14 held after airport protest

Johnston tenant linked to CIA flight

Fourteen people were arrested Friday in a protest at Johnston County Airport, where planes used to shuttle terrorism suspects were believed to be based.

About 60 protesters came from as far as St. Louis and Chicago to ask the county to investigate Aero Contractors, which has leased about eight acres from the small airport since 1979.

The company has been accused of housing planes used by the Central Intelligence Agency for covert flights. Those flights allegedly took suspects to countries where they could be aggressively interrogated and possibly tortured.

If those links are found to still exist, the protesters said, they want the county to kick the company out.

The debate over treatment of detainees has been raging nationwide, led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona. McCain, a Republican, was tortured while a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He has sponsored a bill to ban "cruel, inhuman or degrading" interrogation techniques.

The bill passed the Senate 90-9, but Vice President Dick Cheney has opposed it, seeking an exemption for the CIA.

Along U.S. 70, where farmers advertise "Collards $1.25," some protesters Friday posted signs pointing to the Johnston County Airport that read, "This Way To CIA Torture Flights." Others, in orange jumpsuits with hoods over their heads, greeted morning traffic with re-enactments of scenes from American-run prison camps such as Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Some people at the CITGO gas station on the opposite corner scowled at the sight.

"I just think they should keep the media out of the war and let the boys do what they need to do and come home," said Brenda Braswell, 50, a cook at the service station.

"I don't think the CIA is doing anything worse than what al-Qaeda is doing, cutting heads off and putting it on television, walking into hotels with bombs strapped to them," said Landis Allen, 58, who was dressed in hunting camouflage.

Whether Aero is still a hub in the transport of terror suspects, protesters say, doesn't matter.

"We know what they've done," said Patrick O'Neill, a local organizer from Raleigh who was released from jail Friday on $500 bail. "We don't have any reason to think they wouldn't do it again."

O'Neill was among the protesters who walked quietly down Aero's long, pine-lined driveway, slipped past a barbed-wire fence and draped the company's sign with a cloth that read, "CIA TORTURE TAXI."

The company, whose light-blue hangar and parking lot looked deserted, had shut down Friday. No one was there to greet the protesters at the airport except sheriff's deputies, who handcuffed them and escorted them to jail.

Cookie Pope, chairwoman of the Johnston County commissioners, said the board would look at the papers the group delivered to her but was unlikely to interfere.

"When you talk about the CIA, I leave that to the CIA," she said. "I don't try to tell anyone how to run their business."

Sheriff Steve Bizzell, who greeted protesters on the steps of the county courthouse and led them to meet Pope and County Manager Rick Hester, said the group seemed cordial enough. "But I would not sit idle and let any group intimidate our citizens or trespass on our businesses."

Besides, Aero provides an important source of jobs to Johnston residents, he said.

The company employs about 100 pilots, mechanics and other technicians, airport staff say.

Aero is also a key source of revenue for the airport. It contributes about a third of the airport's annual budget -- about $300,000 in rent and fuel fees.

"They're good tenants," said Ray Blackmon, who spent 27 years in the military before becoming the airport's manager about 16 months ago. "I hope they're here for a long, long time."

Airport employees express concern that overexposure could jeopardize their relationship with tenants that prefer to keep a low profile for a reason.

Robert Blowers, assistant general manager of Aero Contractors since 1994, said Thursday that the efforts to draw attention to the company made no sense to him. "It's an old story, and it's been beat to death," he said.

"I think all of us understand the need to keep some things very quiet," protester Louise Lears of St. Louis said. "Not torture."