U.S. Official Reportedly Set Up Unit of private contractors to Kill Afghan Militants

G_j

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Mon Mar-15-10 11:20 AM
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U.S. Official Reportedly Set Up Unit of private contractors to Kill Afghan Militants

Edited on Mon Mar-15-10 11:35 AM by G_j

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/03/15/world/international-uk-usa-afghanistan-contractors.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

U.S. Official Reportedly Set Up Unit to Kill Afghan Militants
By REUTERS
Published: March 15, 2010

Filed at 2:05 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon official set up a unit of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, The New York Times reported on its website, citing military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.

According to a story that will appear in Monday's paper, government officials said the official, Michael D. Furlong, might have channelled money away from a program intended to give U.S. commanders information about Afghanistan's social and tribal landscape, and towards secret efforts to hunt militants on both sides of Afghanistan's porous border with Pakistan.

Furlong, a retired Air Force officer who is now a senior civilian employee in the military, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former CIA and Special Forces operatives, the newspaper reported.

The contractors gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps. That material was sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the unnamed officials told the paper.

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**Edit to add todays NYT story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/world/asia/15contractors.html?hp

KABUL, Afghanistan � 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 C.I.A. 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.

While it has been widely reported that the C.I.A. 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 Mr. Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation. The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised his work.

It is generally considered illegal for the military to hire contractors to act as covert spies. Officials said Mr. Furlong�s secret network might have been improperly financed by diverting money from a program designed to merely gather information about the region.

Moreover, in Pakistan, where 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 American military personnel�s operating in the country.

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