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Jeremy Scahill, who is the expert on Blackwater, has new revelations in The Nation about the paramilitary company now called Xe and its involvement in military and intelligence operations in Pakistan.
At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.
This is very interesting. The government is denying it and so is Blackwater, but they would deny if whether it's true or not so such a denial isn't exactly compelling. Here's how Scahill sources the story:
The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater's involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.
Scahill's source says this is all being done outside the regular CIA channels and regular Pentagon channels as well, apparently in order to provide plausible deniability for both the U.S. and Pakistan governments;
The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency's director, Leon Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. "This is a parallel operation to the CIA," said the source. "They are two separate beasts." The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war--knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan. In 2006, the United States and Pakistan struck a deal that authorized JSOC to enter Pakistan to hunt Osama bin Laden with the understanding that Pakistan would deny it had given permission. Officially, the United States is not supposed to have any active military operations in the country...A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the military intelligence source's claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and elsewhere in Pakistan. This arrangement, the former executive said, allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity.
His account and that of the military intelligence source were borne out by a US military source who has knowledge of Special Forces actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about Blackwater's covert work for JSOC in Pakistan, this source, who also asked for anonymity, told The Nation, "From my information that I have, that is absolutely correct," adding, "There's no question that's occurring."
"It wouldn't surprise me because we've outsourced nearly everything," said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of Blackwater's role in Pakistan. Wilkerson said that during his time in the Bush administration, he saw the beginnings of Blackwater's involvement with the sensitive operations of the military and CIA. "Part of this, of course, is an attempt to get around the constraints the Congress has placed on DoD. If you don't have sufficient soldiers to do it, you hire civilians to do it. I mean, it's that simple. It would not surprise me."
There's much more in the article, a lot of which deals with how the Joint Special Operations Command (formerly led by Gen. McChrystal, now heading up the Afghanistan campaign) operates largely outside the oversight of Congress.
Politics
Comments
Where is the money that's paying Xe coming from?
Posted by: Nils Ross | November 30, 2009 9:28 AM
Does "the program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence." mean that funding and resources are being used without the knowledge of the people legally responsible for them and if so how is not straightforward theft?
Posted by: Matty | November 30, 2009 9:39 AM
General McCrystal is supposed to testify before Congress after President Obamas' Afghanistan speech. Will he be questioned about this revelation? No one should hold their breath.
Posted by: SLC | November 30, 2009 9:40 AM
A question: If the US government is going to insist on doing super-secret, immoral shit like this, why on earth are they using trigger-happy, incompetent fools like Blackwater/Xe?
Posted by: Awesome McCool | November 30, 2009 9:42 AM
Why is this not a conspiracy theory? "Of course they would deny it, true or not" and "high-level officials may not even know about it", "highly compartmentalized" – from the way this looks, it is simply based on a single person's report, not even a paper trail.
Not that I don't think it might be true, it's just that I think I should be careful about conspiracy theories even when I think they're likely to be true. Especially then.
Posted by: Patrick | November 30, 2009 11:32 AM
Awesome McCool: If the US government is going to insist on doing super-secret, immoral shit like this, why on earth are they using trigger-happy, incompetent fools like Blackwater/Xe?
DoD Directive 5240.1, point 4.4: "Under no circumstances shall any DoD employee engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination." There's also a related executive order (EO-12333), prohibiting it generally... which makes even Xe's actions problematic.
For myself, I'm not convinced it's always immoral; for example, a political agitator who never takes up arms himself would appear to qualify as non-combatant, but might well fall into the "needs killin'" category. Essentially, I feel once a state of War exists, combatant status should be extended to those providing the political leadership to combatants.
Naturally, there isn't a politician in the country who would advocate changing policy to support that.
Posted by: abb3w | November 30, 2009 12:21 PM
It is a conspiracy theory, but that doesn't mean it's automatically false, of course. Just as we'd expect most people accused of a crime to deny it, guilty or not, we'd expect most agencies accused of a crime to do so. The difference is, with a conspiracy of people involved, the chance that one of them might make a mistake, have a bout of conscience, or see personal benefit to revealing info increases.
This is where typical conspiracy theorists go wrong. They have zero sources of people involved slipping up or leaking information. The best evidence they have is that the official explanation doesn't make sense to them. In this case, the accusations of a conspiracy aren't stemming from an unsatisfactory explanation, but from a leak, which makes the whole thing different. It's hardly proof, of course, but it's a fair share different the crazy type of conspiracy theory.
Posted by: Infophile | November 30, 2009 1:11 PM
Likely the DOD budget. The same DOD that announced that they couldn't account for $2.3 Trillion on 9/10/01. I wonder why that story got buried?
Posted by: Johnny Clamboat | November 30, 2009 1:46 PM
Meh. War is messy. You need people to work the mess.
It has always been that way.
Care Bears are not equipped to deal with some of the shit that needs dealing with.
To assume all Xe (ne Blackwater) operators are trigger happy incompetents is stereotyping. Just as assuming all progressives are latte sipping surrender monekys is.
I suppose everyone thinks the nut jobs will give up their jihad if we send them some roses and a box of candy? Maybe a stuffed pony?
Posted by: Ian | November 30, 2009 2:57 PM
Ian, #9: I suppose everyone thinks the nut jobs will give up their jihad if we send them some roses and a box of candy? Maybe a stuffed pony?
Why don't we try that? It couldn't possibly work out worse than the war thing is going, and it'd be a hell of a lot cheaper.
Posted by: Chiroptera | November 30, 2009 3:08 PM
I'm with you on that, Chiroptera. A lot of the Middle-Eastern anger at the US is due to their past meddling and present warring. The war in Iraq is the perfect example of the type of action that just angers them and spawns more terrorists. Add to that the use of torture by the US, which is one of the greatest recruitment tools terrorists have. Act like a civilized nation which isn't trying to wipe out their way of life and it'll greatly limit the number of jihadists who come after us.
Not to say that'll get rid of them, of course. But if the only terrorists are ones who are mad over pictures of Mohammad, we'll have a lot more public support in combating them.
Posted by: Infophile | November 30, 2009 3:34 PM
@Ian
"I suppose everyone thinks the nut jobs will give up their jihad if we send them some roses and a box of candy? Maybe a stuffed pony?"
Well, surprisingly, those societies in Europe which try more to be accomodating to their Muslim minorities (the UK) have less problems with them than those which are acting less friendly towards them (France).
Posted by: Roman | November 30, 2009 3:41 PM
To assume all Xe (ne Blackwater) operators are trigger happy incompetents is stereotyping.
That's not an "assumption," it's an observation, moran. Go look up the two words and get an idea of the difference.
I suppose everyone thinks the nut jobs will give up their jihad if we send them some roses and a box of candy? Maybe a stuffed pony?
And once again, Ian, you prove your stupidity by pretending that's the only alternative to unquestioning acceptance of everything Xe does.
Posted by: Raging Bee | November 30, 2009 3:47 PM
Only because of unimaginative people like you. If it were up to me, they'd have monocles and little black boots and every one would come with an old-fashioned leather doctor bag filled with fun surprises like rusty dental instruments, blow torches and hand drills.
And that stuffed pony? Clearly, if you included a pink Hello Kitty backpack stuffed with explosives and nails and shotgun shells we'd be on whole different plane of effective diplomacy. One you couldn't even dream of, little man.
Posted by: Leni | November 30, 2009 4:17 PM
@Leni
This is evil in so many ways, that it's just breathtaking.
Posted by: Roman | November 30, 2009 4:21 PM
>:D
I bet you laughed a little, though.
Sorry, Ian's comment was just so effing stupid I couldn't resist.
Posted by: Leni | November 30, 2009 4:25 PM
@15
Get used to it.
Posted by: Rich | November 30, 2009 5:56 PM
@17
Mine was an expression of admiration, not contempt.
Posted by: Roman | November 30, 2009 5:58 PM
@Roman #12:
"Well, surprisingly, those societies in Europe which try more to be accomodating to their Muslim minorities (the UK) have less problems with them than those which are acting less friendly towards them (France)."
It's not an unreasonable statement to point out that every western nation has problems of one kind or another associated in some way with its Muslim minorities. For example, the tendency of a group of supposedly 'moderate' group of people to break windows when someone 'offends' their dead prophet or his associated religious flim-flam can't help but cause problems.
And no apologies for this for any PC thugs that might get offended, either.
Posted by: Nils Ross | November 30, 2009 6:17 PM
Fixed now. You were saying?
Posted by: Leni | November 30, 2009 6:57 PM
Sounds like we are finally doing things right. I wonder if Blackwater is hiring?
Posted by: Captain patriot | November 30, 2009 7:28 PM
"Well, surprisingly, those societies in Europe which try more to be accomodating to their Muslim minorities (the UK) have less problems with them than those which are acting less friendly towards them (France)."
-----------------
Oh really? Could'nt tell it by all the bombings there and the fact that MUSLIM men are going around cutting the faces of women (muslim and non-muslim) for not wearing the preoper headdress. Sounds like the UK is bowing down at the altar of Islamofacism. Sounds like somebody surrendered.
Tell, wasn't Madrid (Spain) one of those accomodating countries you speak of? Seems like surrendering and letting them take over doesn't work very well either.
Posted by: Captain patriot | November 30, 2009 7:36 PM
Capt. Pantywaist is back!
Xe is definitely hiring, honey; the question is how low their standards have become.
Posted by: democommie | November 30, 2009 9:33 PM
@22
"Could'nt tell it by all the bombings there"
ONE bombing, organized by extremists and condemned by the rest of the Muslims. None followed. Compare this to IRA bombings in the 80s and the 90s...
"and the fact that MUSLIM men are going around cutting the faces of women (muslim and non-muslim) for not wearing the preoper headdress."
Bullshit. Have you ever been to London?
Posted by: Roman | December 1, 2009 3:02 AM
In the colonial era....private armies are the preferable choice of governments. Pakistani Government interestingly admitted to have Dynacorp...(forgive me for misspelling)but keep denying blackwater. Point is whether it's blackwater or dynacorp...they all are doing the same job and that is securing US business interest and creating hattered among locals against a common american citizen. Now people largely believe that US contractors are behind the recent bombings not Taliban. And I can see this throught will get stronger in coming days. This would put liberals and progressive peoples' in difficult situation as it would weaken their case that militants are not the right choice as extrem rightests would call them the supporters of US colonial policies.
It was East Indian Company that tookover India not the British Army.
Posted by: Reza | December 1, 2009 2:46 PM