I have been mentioned in the media yesterday in the Fin. Review and with a photo of me and a "colourful" story in Friday's Australian. I thought you might be interested to see what the ABC radio's PM report has covered re the Government of Japan Court case against one of our companies Global Air Leasing.
It is not complete or completely accurate as the ABC like almost all Austrlian media outlets reporting this story leave out the part of the court ruling that was in our favour and against the Government of Japan which was more accurately covered in the Japan Times article shown below. It is curious to me why our media universally missed the point and in their haste (and I suspect don't really care attitude) all reported in varying degrees that the effect of the judgement is a finding that we did not perform the charter flight or it was somehow a "failed charter flight".
The judge actually dismissed the Japanese claim against us for this exact point and found that we did indeed perform the flight and were entitled to keep the charter fee. He then went on to find that we had to, however, repay the funds advanced for the the cost of the aircraft. A reasonable if for us somewhat disappointing finding.
The common sense issue with the Japanese was to try to get them around a table 2 years ago and say to them "your ambit claim that we did not do the flight is untrue and always will be found to be such, the aircraft value has decreased markedly since 9-11 so what can we agree upon?" They were also offered the aircraft as a "without prejudice" settlement but did not want it or in fact did not really appear concerned about getting an achievable settlement prefering to have it seems a "face" judgement. So now they have what may well be a "hollow" judgement that we shall of course appeal - the game continues and the media - well they do what they always do ...
Anyway for audio of the ABC radio PM report please see this link:-
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2003/s904683.htm
Transcript:
Supreme Court orders Global Air to pay Japanese Government 10 million
PM - Thursday, 17 July_, 2003_ 18:42:00
Reporter: Annie Guest
MARK COLVIN: A court case that ended in Queensland today has some of the hallmarks of a thriller. The Supreme Court in Brisbane today ordered a Gold Coast company to pay the Japanese Government almost $10 million. The money is compensation for a clandestine deal to transport terrorists, even though the deal failed.
The Japanese Red Army is a long-standing terrorist group with strong Palestinian links. Its aims include overthrowing the Japanese Government and monarchy, and fomenting world revolution.
The court was told that, three years ago, Global Air Leasing agreed with the Japanese Government to bring Red Army terrorists back from the Middle East to Japan for trial.
Annie Guest reports.
ANNIE GUEST: The Japanese Red Army terrorists were accused of slaughtering 26 people and injuring 78 in Israel in 1972. And Coolangatta-based Global Air Leasing says the Japanese Government wanted to bring them to justice.
Global Air's founder and former director, Luke Butler says it was his company's first foray into hunting and snatching terrorists and he sought advice from ASIO who confirmed the mission as originally proposed was legal.
LUKE BUTLER: Regarding doing a clandestine flight for a Government, it's extremely unusual for an Australian company or indeed any company in the world.
ANNIE GUEST: Global Air was to provide a Boeing 747 to fly to Japan and then onto Jordan, but the court today found the plane did not arrive in time. Luke Butler disputes the finding and has vowed to appeal.
(To Luke Butler) And while your company's role in the mission wasn't as originally intended, if it had picked up the terrorists, how would that have been carried out?
LUKE BUTLER: Yes, the intention at the outset was that we would pick up the plane from America, which we did, that we would fly to Okinawa, and we departed en route to Okinawa in Japan, and in Okinawa had to pick up 50 heavily armed Japanese police, refuel the plane, which would take about an hour and then immediately fly directly non-stop to Jordan, to Oman in Jordan.
We were there to land, have the terrorists marched onboard by the armed police. We were told that the terrorists would be handcuffed, that they would have foot manacles around their feet, that they would be hooded and that they would be sedated with injections.
ANNIE GUEST: And were you at all concerned about the ethics or morality of entering into such an agreement?
LUKE BUTLER: At the time we entered into it, we absolutely were onboard to go grab these terrorists. We thought terrorists, and still do, are a bad thing.
ANNIE GUEST: The Japanese Government claimed Charter Air didn't hold-up their end of the deal and leased an aircraft from Russian-based Aeroflot to complete the snatch. But Charter Air claims it was ordered mid-mission to act as a decoy aircraft and has begun preparation to challenge the court ruling.
LUKE BUTLER: I think you should understand that the Government of Japan should not be expecting a check for US$6 million from Global Air Leasing any time soon.
ANNIE GUEST: Luke Butler, the founder and former chairman of Global Air Leasing.
Griffith University's lecturer in Japan Studies, Jeff Graham says the Red Army was a feared organisation in the 1970s.
JEFF GRAHAM: They were a fairly small group of Japanese terrorists, essentially, that were active at least up until the early 1970s, responsible for a number of bombings, essentially in the Middle East, and very much went into hiding since that time.
ANNIE GUEST: And what do we know about what they've been doing in the meantime, in the intervening 30 years?
JEFF GRAHAM: As far as I know they were in hiding or at least taking advantage of the Middle East in terms of hiding out somewhere in that region. It's only been recently that these people who are now getting on in age have been brought to custody.
They haven't really been doing much in the intervening period, but still the Japanese Government were keen to bring them to justice because of the damage that they did cause during the 1970s.
MARK COLVIN: Jeff Graham, from Griffith University, ending Annie Guest's report.
http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/ge...20030718a4.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Japan wins $6 million in airline suit
SYDNEY (Kyodo) The Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Australian charter airline Global Air Leasing to repay the Japanese government $6 million for failing to supply a jumbo jet in time to secretly take Japanese Red Army fugitives from Jordan to Japan in 2000.
In the lawsuit, the Japanese government sought reimbursement of $7.2 million -- a $1.2 million charter fee and a $6 million security deposit -- it paid to the Brisbane-based airline to hire a 20-year-old Boeing 747.
Justice John Muir ruled that the Japanese government was entitled to be repaid the $6 million security deposit.
However, he rejected Japan's demand that the airline reimburse the $1.2 million charter fee, saying GAL had fulfilled its obligation under the contract by flying the aircraft to the United States in preparation for the flight to Narita airport.
The mission was to pick up four members of the Japanese Red Army accused of being involved in an attack on Tel Aviv's Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion Airport) in 1972 that left 26 people dead and more than 70 wounded. Japan's National Police Agency and the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office chartered the plane.
The GAL plane was late arriving at Narita after suffering maintenance problems. Its takeoff from California was delayed because it was initially denied clearance.
As a result, the Japanese police and prosecutors were forced to charter another aircraft from a Russian company to fly to the Middle East.
"We intend to appeal," GAL founder Luke Butler told Kyodo News.
"We are very relieved the judge has recognized that the government of Japan wrongly claimed we did not do the flight or that it was a failed charter flight," Butler said. The company intends to appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeal.
The court did not uphold GAL's defense that it was not liable because the secret mission was illegal.
GAL had maintained that the intention of the flight was to force the suspects onto the plane, which "amounted to deprivation of liberty on the part of the Japanese government," GAL's lawyer Peter Hackett told the court during the trial, which ended last month.
The Japan Times: July 18, 2003
And Croc..... all engines are hung and working, we recently did a containment ring mod. on one which had it off the wing for a while. And as the aircraft has not been registered in Australia for about 2 years (when it was VH-OZX with a valid C. of A. since September 2000) it does not operate under CASA control or anymore need a CASA C. of A. as it has its reg and C. of A. validly issued "offshore". For the record the aircraft recently completed up to date CPCP work, 8.33 KHz radio spacing mod., fuel tank AD's, cable guard AD and a fresh A4 check.
posted by Luke Butler
www.globalairgroup.com