What we transport
Small arms & weapons
The core business of Aircess is the delivery of small arms & weapons of various types to airports all over the world, but mainly to conflict areas in Africa and the middle east.
The weapons data in this VA is based on real weapons transfers that have occured in the past years. This data has been mined from the arms trade database of NISAT: the Norwegian Initiative for Small Arms Transfers. Arms trades in the NISAT database are mostly by cateogory (e.g. submachineguns, pistols etc) but we were able to allocate a large quantity of these transfers to certain manufacturers. Hence you may see specific brands or types of weapons on selected airports.
Naturally, not all weapons transfers are in the NISAT database, and certainly not the kind of weapons trades Aircess was involved in. The "official" weapon deals in our warehouse are clearly marked with a red N while the more clandestine arms do not have this distinction.
Blood diamonds & Taliban gold
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At the end of the 20th century there were a number of civil wars being fought in Angola, Sierra Leone and other countries in that area. Many millions of people have died in these civil wars.Most fights were between the local government and rebel groups trying to overthrow their governments, or trying to gain control over diamond mines.
Rebel groups are known to finance their civil war efforts with diamonds, sometimes directly trading diamonds for weapons. Aircess is known to have flown into these conflict areas: UN observers, for example, spotted Aircess aircraft landing in UNITA territory at least 10 times. It is not far-fetched then to connect Aircess with the diamond trade, as these kind of weapons deals are usually paid on the spot in cash or, in absence of cash, in natural resources.
Although most of the civil wars in this region of Africa are now over, and the Kimberly Certification Process has been put in place to 'certify' that diamonds are not from conflict areas, it cannot be ascertained that all diamonds are legitimate. Reports from the U.S. and U.N. state that in 2006 around $23 million worth of illigitimate diamonds were smuggled from Ivory Coast to surrounding countries, and from there entered legitimate diamond trade channels.
The picture to the right (courtesy Britannica.com) shows the flow of blood diamonds versus the flow of weapons.
Aircess is also alleged to have transported gold bars for the Taliban to Khartoum, Sudan. |
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Soldiers and UN PeacekeepersAircess was not only involved in transporting arms, but also transported military personell to conflict areas for the United States and the United Nations. The advantage of using Aircess planes was that they were not immediately recognisable as military planes by the press and by terrorists trying to shoot them down. Also, if the plane did crash it would be less of a PR-disaster for the involved government.
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Coltan
Coltan is short for columbite–tantalite, a black metallic ore which is mined in Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the Democratic republic of Congo. The Tantalite component of Coltan is used in Tantalite Capacitors, small electronic components used in many electronic devices. Like Blood diamons, Coltan has been cited as a natural resource used to finance violent conflicts, specifically in the Congo.
Terror suspects and their interrogators
Although the real Aircess was never officially involved in extraordinary rendition, we feel this aspect of U.S. policy is something that really fits the theme of this Virtual Airline and therefore included it for didactic purposes.
Rendition, or rendering, of a suspect is the transfer of people from one prison to another prison, or to a courthouse. Extraordinary rendition, however, is the illegal transport of such persons to places where they might be tortured, killed, or both.
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Because torture is not allowed by international conventions, the USA cannot do it on their own territory. Instead, they have suspects transfered to countries like Libya or Egypt who don't take these treaties too seriously.
The USA have practiced Extraordinary rendition since the 1980's on several occasions. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks the CIA have arrested hundreds of suspected terrorists and transported them between various "black sites" all around the world.
Probably many of these prisoners were terrorists, but many others might not have been. In most cases we will never know because they are either in Guantanamo Bay detention center or were tortured to death in some prison in the Middle East or Eastern Europe - either way, many rendered prisoners have never received a fair trial. It is interesting to note that Viktor Bout, founder and chairman, was himself illegaly rendered to the United States after his arrest in Bangkok. |
An overview of extra-ordinary rendition flights |
Apart of terror suspects Aircess also transports CIA Interrogators between Ronald Reagon Int'l (the airport closest to CIA Headquarters in Washington) and Guantanamo Bay.
Hazardous materials & Ad-hoc passengers
The stream of arms, peacekeepers and terror suspects is often one-way - to prevent aircraft flying empty on their return flight we have added ad-hoc passengers for you to transport, and also "hazardous materials". Whatever or whoever they may be, we don't want to know. Aircess doesn't ask questions, we just deliver whatever our customers want us to deliver!