N313P left its home base of Kinston Regional Airport (KISO) in the afternoon of 5 January 2004, flying for 40 minutes to Washington Dulles International Airport (KIAD). There it stayed for several hours, leaving in the early hours of 6 January and flying to Frankfurt (EDDF). From Germany, the aircraft headed to Amman, Jordan (OJAM), where it picked up al-Sharqawi and bin Attash.
According to al-Sharqawi's legal team, at about 11pm on 7 January he was 'taken to the airport in a black hood that came down to his shirt. When they arrived at the airport, they cut his clothes off, searched his anus and gave him diapers, shorts, a sleeveless shirt and plastic handcuffs. He stood in the room for an hour in handcuffs tied to the walls. They took pictures of him. Then they came for him, tied his feet together and tied his hands together. One other man [presumably bin Attash] was thrown into a luggage cart, and Sharqawi was picked up like a sack and thrown on top of him. Then they carried him like a sack and threw him into the plane'.
Flight data shows N313P leaving Amman at 01:39 GMT on 8 January, and flying direct to Kabul, Afghanistan (OAKB), where both men were offloaded and taken for several more months' of secret detention at the hands of the CIA. The aircraft turned around on the same day and headed back to Europe, landing in Prague (LKPR) in the evening. The crew stayed overnight here, and left in the afternoon of 9 January, returning to Washington and then Kinston, landing in the late afternoon of 10 January 2004.
