News
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Probe finds US official set up illegal spy ring in Pakistan: report* US Air Force official used private contractors to gather intel that led to killing, capture of militants
* Pentagon probe says programme amounted to ‘violation of executive orders’
* Official involved says his work had been approved by number of senior officers in AfghanistanNEW YORK: A senior US Defence Department official broke the department’s rules and deliberately misled senior generals when he set up a spy operation using private contractors in Pakistan and Afghanistan, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing a Pentagon inquiry report.
The report accuses Michael Furlong, the official, of running what amounted to an illegal spying ring of military contractors. The report quoted Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan as saying the probe found that “further investigation is warranted of the misleading and incorrect statements the individual made” about the legality of the spy programme. The allegations about the off-the-books spy operation centered on Michael Furlong, a senior US Air Force civilian official who hired contractors from private security companies that employed former CIA and military operatives, the newspaper reported.
The high-level Pentagon inquiry concluded that private military contractors overstepped their legal authority in gathering intelligence in Afghanistan and Pakistan that ended up being used to kill or capture suspected militants. The 15-page classified report, accuses Furlong of running what amounted to an illegal spying ring of military contractors. In an interview, Furlong denied the accusations and said he was never interviewed by the investigators, nor given a chance to explain his side of the story.
The report, dated June 25, says Furlong’s human intelligence collection programme, known as “Information Operations Capstone”, amounted to a “violation of executive orders” and Defence Department policy. The inquiry, drafted by the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for intelligence oversight Michael Decker, and initialed by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, calls for further investigation by the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The dispute over the Capstone operation centres on the military’s struggle over the past two years to ramp up intelligence gathering to support efforts to counter insurgent activity – a strategy that includes elements of nation-building, which requires more social, civil and economic data, as well as the tactical intelligence needed for targeting.
Gates ordered the investigation in March. The contractors gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps and then sent that material to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, according to the paper. The newspaper quoted Furlong as saying in a telephone interview that he is angry about the conclusions of the Pentagon’s investigation and that the Defence Department had never interviewed him as part of the probe.
“This is a lot like kangaroo court justice,” Furlong said. The newspaper quoted him as saying that his work had been approved by a number of senior officers in Afghanistan, and that he had never misled anyone. The US government’s use of private security contractors has been controversial in Afghanistan as well as elsewhere. Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a decree in August banning all private security contractors in Afghanistan, with an exception for those guarding embassies, military installations, diplomatic residences and the transport of diplomatic personnel, straining ties with Washington.
According to the newspaper, Furlong’s operation, using companies that employed agents inside Afghanistan and Pakistan to gather intelligence on militant groups, operated under a $22 million contract run by Lockheed Martin Corp. The newspaper said one of the companies used a group of US, Afghan and Pakistani agents overseen by Duane Clarridge, a CIA veteran known for his role in the 1980s Iran-contra scandal. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk