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CIA prisoner plane landed in Finland, claims paper

HELSINKI: A plane possibly used by the Central Intelligence Agency to transport suspected terrorists landed in Finland in 2003, reported a Finnish newspaper on Wednesday. The daily Borgaabladet said a four-engine Lockheed C-130 Hercules registered in the United States landed at Helsinki’s Vantaa international airport on May 16, 2003, five weeks after the ouster of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The plane reportedly flew to Stockholm after Helsinki. The plane was registered in the US state of Montana with the registration number N8213G. The word “Prescott” was painted on the side of the aircraft. According to US press reports, the company Prescott Support serves as a cover for the CIA’s prisoner transports. Finnish authorities have so far insisted that no CIA planes have landed in the country amid reports of secret landings across Europe, including in Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden, as well as Morocco. A number of those countries have opened inquiries into whether the planes may have been used for the transit of terror suspects allegedly subjected to extra-judicial detention and torture. The Finnish Foreign Ministry, quoting the country’s civil aviation administration, said that the plane was transporting material for the US embassy in Helsinki. ap

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