In March 2006, Richard Norton-Taylor revealed in a Guardian newspaper exposé that the Ministry of Defence had finally admitted to rendition flights "passing through RAF Northolt", so perhaps we're onto something.

The Google Earth imagery I present further below is possibly as recent as 2005 or even early 2006, but not 2007 – it doesn't show any of the MoDEL building projects in progress. However, the Bird's Eyes are fairly contemporary – if you experiment with multiple angles of views, various other MoDEL construction sites can be found as well as the new BFPO. Crucially, two out of the three brand new white Agusta 109E helicopters from the No. 32 Royal Squadron appear on the Bird's Eyes. They were delivered to the base by the manufacturers in March 2006 and replaced Twin Squirrels.

On Google Earth, two Gulfstreams can be spotted on the southern apron along with a Cessna Citation – rumoured to be used by US Embassy staff in London and therefore probably CIA too.

Examine that north west corner around the "Warehouse Hangar" on Google Earth. You see a Cessna Citation, a Gulfstream and shuttle coaches for transportation around the airfield. Hop over to Bird's Eye (obviously filmed at a different time and indeed date) and the shuttle buses are still there. The Gulfstream has gone, but the number of Citations has increased first to two, then to four.

On 4th May 2008, the Mail on Sunday picked up on my observations and featured this article in a major news story regarding the alleged rendition and torture of Binyam Mohamed.

Islanders Ahoy – Spies in the Sky!

Just before we leave that north west corner — "Special Projects Area" or "Station Flight Enclave" — there's one more exciting surprise. With considerable experimentation, I managed to obtain a Bird's Eye of Northolt's most elusive and secretive residents – a Britten-Norman Islander, used by the RAF in a classified surveillance, Communications Intelligence (COMINT) and Electronic / Electromagnetic Intelligence (ELINT) counter-terrorism role!

The details in the public domain so far, not surprisingly, have been very sketchy indeed. However, they are regularly seen circling and almost "hovering" over London at all times of the day and night – they can be used a bit like helicopters, as they have very low stall speeds.

They have been spotted in the sky at other locations across the UK at times of major security alerts, for example in July 2005 in Birmingham when the city centre was evacuated just days after the "7/7" London bombings. They are being used to intercept, monitor and interrupt the communications of "individuals deemed to pose a threat to the security of the UK".

During 2007, plane spotters based near Northolt published pictures on a forum of both Islanders fitted with their high-tech surveillance and communications equipment. The enthusiasts have been using a £380 box of tricks — the Kinetic Avionics SBS-1 Real Time Virtual Radar base station connected to PCs — to track them circling over London at 10,000 feet, the maximum altitude the Islanders can fly at because they are unpressurised.

In February 2007 the Mail on Sunday's Jason Lewis ran an exclusive story detailing the death in 1999 of a London "motorcycle courier driver". He had been killed in an apparent straightforward tragic accident involving a car driving into his side and knocking him off. But the "courier" was an undercover MI5 surveillance officer targeting al-Qaeda terrorists (before the wider world had even heard of the name).

The car driver was a mysterious "Arabic looking" man who was taken to Paddington Green high security police station for questioning and later released without charge, never to be seen again. The inquest ruled the death was an accident but case files were permanently sealed under the Official Secrets Act.

The Mail on Sunday article was headlined "Britain's first victim in the war on terror" and used a photo supplied by the MI5 officer's grieving parents. It shows their son posing in a flying suit next to an anonymous "military plane". Take a look at that photo and see if you recognise it.

In August 2008, Jason Lewis at the MoS [ latest articles  –  older articles ] scooped another exclusive. He detailed for the first time how the Islanders based at Northolt's Special Operations Area are being used to track suspected Taliban trainees from major UK cities. This time, a wider clearer version of that MI5 Officer's portrait was published and showed some very distinctive hangar doors and equally recognisable patterned hardstanding tarmac.

On Saturday 27th September 2008, numerous properties in East London and Essex were raided in an anti-terrorism operation after a publisher's house in Islington, North London was firebombed. The victim was about to publish a highly controversial book detailing a fictionalised account of the Prophet Mohammed's early life – The Jewel of Medina. The skies above the raid locations were constantly patrolled by Islanders from Northolt with special eavesdropping equipment attached (exclusively pictured further below).

In February 2010 it was discovered that specially adapted Army Air Corps Gazelle helicopters in camouflage green, complete with pilot voice control software and powerful Nitesun searchlights, had joined the Islanders performing similar spy operations over densely populated areas of Manchester.

Now read on and study the public domain, open source evidence.