"It is generally considered illegal for the military to hire contractors to act as spies.... General David H. Petraeus.... signed off on the operation"
So AmeriKa's lead warrior is a literal criminal, eh?
First article an invisible ink in the Boston Globe, and I can see why.
"Contractors are called US spies; Tied to tracking of Pakistani, Afghan militants" by Dexter Filkins and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times | March 15, 2010
KABUL — Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.
The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former CIA and Special Forces operatives.
The contractors, in turn, gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, and the information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said.
It's called ASSASSINATION and we condemn "insurgent, militant, gunmen" when they do it.
Related: Afghanistan: Assassinations, Audits, Abductions, and Airstrikes
You Have to Get Up Pretty Early in the Morning to Fool a Pakistani
Yeah, they rise before sun up to pray.
While it has been widely reported that the CIA and the military are attacking operatives of Al Qaeda and others through unmanned, remote-controlled drone strikes, some American officials say they became troubled that Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation.
So which "Al-CIA-Duh" would that be, huh?
The made-up "Al-CIA-Duh?"
Related:
Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh and the OSI
Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh's Greatest Hits
Prop 101: The "Terrorism" Business
New York Times Admits War on Terror is U.S. Creation
Oh, AmeriKa's MSM KNOWS ALL ABOUT and yet STILL PUSHES the CHARADE, huh?The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised his work.
Whose administration was/is in power?
It is generally considered illegal for the military to hire contractors to act as spies.
And killers?
Officials said Furlong’s secret network might have been improperly financed by diverting money from a program designed to merely gather information about the region.
NOTHING EVER CHANGES in this ROT-GUT GOVERNMENT!!!!!!!!
Moreover, in Pakistan, where Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding, the secret use of private contractors may be seen as an attempt to get around the Pakistani government’s prohibition of US military personnel’s operating in the country.
Everyone but the AmeriKan newspaper reader knows Blackwater, et al, have BOOTS on the GROUND there!
Officials say Furlong’s operation seems to have been shut down, and he is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Defense Department for a number of possible offenses, including contract fraud.
Translation:
The government changed the name and moved the program to another department or agency.
Even in a region of the world known for intrigue, Furlong’s story stands out.
At times, his operation featured a mysterious American company run by retired Special Operations officers and an iconic CIA figure who had a role in some of the agency’s most famous episodes, including the Iran-Contra affair.
You know, where the US used Israel to sell weapons to Iran and then took the proceeds and secretly bought and supplied weapons for the Nicaraguan Contras against the wishes of the American Congress.
The allegations that he ran this network come as the US intelligence community confronts other instances in which private contractors may have been improperly used on delicate and questionable operations, including secret raids in Iraq and an assassinations program that was halted before it got off the ground....
Related: Boston Sunday Globe Censorship: Covering Up Cheney's Crimes
AmeriKan MSM Covering Up Cheney's Crimes
Slow Saturday Special: Cheney's CIA Assassination Teams
The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: Blackening Out Blackwater Assassins
The MSM cover-ups and obfuscations never end, do they?
It is still murky whether Furlong had approval from top commanders or whether he might have been running a rogue operation....
Whatever, MSM. It no longer matters to me.
THIS IS the AmeriKan government and MSM coverage all over!!!!
Colonel Kathleen Cook, a spokeswoman for US Strategic Command, which oversees Furlong’s work, declined to make him available for an interview. Military officials said Furlong, a retired Air Force officer, is now a senior civilian employee in the military, a full-time Defense Department employee based at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
Furlong has extensive experience in “psychological operations’’ — the military term for the use of information in warfare — and he plied his trade in a number of places, including Iraq and the Balkans.
It is called PUTTING OUT PROPAGANDA, dear readers. And what do you think the government is using as a megaphone, huh?
It is unclear exactly when Furlong’s operations began. But officials said they seemed to accelerate in the summer of 2009, and by the time they ended, he and his colleagues had established a network of informants in Afghanistan and Pakistan....
I DO NOT BELIEVE they have ENDED, do you?
Because the MSM says it?
And if the program accelerated -- along with the missile attacks -- then this is ON the WATCH of Obomber, the NEW AmeriKan WAR CRIMINAL PRESIDENT!!!
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And TWO MONTHS LATER we find the program is going FULL STEAM AHEAD!!!
"Pentagon still using private spies; A controversial, but key, source of intelligence" by Mark Mazzetti, New York Times | May 16, 2010
What this tells you is the GOVERNMENT views ITSELF is ABOVE the LAW!!
Yeah, I thought I smelled the whiff of FASCISM!
Earlier this year, government officials admitted that the military had sent a group of former Central Intelligence Agency officers and retired special operations troops into the region to collect information — some of which was used to track and kill suspected militants. Many portrayed it as a rogue operation that had been hastily shut down once an investigation began.
But interviews with more than a dozen current and former government officials and businessmen, and an examination of government documents, tell a different a story. Not only are the networks still operating, their almost daily reports on subjects like the workings of the Taliban leadership in Pakistan and enemy movements in southern Afghanistan have become an important source of intelligence.
The American military is largely prohibited from operating inside Pakistan. And under Department of Defense rules, the Army is not allowed to hire contractors for spying.
Military officials said that when General David H. Petraeus, the top commander in the region, signed off on the operation in January 2009, there were prohibitions against intelligence gathering, including hiring agents to provide information about enemy positions in Pakistan....
Some Pentagon officials pointed out that the supervisor who set up the contractor network, Michael D. Furlong, was now under investigation. He remains at his job, working as a senior civilian Air Force official.
But a review of the program found that Furlong’s operatives were still providing information using the same intelligence gathering methods as before. The contractors were still being paid under a $22 million contract, the review shows, managed by
$ee what and where it alway$ come$ back to, readers?
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said that the program “remains under investigation by multiple offices within the Defense Department,’’ so it would be inappropriate to answer specific questions about who approved the operation or why it continues.
A senior defense official said that the Pentagon decided just recently not to renew the contract, which expires at the end of May. While the Pentagon declined to discuss the program, it appears that commanders in the field are in no rush to shut it down because some of the information has been highly valuable.
The expanded role of contractors on the battlefield has raised questions about whether the United States has outsourced some of its most secretive and important operations to a private army many fear is largely unaccountable.
Fleeting questions that are quickly forgotten by the MSM.
The contractor network was born in part out of frustration with the CIA and the military intelligence apparatus.
Yeah, we are not murdering enough innocent people.
There was a belief by some officers that the CIA was too risk-averse, too reliant on Pakistan’s spy service, and seldom able to provide the military with timely information. In addition, the military has complained that it is not technically allowed to operate in Pakistan.
Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, dismissed reports of a turf war.
“There’s no daylight at all on this between CIA and DoD,’’ he said. “It’s an issue for Defense to look into — it involves their people, after all — and that’s exactly what they’re doing.’’
Since when does the CIA comment on operations (translation: they are up to their necks in it, as we already knew)?
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