Illegal CIA fronts revealed   Who is Tyler Edward Tate and what is his connection to Northern Nevada? BY TOM DARBY SPARKS TRIBUNE Sunday, January 15, 2006 While the torture of War on Terror detainees has made national headlines for several weeks, very little has been said about Northern Nevada’s connection. It appears that Nevada Revised Statues have been violated to assist the Central Intelligence Agency in creating a phony company for the purpose of flying detainees from country to country. In a speech given during a candidates debate at the Atlantis Hotel and Casino Resort in Reno on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005, Nevada secretary of state and congressional candidate Dean Heller told the audience that Nevada was a target for terrorists. "From the point of view of homeland security," Heller said, "we know Nevada is a target for terrorism." The prior week, on Friday, Dec. 9, the Sparks Tribune published an exclusive report about a local company named Keeler & Tate Manufacturing LLC having been named in a suit alleging the abduction of a Muslim-German named Khaled El-Masri. He was reportedly kidnapped while on holiday in Germany and flown to Afghanistan. Tyler Edward Tate’s name appears in connection with the Reno-based company, Keeler & Tate, that has been filed with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office. The question is: does Tyler Edward Tate even exist? According to Federal Aviation Administration records, Keeler & Tate Manufacturing is the owner of a 737-7BC which the American Civil Liberties Union alleges the Central Intelligence Agency used to transport El-Masri. The allegations are that El-Masri was held against his will in a "secret prison" and tortured. When CIA officers realized they had a case of mistaken identity, they notified their superiors. However, according to El-Masri, he was detained for two more months and later "abandoned" in Albania. According to records filed with European aviation authorities, the Boeing 737 landed in Skopje, Macedonia on Jan. 23, 2004, after a flight from the island of Majorca off Spain, which is a U.S.-friendly government. It left that night. Masri’s passport has a Macedonian exit stamp for Jan. 23. The flight plan shows that the 737 landed the next day in Baghdad and then went on to Kabul, Afghanistan, on Jan. 25, which also conforms to Masri’s account. The flights were part of a detailed two-year itinerary for the 737. The jet’s records date back to December 2002 and show flights up until Feb. 7, 2005. The Boeing 737 may have served as a general CIA transport plane for equipment and supplies as well. Among the many stops recorded are Libya, where the U.S. government has been busy dismantling dictator Muammar Kaddafi’s clandestine nuclear program; Jordan, where the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that high-level al-Qaeda detainees, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, are being held, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A search of commercial databases has turned up no information on Tyler Edward Tate. Tate has no residential address, no telephone number, no Social Security number, no credit history, no automobile or property ownership records. It appears that Tyler Edward Tate is nothing more than a name on a piece of paper filed with the Nevada State Secretary’s Office Commercial Recordings. Nevada state records faxed to the Sparks Tribune by Scott Anderson, Deputy Secretary for Commercial Recordings, show the signature of Tyler Edward Tate. It appears on three different official documents. The signatures vary markedly from document to document. "Unfortunately, the Secretary of State’s office has no investigative authority," Anderson said. "A written complaint would have to be filed with myself first. That would be turned over to the district attorney’s office for a proper investigation and possible charges." Renee’ Parker, Chief Deputy for the Secretary of State’s Office said that filing for a false business license is a class "C" felony. The act is punishable by a prison term of one to five years and a $10,000 fine. As of Oct. 1, 2005, a civil penalty of $10, 000 can also be assessed. According to the Nevada Bar Association, the attorney who originally filed the incorporating paperwork for the company, Steven F. Petersen, does exist. However, every attempt to reach him at his office has failed. His secretary always claims he is "away from his desk," or "out of the office." The Portland Connection Bayard Foreign Marketing LLC is the owner of a Gulfstream V executive jet allegedly used since Sept. 11, 2001, to transport suspected al-Qaeda operatives to countries such as Egypt and Syria, where some of those operatives claim to have to been tortured. Leonard Thomas Bayard appears on the annual report of the Portland-based company, Bayard Foreign Marketing that was filed in August with the Oregon secretary of state. But just like Tyler Edward Tate, Leonard Thomas Bayard, doesn’t seem to exist. Scott Caplan is an attorney whose offices occupy the same Portland suite as the one listed by Bayard Foreign Marketing. Public documents show Caplan as filing the incorporation papers for Bayard Foreign Marketing when the company was created in August 2003. Current Oregon State law states that filing a false corporate document in is punishable by up to 6 months in prison and a $1,000 fine. According to FAA records, Leonard Thomas Bayard became the sole owner of the Gulfstream V jet on Nov. 16. Records also indicate that Bayard Foreign Marketing purchased the plane from Premier Executive Transport Services, whose address is the same as that of a Dedham, Mass., law firm that incorporated Premier Executive in January 1994. On the upside, one of Germany’s federal police agencies, the Bundeskriminalamt, known as BKA, interrogated German-Syrian terror-suspect Mohammad Haidar Zammar after the Gulfstream was allegedly used. Zammar, who is also known as "Sam," has been a German-national since 1982. He is considered to be a high ranking al-Qaeda member, having allegedly recruited Mohammed Atta, one of the pilots who flew one of the 747’s into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The East Coast Connection According to Dun & Bradstreet, the Massachusetts law firm’s address is shared by a second company, Crowell Aviation Technologies Inc., which claims to have only a single employee and $65,000 in annual revenue. Government records also show that Crowell Aviation is one of only nine companies, along with Premier Executive, Keeler & Tate and Bayard Foreign Marketing, that has Pentagon or Department of Defense permission to land aircraft at military bases anywhere in the world. On the same day, the FAA shows that Crowell Aviation transferred ownership of the Gulfstream to Bayard and Premier Executive sold an unmarked, 3-year-old Boeing 737 to Keeler and Tate Management. Premier Executive’s only employee is also its president, Bryan P. Dyess. Dyess is a person with a name that does appear in commercial databases. But his only address comes in the form of two post office boxes in Arlington, Va., which is not too far from the front gate of CIA headquarters in Langley. FAA records show Premier Executive purchased or leased the Gulfstream V in 1999. The plane’s original registration number, N581GA. It was changed by the FAA to N379P, then 8068V and again to N44982. The Final Connections The items that these corporations have in common are the link to the CIA and that they are all "dummy" or "shell" companies." Each has been created to assist the Central Intelligence Agency in moving about the country and world fairly undetected. The "undetected" part is possibly an anomaly and there my be other "companies" yet operating. Each "company" is housed with a law firm and an in-house attorney. Each one also has a "paper figure" at the head of the company. This enables the CIA to move forward with its plans without hesitation. Unfortunately, Tyler Edward Tate could not be found and no one at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in McLean, Va, or Washington D.C. were available for comment. Finally, when the Sparks Tribune called former Nevada governor and Sen. Paul Laxalt’s public relations office in Washington D.C., his secretary gave explicit instructions to e-mail all questions to the business. Following those instructions, the Sparks Tribune’s e-mail was simple and to the point. The communiqué told Laxalt that Tate could not be found and Petersen seemed not to want to cooperate. It explained that the newspaper wanted to prove or disprove that there was a "shell company involving the CIA," working out of his Reno address. Lastly it asked how Laxalt came to be involved in this situation. This e-mail was sent to Laxalt, who incidentally resides in McLean, Va., near CIA headquarters, on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2005. Neither he nor representatives of his PR firm have responded to the inquiry. It is still unknown who Tyler Edward Tate is or if he exists at all. Copyright © 2006 The Daily Sparks Tribune Posted by permission   -30-       Reno Company accused of illegally kidnapping German BY TOM DARBY SPARKS TRIBUNE Friday, December 9, 2005 The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit accusing the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and three companies of illegally abducting a Muslim German citizen and subjecting him to torture in a secret prison overseas. The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., claims that Khaled El-Masri, 42, was abducted by the CIA, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said at a press conference in Washington. The suit charges that former CIA Director George Tenet and other agency officials violated U.S. and international laws when they authorized agents to snatch El-Masri on New Years Eve day, 2003. The suit also holds Reno, Nevada-based Keeler & Tate Management LLC legally responsible for assisting in the violation of El-Masri's civil and human rights. The company allegedly supplied one of the aircraft and provided the personnel to abduct El-Masri. The Boeing 737-7BC, whose tail number reads N4476S (it originally read N313P until outted by media reports in December 2004) is reportedly a flagship of the CIA Airline, is not really leased by the CIA. It is owned by a shell company, Keeler & Tate Management Group, LLC. Like other CIA shell companies, it has no full-time employees, no real business premise, and no website. In lieu of this, Keeler & Tate has an attorney who provides a mail place, registers the company with the state and the plane with the Federal Aviation Administration, and responds in other necessary ways with government agencies and the public. This attorney provides many of the legal services needed by a normal company, including a place to serve legal papers and court documents on the company. The address of Keeler & Tate is 245 E. Liberty St., Suite 510, Reno. The corporate information provided to the Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller's office lists the resident agent as Steven F. Petersen, an attorney whose address are the same as Keeler & Tate's. The only company officer listed is Tyler Edward Tate of the same address. The address of Keeler & Tate and of the lawyer Petersen is shared by Laxalt Group West, the law firm of Paul D. Laxalt and Peter D. Laxalt. Paul D. Laxalt is a former Republican senator from Nevada. His law firm specializes in "political public relations services." So does Petersen's, which has the same address and phone number. Laxalt, the former U.S. senator whose address and phone number are used by the owners of the CIA's 737, was a close friend of President Ronald Reagan. When Reagan was president, Laxalt was referred to as the "First Friend." When phoned, the receptionist answered "attorneys office" She could not tell the Sparks Tribune which attorney worked at the offices other than there was one who is retired and comes in every once in a while. She did confirm that the office was used by Laxalt Group West. She claimed having no knowledge of Keeler & Tate Management Group. According to the suit, El-Masri was taken while on vacation in Macedonia on Dec, 31, 2003. He was then transported to a secret location somewhere in Afghanistan where he was subjected to "inhuman" conditions and interrogations. The civil liberties organization said that soon after El-Masri was flown to Afghanistan, CIA officers realized they had a case of mistaken identity. Tenet was notified about the error. El-Masri remained in custody for two more months. The suit contends that El-Masri was forbidden to contact a lawyer or any member of his family and after several months of confinement, he was abandoned in Albania in May, 2004.   Copyright © 2005 The Daily Sparks Tribune Posted by permission   -30-         Back to the top of this page