And they look like such good chaps
March 15th, 2010
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.
