On the trail of the "ghost pilots"

Our blog piece this week on the search for CIA "ghost pilots" involved in extraordinary rendition flights -- including new evidence linking three North Carolina pilots to the debate over torture -- is igniting a firestorm of outrage. We've also written a piece for The Nation which now appears on their website.

Today we've received threatening (if inarticulate) calls saying, among other things, that we should be tried for "treason." There's also this piece at the popular conservative website, TownHall.com, which runs under the title "This is what a real outing looks like."

The comparison is the Valerie Plame case, and the author Lorie Byrd finds our references (along with the Los Angeles Times) to North Carolina pilots linked to torture flights much more dangerous:

Unlike Valerie Plame, who was removed from covert duty years earlier, the subjects of the L.A. Times story, three North Carolina pilots, were recently involved in extremely sensitive covert actions flying CIA rendition flights. The three pilots have, along with ten others, been indicted in a German court, for their involvement in the "extraordinary rendition" of Khaled Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent. [...]

The pilots' real names were not disclosed in the L.A. Times, but some pretty specific information was. The report included information that all three pilots live "within a 30-minute drive of the guarded Aero hangar and offices at the rural Johnston County airport." Also reported was the type of car driven by two of the men and some details about what else might be found in their driveways, as well as some information about their homes.

So now they get upset about "outing" intelligence personnel! While those commenting at TownHall.com debate whether we should be charged for treason or espionage (?), it's helpful to recall some facts.

First, is the author confirming the involvement of these pilots in "black renditions?" They all deny it, but Byrd seems to know that they were "recently involved in extremely sensitive covert actions flying CIA rendition flights."

Second, the "real" names of the CIA pilots are known, but no news agency -- including the Institute -- has printed them. This, of course, stands in stark contrast to the multiple outings of Valerie Plame. Indeed, that's what a "real outing" looks like.

And lastly, one could say that it's been an astonishing act of restraint that the names of the three pilots -- charged with being involved in some of the most egregious violations of human rights -- haven't been named, given that they are being pursued by prosecutors in two foreign governments and are the subject of a lawsuit before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court. Plame's only mistake, apparently, was being married to a critic of the Iraq war.