Jet owned by part owner of Red Sox tied to US
Paper cites flights to US base at Guantanamo Bay
WASHINGTON -- A Gulfstream jet owned by a part owner of the Boston Red Sox is also used by the US government for missions around the world.
Team vice chairman Phillip H. Morse, a businessman who made a fortune developing cardiac catheters, leases the Gulfstream IV jet with a Hudson, N.Y., charter agent when he is not using it. The jet sometimes has a small Red Sox logo on the fuselage near the door.
The jet, which used registration number N85VM and now uses N227SV, was spotted in Cairo on Feb. 18, 2003, shortly after a suspected extremist preacher disappeared from his home in Milan in a case that Italian prosecutors are investigating as a kidnapping, according to the Chicago Tribune, which first reported the plane's unusual flight history.
The preacher, known as Abu Omar, but whose given name is Osama Nasr Mostafa Hassan, was also taken to the Cairo airport the same day in 2003, the
Omar called his relatives months later to say that Italian and American agents had kidnapped him and flown him to Cairo, where he was tortured, according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica and Italian government documents.
But Mahlon Richards, a co-owner of Richmor Aviation in Hudson, N.Y., which leases the plane on Morse's behalf, said there is no evidence that the plane was ever used to transport Abu Omar or any other prisoner. Richards said he thinks the plane transports only US government workers.
''As far as I know, those are just government people going back to work," he said, noting the plane's many journeys from Washington to the US base at Guantanamo Bay, where Al Qaeda suspects are held. ''We don't know what they do. We pick them up. We drop them off, and we do what they tell us. We're just driving the bus."
He said pilots have never expressed concern to him about the passengers on board.
Richards, who said he has leased the plane to do government work for years under a subcontract with a larger government defense contractor, said he does not know where the plane goes and neither does Morse. ''That wouldn't be any of our business," he said.
An employee for the larger defense contractor who asked that he and the company not be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue said the government contract is meant to carry high-level US officials and policy makers who keep their movements confidential for security. ''Do we throw prisoners on that aircraft? The short answer is no. There is no evidence that that is happening," he said.
Richards defended the government contract, saying: ''There's nothing wrong with it. There are thousands of companies in the US that have government contracts."
When the plane is booked by someone else, Richmor Aviation gives Morse a different plane to fly in, Richards said.
A message left on Morse's answering machine at his home in Jupiter, Fla., was not returned last night.
When Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon was injured in the 2003 playoffs in Oakland, Calif., Morse had the star player ferried back to Boston on a private jet.
Among the other part-owners of the Red Sox is The
Between June 2002 and January of this year, the plane has flown to Afghanistan, Morocco, Dubai, Jordan, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, and the Czech Republic, and made 82 visits to Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., according to the Chicago Tribune, which cited records from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane is owned by Assembly Pointe Aviation Inc, according to records from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Morse is the sole officer of Assembly Pointe Aviation.
When the plane flies for Morse, it sports the Red Sox logo on the tail, but the logo is masked for most government missions, Richards said. ''He loves the team and he loves to advertise them," Richards said. ''When the plane goes out of the country, we cover it up."
Gordon Edes of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 
