www.morningstaronline.co.uk/

Jeremy Scahill

The Nation, November 23, 2009

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.

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.

The White House did not return calls or email messages seeking comment for this story. Capt. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Adm. Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Nation, “We do not discuss current operations one way or the other, regardless of their nature.” A defense official, on background, specifically denied that Blackwater performs work on drone strikes or intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan. “We don’t have any contracts to do that work for us. We don’t contract that kind of work out, period,” the official said. “There has not been, and is not now, contracts between JSOC and that organization for these types of services.”

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.

Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe Services and US Training Center, denies the company is operating in Pakistan. “Xe Services has only one employee in Pakistan performing construction oversight for the U.S. Government,” Blackwater spokesperson Mark Corallo said in a statement to The Nation, adding that the company has “no other operations of any kind in Pakistan.”

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.”

The Counterterrorism Tag Team in Karachi

The covert JSOC program with Blackwater in Pakistan dates back to at least 2007, according to the military intelligence source. The current head of JSOC is Vice Adm. William McRaven, who took over the post from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC from 2003 to 2008 before being named the top US commander in Afghanistan. Blackwater’s presence in Pakistan is “not really visible, and that’s why nobody has cracked down on it,” said the source. Blackwater’s operations in Pakistan, he said, are not done through State Department contracts or publicly identified Defense contracts. “It’s Blackwater via JSOC, and it’s a classified no-bid [contract] approved on a rolling basis.” The main JSOC/Blackwater facility in Karachi, according to the source, is nondescript: three trailers with various generators, satellite phones and computer systems are used as a makeshift operations center. “It’s a very rudimentary operation,” says the source. “I would compare it to [CIA] outposts in Kurdistan or any of the Special Forces outposts. It’s very bare bones, and that’s the point.”

Blackwater’s work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task Force based at Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the military intelligence source. While JSOC technically runs the operations in Karachi, he said, it is largely staffed by former US special operations soldiers working for a division of Blackwater, once known as Blackwater SELECT, and intelligence analysts working for a Blackwater affiliate, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS), which is owned by Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince. The military source said that the name Blackwater SELECT may have been changed recently. Total Intelligence, which is run out of an office on the ninth floor of a building in the Ballston area of Arlington, Virginia, is staffed by former analysts and operatives from the CIA, DIA, FBI and other agencies. It is modeled after the CIA’s counterterrorism center. In Karachi, TIS runs a “media-scouring/open-source network,” according to the source. Until recently, Total Intelligence was run by two former top CIA officials, Cofer Black and Robert Richer, both of whom have left the company. In Pakistan, Blackwater is not using either its original name or its new moniker, Xe Services, according to the former Blackwater executive. “They are running most of their work through TIS because the other two [names] have such a stain on them,” he said. Corallo, the Blackwater spokesperson, denied that TIS or any other division or affiliate of Blackwater has any personnel in Pakistan.

The US military intelligence source said that Blackwater’s classified contracts keep getting renewed at the request of JSOC. Blackwater, he said, is already so deeply entrenched that it has become a staple of the US military operations in Pakistan. According to the former Blackwater executive, “The politics that go with the brand of BW is somewhat set aside because what you’re doing is really one military guy to another.” Blackwater’s first known contract with the CIA for operations in Afghanistan was awarded in 2002 and was for work along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

One of the concerns raised by the military intelligence source is that some Blackwater personnel are being given rolling security clearances above their approved clearances. Using Alternative Compartmentalized Control Measures (ACCMs), he said, the Blackwater personnel are granted clearance to a Special Access Program, the bureaucratic term used to describe highly classified “black” operations. “With an ACCM, the security manager can grant access to you to be exposed to and operate within compartmentalized programs far above ’secret’–even though you have no business doing so,” said the source. It allows Blackwater personnel that “do not have the requisite security clearance or do not hold a security clearance whatsoever to participate in classified operations by virtue of trust,” he added. “Think of it as an ultra-exclusive level above top secret. That’s exactly what it is: a circle of love.” Blackwater, therefore, has access to “all source” reports that are culled in part from JSOC units in the field. “That’s how a lot of things over the years have been conducted with contractors,” said the source. “We have contractors that regularly see things that top policy-makers don’t unless they ask.”

According to the source, Blackwater has effectively marketed itself as a company whose operatives have “conducted lethal direct action missions and now, for a price, you can have your own planning cell. JSOC just ate that up,” he said, adding, “They have a sizable force in Pakistan–not for any nefarious purpose if you really want to look at it that way–but to support a legitimate contract that’s classified for JSOC.” Blackwater’s Pakistan JSOC contracts are secret and are therefore shielded from public oversight, he said. The source is not sure when the arrangement with JSOC began, but he says that a spin-off of Blackwater SELECT “was issued a no-bid contract for support to shooters for a JSOC Task Force and they kept extending it.” Some of the Blackwater personnel, he said, work undercover as aid workers. “Nobody even gives them a second thought.”

The military intelligence source said that the Blackwater/JSOC Karachi operation is referred to as “Qatar cubed,” in reference to the US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq. “This is supposed to be the brave new world,” he says. “This is the Jamestown of the new millennium and it’s meant to be a lily pad. You can jump off to Uzbekistan, you can jump back over the border, you can jump sideways, you can jump northwest. It’s strategically located so that they can get their people wherever they have to without having to wrangle with the military chain of command in Afghanistan, which is convoluted. They don’t have to deal with that because they’re operating under a classified mandate.”

In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the CIA, the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to the military intelligence source. Blackwater does not actually carry out the operations, he said, which are executed on the ground by JSOC forces. “That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don’t know if you noticed but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan,” he said. “So, did I miss something, did Rumsfeld come back into power?”

Pakistan’s Military Contracting Maze

Blackwater, according to the military intelligence source, is not doing the actual killing as part of its work in Pakistan. “The SELECT personnel are not going into places with private aircraft and going after targets,” he said. “It’s not like Blackwater SELECT people are running around assassinating people.” Instead, US Special Forces teams carry out the plans developed in part by Blackwater. The military intelligence source drew a distinction between the Blackwater operatives who work for the State Department, which he calls “Blackwater Vanilla,” and the seasoned Special Forces veterans who work on the JSOC program. “Good or bad, there’s a small number of people who know how to pull off an operation like that. That’s probably a good thing,” said the source. “It’s the Blackwater SELECT people that have and continue to plan these types of operations because they’re the only people that know how and they went where the money was. It’s not trigger-happy fucks, like some of the PSD [Personal Security Detail] guys. These are not people that believe that Barack Obama is a socialist, these are not people that kill innocent civilians. They’re very good at what they do.”

The former Blackwater executive, when asked for confirmation that Blackwater forces were not actively killing people in Pakistan, said, “that’s not entirely accurate.” While he concurred with the military intelligence source’s description of the JSOC and CIA programs, he pointed to another role Blackwater is allegedly playing in Pakistan, not for the US government but for Islamabad. According to the executive, Blackwater works on a subcontract for Kestral Logistics, a powerful Pakistani firm, which specializes in military logistical support, private security and intelligence consulting. It is staffed with former high-ranking Pakistani army and government officials. While Kestral’s main offices are in Pakistan, it also has branches in several other countries.

A spokesperson for the US State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), which is responsible for issuing licenses to US corporations to provide defense-related services to foreign governments or entities, would neither confirm nor deny for The Nation that Blackwater has a license to work in Pakistan or to work with Kestral. “We cannot help you,” said department spokesperson David McKeeby after checking with the relevant DDTC officials. “You’ll have to contact the companies directly.” Blackwater’s Corallo said the company has “no operations of any kind” in Pakistan other than the one employee working for the DoD. Kestral did not respond to inquiries from The Nation.

According to federal lobbying records, Kestral recently hired former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, who served in that post from 2003 to 2005, to lobby the US government, including the State Department, USAID and Congress, on foreign affairs issues “regarding [Kestral's] capabilities to carry out activities of interest to the United States.” Noriega was hired through his firm, Vision Americas, which he runs with Christina Rocca, a former CIA operations official who served as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 2001 to 2006 and was deeply involved in shaping US policy toward Pakistan. In October 2009, Kestral paid Vision Americas $15,000 and paid a Vision Americas-affiliated firm, Firecreek Ltd., an equal amount to lobby on defense and foreign policy issues.

For years, Kestral has done a robust business in defense logistics with the Pakistani government and other nations, as well as top US defense companies. Blackwater owner Erik Prince is close with Kestral CEO Liaquat Ali Baig, according to the former Blackwater executive. “Ali and Erik have a pretty close relationship,” he said. “They’ve met many times and struck a deal, and they [offer] mutual support for one another.” Working with Kestral, he said, Blackwater has provided convoy security for Defense Department shipments destined for Afghanistan that would arrive in the port at Karachi. Blackwater, according to the former executive, would guard the supplies as they were transported overland from Karachi to Peshawar and then west through the Torkham border crossing, the most important supply route for the US military in Afghanistan.

According to the former executive, Blackwater operatives also integrate with Kestral’s forces in sensitive counterterrorism operations in the North-West Frontier Province, where they work in conjunction with the Pakistani Interior Ministry’s paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps (alternately referred to as “frontier scouts”). The Blackwater personnel are technically advisers, but the former executive said that the line often gets blurred in the field. Blackwater “is providing the actual guidance on how to do [counterterrorism operations] and Kestral’s folks are carrying a lot of them out, but they’re having the guidance and the overwatch from some BW guys that will actually go out with the teams when they’re executing the job,” he said. “You can see how that can lead to other things in the border areas.” He said that when Blackwater personnel are out with the Pakistani teams, sometimes its men engage in operations against suspected terrorists. “You’ve got BW guys that are assisting… and they’re all going to want to go on the jobs–so they’re going to go with them,” he said. “So, the things that you’re seeing in the news about how this Pakistani military group came in and raided this house or did this or did that–in some of those cases, you’re going to have Western folks that are right there at the house, if not in the house.” Blackwater, he said, is paid by the Pakistani government through Kestral for consulting services. “That gives the Pakistani government the cover to say, ‘Hey, no, we don’t have any Westerners doing this. It’s all local and our people are doing it.’ But it gets them the expertise that Westerners provide for [counterterrorism]-related work.”

The military intelligence source confirmed Blackwater works with the Frontier Corps, saying, “There’s no real oversight. It’s not really on people’s radar screen.”

In October, in response to Pakistani news reports that a Kestral warehouse in Islamabad was being used to store heavy weapons for Blackwater, the US Embassy in Pakistan released a statement denying the weapons were being used by “a private American security contractor.” The statement said, “Kestral Logistics is a private logistics company that handles the importation of equipment and supplies provided by the United States to the Government of Pakistan. All of the equipment and supplies were imported at the request of the Government of Pakistan, which also certified the shipments.”

Who is Behind the Drone Attacks?

Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the United States has expanded drone bombing raids in Pakistan. Obama first ordered a drone strike against targets in North and South Waziristan on January 23, and the strikes have been conducted consistently ever since. The Obama administration has now surpassed the number of Bush-era strikes in Pakistan and has faced fierce criticism from Pakistan and some US lawmakers over civilian deaths. A drone attack in June killed as many as sixty people attending a Taliban funeral.

In August, the New York Times reported that Blackwater works for the CIA at “hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft.” In February, The Times of London obtained a satellite image of a secret CIA airbase in Shamsi, in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan, showing three drone aircraft. The New York Times also reported that the agency uses a secret base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to strike in Pakistan.

The military intelligence source says that the drone strike that reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, his wife and his bodyguards in Waziristan in August was a CIA strike, but that many others attributed in media reports to the CIA are actually JSOC strikes. “Some of these strikes are attributed to OGA [Other Government Agency, intelligence parlance for the CIA], but in reality it’s JSOC and their parallel program of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] because they also have access to UAVs. So when you see some of these hits, especially the ones with high civilian casualties, those are almost always JSOC strikes.” The Pentagon has stated bluntly, “There are no US military strike operations being conducted in Pakistan.”

The military intelligence source also confirmed that Blackwater continues to work for the CIA on its drone bombing program in Pakistan, as previously reported in the New York Times, but added that Blackwater is working on JSOC’s drone bombings as well. “It’s Blackwater running the program for both CIA and JSOC,” said the source. When civilians are killed, “people go, ‘Oh, it’s the CIA doing crazy shit again unchecked.’ Well, at least 50 percent of the time, that’s JSOC [hitting] somebody they’ve identified through HUMINT [human intelligence] or they’ve culled the intelligence themselves or it’s been shared with them and they take that person out and that’s how it works.”

The military intelligence source says that the CIA operations are subject to Congressional oversight, unlike the parallel JSOC bombings. “Targeted killings are not the most popular thing in town right now and the CIA knows that,” he says. “Contractors and especially JSOC personnel working under a classified mandate are not [overseen by Congress], so they just don’t care. If there’s one person they’re going after and there’s thirty-four people in the building, thirty-five people are going to die. That’s the mentality.” He added, “They’re not accountable to anybody and they know that. It’s an open secret, but what are you going to do, shut down JSOC?”

In addition to working on covert action planning and drone strikes, Blackwater SELECT also provides private guards to perform the sensitive task of security for secret US drone bases, JSOC camps and Defense Intelligence Agency camps inside Pakistan, according to the military intelligence source.

Mosharraf Zaidi, a well-known Pakistani journalist who has served as a consultant for the UN and European Union in Pakistan and Afghanistan, says that the Blackwater/JSOC program raises serious questions about the norms of international relations. “The immediate question is, How do you define the active pursuit of military objectives in a country with which not only have you not declared war but that is supposedly a front-line non-NATO ally in the US struggle to contain extremist violence coming out of Afghanistan and the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan?” asks Zaidi, who is currently a columnist for The News, the biggest English-language daily in Pakistan. “Let’s forget Blackwater for a second. What this is confirming is that there are US military operations in Pakistan that aren’t about logistics or getting food to Bagram; that are actually about the exercise of physical violence, physical force inside of Pakistani territory.”

JSOC: Rumsfeld and Cheney’s Extra Special Force

Colonel Wilkerson said that he is concerned that with General McChrystal’s elevation as the military commander of the Afghan war–which is increasingly seeping into Pakistan–there is a concomitant rise in JSOC’s power and influence within the military structure. “I don’t see how you can escape that; it’s just a matter of the way the authority flows and the power flows, and it’s inevitable, I think,” Wilkerson told The Nation. He added, “I’m alarmed when I see execute orders and combat orders that go out saying that the supporting force is Central Command and the supported force is Special Operations Command,” under which JSOC operates. “That’s backward. But that’s essentially what we have today.”

From 2003 to 2008 McChrystal headed JSOC, which is headquartered at Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where Blackwater’s 7,000-acre operating base is also situated. JSOC controls the Army’s Delta Force, the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, as well as the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron. JSOC performs strike operations, reconnaissance in denied areas and special intelligence missions. Blackwater, which was founded by former Navy SEALs, employs scores of veteran Special Forces operators–which several former military officials pointed to as the basis for Blackwater’s alleged contracts with JSOC.

Since 9/11, many top-level Special Forces veterans have taken up employment with private firms, where they can make more money doing the highly specialized work they did in uniform. “The Blackwater individuals have the experience. A lot of these individuals are retired military, and they’ve been around twenty to thirty years and have experience that the younger Green Beret guys don’t,” said retired Army Lieut. Col. Jeffrey Addicott, a well-connected military lawyer who served as senior legal counsel for US Army Special Forces. “They’re known entities. Everybody knows who they are, what their capabilities are, and they’ve got the experience. They’re very valuable.”

“They make much more money being the smarts of these operations, planning hits in various countries and basing it off their experience in Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Ethiopia,” said the military intelligence source. “They were there for all of these things, they know what the hell they’re talking about. And JSOC has unfortunately lost the institutional capability to plan within, so they hire back people that used to work for them and had already planned and executed these [types of] operations. They hired back people that jumped over to Blackwater SELECT and then pay them exorbitant amounts of money to plan future operations. It’s a ridiculous revolving door.”

While JSOC has long played a central role in US counterterrorism and covert operations, military and civilian officials who worked at the Defense and State Departments during the Bush administration described in interviews with The Nation an extremely cozy relationship that developed between the executive branch (primarily through Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) and JSOC. During the Bush era, Special Forces turned into a virtual stand-alone operation that acted outside the military chain of command and in direct coordination with the White House. Throughout the Bush years, it was largely General McChrystal who ran JSOC. “What I was seeing was the development of what I would later see in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Special Operations forces would operate in both theaters without the conventional commander even knowing what they were doing,” said Colonel Wilkerson. “That’s dangerous, that’s very dangerous. You have all kinds of mess when you don’t tell the theater commander what you’re doing.”

Wilkerson said that almost immediately after assuming his role at the State Department under Colin Powell, he saw JSOC being politicized and developing a close relationship with the executive branch. He saw this begin, he said, after his first Delta Force briefing at Fort Bragg. “I think Cheney and Rumsfeld went directly into JSOC. I think they went into JSOC at times, perhaps most frequently, without the SOCOM [Special Operations] commander at the time even knowing it. The receptivity in JSOC was quite good,” says Wilkerson. “I think Cheney was actually giving McChrystal instructions, and McChrystal was asking him for instructions.” He said the relationship between JSOC and Cheney and Rumsfeld “built up initially because Rumsfeld didn’t get the responsiveness. He didn’t get the can-do kind of attitude out of the SOCOM commander, and so as Rumsfeld was wont to do, he cut him out and went straight to the horse’s mouth. At that point you had JSOC operating as an extension of the [administration] doing things the executive branch–read: Cheney and Rumsfeld–wanted it to do. This would be more or less carte blanche. You need to do it, do it. It was very alarming for me as a conventional soldier.”

Wilkerson said the JSOC teams caused diplomatic problems for the United States across the globe. “When these teams started hitting capital cities and other places all around the world, [Rumsfeld] didn’t tell the State Department either. The only way we found out about it is our ambassadors started to call us and say, ‘Who the hell are these six-foot-four white males with eighteen-inch biceps walking around our capital cities?’ So we discovered this, we discovered one in South America, for example, because he actually murdered a taxi driver, and we had to get him out of there real quick. We rendered him–we rendered him home.”

As part of their strategy, Rumsfeld and Cheney also created the Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which pulled intelligence resources from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA for use in sensitive JSOC operations. The SSB was created using “reprogrammed” funds “without explicit congressional authority or appropriation,” according to the Washington Post. The SSB operated outside the military chain of command and circumvented the CIA’s authority on clandestine operations. Rumsfeld created it as part of his war to end “near total dependence on CIA.” Under US law, the Defense Department is required to report all deployment orders to Congress. But guidelines issued in January 2005 by former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone stated that Special Operations forces may “conduct clandestine HUMINT operations…before publication” of a deployment order. This effectively gave Rumsfeld unilateral control over clandestine operations.

The military intelligence source said that when Rumsfeld was defense secretary, JSOC was deployed to commit some of the “darkest acts” in part to keep them concealed from Congress. “Everything can be justified as a military operation versus a clandestine intelligence performed by the CIA, which has to be informed to Congress,” said the source. “They were aware of that and they knew that, and they would exploit it at every turn and they took full advantage of it. They knew they could act extra-legally and nothing would happen because A, it was sanctioned by DoD at the highest levels, and B, who was going to stop them? They were preparing the battlefield, which was on all of the PowerPoints: ‘Preparing the Battlefield.’”

The significance of the flexibility of JSOC’s operations inside Pakistan versus the CIA’s is best summed up by Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “Every single intelligence operation and covert action must be briefed to the Congress,” she said. “If they are not, that is a violation of the law.”

Blackwater: Company Non Grata in Pakistan

For months, the Pakistani media has been flooded with stories about Blackwater’s alleged growing presence in the country. For the most part, these stories have been ignored by the US press and denounced as lies or propaganda by US officials in Pakistan. But the reality is that, although many of the stories appear to be wildly exaggerated, Pakistanis have good reason to be concerned about Blackwater’s operations in their country. It is no secret in Washington or Islamabad that Blackwater has been a central part of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that the company has been involved–almost from the beginning of the “war on terror”–with clandestine US operations. Indeed, Blackwater is accepting applications for contractors fluent in Urdu and Punjabi. The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, has denied Blackwater’s presence in the country, stating bluntly in September, “Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan.” In her trip to Pakistan in October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dodged questions from the Pakistani press about Blackwater’s rumored Pakistani operations. Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik, said on November 21 he will resign if Blackwater is found operating anywhere in Pakistan.

The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that Blackwater “provides security for a US-backed aid project” in Peshawar, suggesting the company may be based out of the Pearl Continental, a luxury hotel the United States reportedly is considering purchasing to use as a consulate in the city. “We have no contracts in Pakistan,” Blackwater spokesperson Stacey DeLuke said recently. “We’ve been blamed for all that has gone wrong in Peshawar, none of which is true, since we have absolutely no presence there.”

Reports of Blackwater’s alleged presence in Karachi and elsewhere in the country have been floating around the Pakistani press for months. Hamid Mir, a prominent Pakistani journalist who rose to fame after his 1997 interview with Osama bin Laden, claimed in a recent interview that Blackwater is in Karachi. “The US [intelligence] agencies think that a number of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are hiding in Karachi and Peshawar,” he said. “That is why [Blackwater] agents are operating in these two cities.” Ambassador Patterson has said that the claims of Mir and other Pakistani journalists are “wildly incorrect,” saying they had compromised the security of US personnel in Pakistan. On November 20 the Washington Times, citing three current and former US intelligence officials, reported that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has “found refuge from potential U.S. attacks” in Karachi “with the assistance of Pakistan’s intelligence service.”

In September, the Pakistani press covered a report on Blackwater allegedly submitted by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies to the federal interior ministry. In the report, the intelligence agencies reportedly allege that Blackwater was provided houses by a federal minister who is also helping them clear shipments of weapons and vehicles through Karachi’s Port Qasim on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The military intelligence source did not confirm this but did say, “The port jives because they have a lot of [former] SEALs and they would revert to what they know: the ocean, instead of flying stuff in.”

The Nation cannot independently confirm these allegations and has not seen the Pakistani intelligence report. But according to Pakistani press coverage, the intelligence report also said Blackwater has acquired “bungalows” in the Defense Housing Authority in the city. According to the DHA website, it is a large residential estate originally established “for the welfare of the serving and retired officers of the Armed Forces of Pakistan.” Its motto is: “Home for Defenders.” The report alleges Blackwater is receiving help from local government officials in Karachi and is using vehicles with license plates traditionally assigned to members of the national and provincial assemblies, meaning local law enforcement will not stop them.

The use of private companies like Blackwater for sensitive operations such as drone strikes or other covert work undoubtedly comes with the benefit of plausible deniability that places an additional barrier in an already deeply flawed system of accountability. When things go wrong, it’s the contractors’ fault, not the government’s. But the widespread use of contractors also raises serious legal questions, particularly when they are a part of lethal, covert actions. “We are using contractors for things that in the past might have been considered to be a violation of the Geneva Convention,” said Lt. Col. Addicott, who now runs the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. “In my opinion, we have pressed the envelope to the breaking limit, and it’s almost a fiction that these guys are not in offensive military operations.” Addicott added, “If we were subjected to the International Criminal Court, some of these guys could easily be picked up, charged with war crimes and put on trial. That’s one of the reasons we’re not members of the International Criminal Court.”

If there is one quality that has defined Blackwater over the past decade, it is the ability to survive against the odds while simultaneously reinventing and rebranding itself. That is most evident in Afghanistan, where the company continues to work for the US military, the CIA and the State Department despite intense criticism and almost weekly scandals. Blackwater’s alleged Pakistan operations, said the military intelligence source, are indicative of its new frontier. “Having learned its lessons after the private security contracting fiasco in Iraq, Blackwater has shifted its operational focus to two venues: protecting things that are in danger and anticipating other places we’re going to go as a nation that are dangerous,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Source : http://freeaafia.org/

« Yes we can » – Barack Obama, slogan de sa campagne électorale, automne 2008

« Au cours de périodes où règne le mensonge et la manipulation, dire la vérité devient un acte révolutionnaire » – George Orwell

« Vous pouvez avoir du pouvoir sur autrui tout aussi longtemps que vous ne leur enlevez pas tout ce qu’il possède. Mais lorsque vous avez tout volé à un homme, il n’est désormais plus sous votre pouvoir – il est libre de nouveau » – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Voilà déjà une année d’écoulée depuis l’élection de Barack Obama. Comme je le prédisais à l’automne dernier, ce nouveau gouvernement élu sur un vent de changement, se révèlera n’être qu’une vaste illusion, une campagne de promesses vides et de faux espoirs. L’administration Obama n’est rien de plus que la continuité de celle de Bush. L’illusion du paradigme de la gauche et la droite, des Républicains et des Démocrates s’effondre. Il n’y a qu’UN parti politique aux États-Unis: Le parti de la guerre et de Wall Street, le tout orchestré par les banquiers privés de la banque centrale, la Federal Reserve Bank (Fed). Que les Américains votent pour un parti ou l’autre, l’agenda est le même. Il y a longtemps que les États-Unis sont tombés sous un coup d’État silencieux, probablement depuis la mort de JFK.

Voici de nombreux exemples de ce bilan négatif de l’administration Obama:

- L’administration Obama tente d’étouffer le dossier des courriels manquants de la Maison Blanche

Obama avait promis à l’Amérique plus de transparence. Cela ne s’est jamais vraiment concrétisé. Nombreux sont les exemples. L’administration Obama a décidé de suivre les pas de l’ancien président George W. Bush en tentant d’étouffer une poursuite judiciaire visant récupérer des millions de courriels manquants liés à la Maison Blanche pouvant contenir des informations importantes quant à la gestion de l’administration Bush, effaçant ainsi potentiellement des évidences de crimes.

- L’argument identique du « secret d’État » utilisé par Bush est mis de l’avant par l’administration Obama pour empêcher la divulgation d’informations troublantes et incriminant.

- Le département de la Justice imite l’administration Bush en invoquant le privilège du « secret d’État » face à des poursuites judiciaires dans le dossier du programme de capture extraordinaire de la CIA (rendition program), mis en place par Bush, Cheney et Rumsfeld. La raison évoquée pour éviter que les poursuites judiciaires se poursuivent contre ce programme d’enlèvement de suspects à travers le monde, transportés secrètement vers des prisons non identifiées publiquement pour se faire torturer, est que ces poursuites pourraient révéler des informations secrètes relatives à la sécurité nationale.

- Barack Obama avait promis que les États-Unis ne torturerait pas sous sa garde.

Mais tout comme Bush, Obama se bat pour empêcher des milliers de photos documentant la torture made by America, alors que Guantanamo n’a toujours pas fermé ses portes et que la torture se poursuit inlassablement sous son administration, tel que rapporté par une enquête espagnole. Cette dernière explique différentes techniques pratiquées comme l’écrasement de testicules, la détention dans des cellules souterraines dans un les ténèbres totales avec privation de sommeil et de nourriture pour une durée de trois semaines, inoculation à l’aide d’injections de maladies canines, torture à l’eau (waterboarding), etc. Tout cela sous l’autorité de personnel militaire américain, parfois conduit en présence de professionnels médicaux.

Le président Obama refuse de rendre public les photos de torture parce qu’il « croit que leur publication pourrait mettre en danger les troupes ».

En réalité, non seulement Obama ne poursuivra pas les responsables de la torture en justice, mais en fait, il planifie donner de l’expansion à cette torture et continuer sa pratique. Des centres de détention secrets pour des suspects terroristes seront ouverts en Mauritanie, en Éthiopie, dans quelques pays de l’Afrique du nord, du Moyen-Orient et en Asie.

- Obama a passé outre le Congrès américain pour permettre la détention de suspects terroristes pour une durée de temps illimitée, sans qu’aucune accusation formelle ne soit déposée. Dans d’autres pays du monde, on appelle cela des pouvoirs dictatoriaux.  Cela permet au président de détenir unilatéralement des « ennemis combattants » sans habeas corpus, un terme légal qui signifie que les plaignants sont forcés de vous accuser formellement d’un crime pour justifier la détention d’un suspect. Le terme « ennemi combattant » qui faisait en sorte que les Accords de Genève sur les prisonniers de guerre ne s’appliquaient plus, a été abandonné par Obama dans le cas des détenus de Guantanamo, mais il a gardé le terme pour les autres prisons à l’étranger, s’assurant ainsi encore une fois de conserver des pouvoirs exécutifs impérialistes.

- Obama est du même avis que Bush: les prisonniers de Bagram, Afghanistan n’ont pas de droits constitutionnels. Pourtant, les droits ne sont pas donnés par la Constitution, ils sont reconnus. Lorsque les droits peuvent être retirés, ce ne sont pas des droits, mais bien seulement des indulgences octroyées par un maître inspirant la crainte à des esclaves qui se comportent particulièrement bien.
Obama Sides With Bush: No Rights for Bagram Prisoners

- Obama est allé jusqu’à menacer l’Angleterre de cesser leur coopération d’échange du renseignement pour éviter que des évidences de torture soient révélées.

- Trois provisions controversées du Patriot Act instauré Bush reçoivent l’appui d’Obama.

Le département de la Justice a indiqué que l’administration Obama donne son soutien pour le renouvellement de trois sections controversées du USA Patriot Act qui expire en décembre. La première est la Section 206 qui permet au FBI de faire de l’écoute électronique des lignes téléphoniques ou des ordinateurs des Américains. La suivante est la Section 215 qui permet aux enquêteurs d’obtenir les archives médicales, d’affaires, de librairie, bancaires et autres de quiconque, avec l’approbation de la Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. La dernière, surnommée le « loup solitaire », permet d’accumuler des renseignements à propos de personnes qui ne sont pas suspectées d’être part d’un gouvernement étranger ou d’une organisation terroriste.

- Toutes les pièces de législation adoptées sous l’administration Bush qui étaient profondément liberticides et allant à l’encontre de la transparence, de la Constitution et de la démocratie, sont maintenant embrassées par le régime de continuité d’Obama, qui a brisé une fois de plus une importante promesse électorale. Il en est de même pour le Commissions militaires (Military Commissions Act), qui permet de juger des détenus dans des tribunaux militaires établis à Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

- La NSA a filtré toutes les communications des Américains et a ciblé des journalistes depuis l’instauration de ces mesures draconiennes par Bush, dans le cadre de sa guerre bidon au terrorisme. Tout le trafic de ces communications transigeant par de grandes firmes privées de communication comme AT&T étaient directement reliées à la NSA, agence d’espionnage américaine. Depuis que les Démocrates sont au pouvoir, rien n’a changé. Obama ne veut pas tenir Bush et ses acolytes responsables de leurs crimes et violations de la Constitution parce qu’il veut conserver ces pouvoirs. Idem pour l’enlèvement d’individus étrangers, leur transport vers des nations étrangères pour ensuite être torturés.

Ainsi, l’administration Obama bloque les poursuites judiciaires contre les écoutes électroniques illégales, donne de l’expansion à la défense légale de Bush en ce domaine et invoque constamment le « secret d’État » pour défendre le programme envahisseur et criminel de surveillance de Bush.

- Le parti de guerre est toujours l’oeuvre. L’industrie de la mort poursuit ses bonnes affaires sous Obama

Les États-Unis planifient déployer 25 000 troupes militaires en Géorgie d’ici 2015, à la frontière de la Russie. Les Américains ont l’intention de construire deux bases militaires sur le territoire de la Géorgie et une base navale. Ce déploiement fait suite à la provocation de la Russie en août 2008 par les États-Unis et Israël, via l’Ossétie du sud. Une guerre contre l’Iran signifierait une confrontation contre la Russie qui a déclaré qu’elle considèrerait une attaque contre l’Iran comme une attaque personnelle.

Quoi de mieux que d’avoir le prix Nobel de la Paix pour plaider en faveur du recrutement de mineurs pour l’armée? Obama veut son armée, il entend lever une armée de jeunes qui ne serviraient pas la Constitution, mais le président directement. Le plan d’Obama se nomme le « Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act», ou plus simplement, le « GIVE Act ». Ce projet de loi a été voté, à 321 contre 105, le 18 mars 2009. Ce projet de loi H.R. 1388 est donc présentement « à l’étude » au Sénat américain.

Obama a d’ailleurs annoncé, de pair avec Rahm Emanuel, qu’il comptait avoir un corps de volontaires de type milice paramilitaire aux États-Unis aussi bien financé et équipé que l’armée US elle-même.
Heil Obama! Des enfants-soldats sur tout le territoire américain…

- La guerre est toujours une option sur la table, comme on a pu le voir toute l’année dans le cas de l’Iran., quitte à nommer un anti-iranien pour gérer cette situation.

- L’administration Obama continue la doctrine américaine de dominance militaire globale.

Obama n’a pas diminué le budget militaire, au contraire. Il n’y aura pas de renversement de l’agenda militaire ni de la politique étrangère des États-Unis. Surtout pas avec Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates et Rahm Emanuel et son frère. Les États-Unis viennent de briser son record de la guerre du Vietnam en étant en Afghanistan depuis plus de 8 ans. Cela n’est pas près de se terminer, au contraire de ce Obama avait promis durant sa campagne électorale.

- Obama, son administration et différentes agences gouvernementales comme la NSA reçoivent d’ailleurs leurs instructions et conseils par la même élite dirigeante, dont fait partie Henry Kissinger, la Ford Fondation, et la quatrième branche du gouvernement, Goldman Sachs et les banquiers et financiers de Wall Sreet qui pullulent au sein du gouvernement Obama, comme Geithner.

- Obama refuse toujours de toucher à la Fed. Tant qu’il ne forcera pas une reforme entière de la Fed pour récupérer le pouvoir de la création de la monnaie, au lieu de le laisser entre les mains de banquiers la créant de nulle part et la prêtant à crédit au gouvernement (lire le peuple) avec intérêts, l’économie entière sera sous l’étroit contrôle des banquiers privés qui ont ruiné les États-Unis depuis 1913, date de la création de la Fed.

- Obama avait promis que les lobbyistes ne se retrouveraient pas dans son organisation. Une autre fausse promesse lamentablement vendue au public américain. Une douzaine de lobbyistes ont trouvé un poste au sommet de l’administration Obama. On y trouve des gens nommés au département de la Défense ayant travaillé pour Raytheon, un manufacturier d’armement, un ancien VP de Monsanto à la FDA, des anciens généraux et du Pentagone partout dans le gouvernement, et ainsi de suite.

- Obama agit de manière similaire à Bush dans le domaine des pétrolières, des énergies et est même allé jusqu’à approuver la décapitation des montagnes pour y retirer du charbon, une politique qui fut sévèrement condamnée lorsque Bush s’y adonnait. L’étroite collaboration entre les exécutifs du pétrole et Washington se poursuit de plus belle.

Il y a fort à parier qu’avec un tel bilan, les Américains ne seront pas dupes très longtemps et qu’Obama sera un président d’un terme seulement. En attendant le prochain poulain de l’establishment, du parti de la guerre et de Wall Street, nous pouvons aussi parier que l’Amérique aura le temps de s’appauvrir énormément, au point où la classe moyenne aura pratiquement disparue et où le pays sera complètement ruiné et en banqueroute, affligé d’hyperinflation et de la plus grande dépression depuis les années 30. On annoncera alors l’arrivée d’un autre président… sauveur de tous, charismatique au sourire charmeur.

« Yes we can »

« Change we can believe in »

François Marginean

This week’s broadcast includes:

In House, many spoke with one voice: lobbyists’
Iran rejects UN-proposed nuclear deal
“Gray Lady of Bagram” to boycott her terrorism trial
Forest people may lose home in Kenya
Challenging 500 years of globalization
20-year-old letterhead points to Israeli forgery in Francop affair
Nation’s largest gay newspaper publisher closes
Telecom experts worry about Net neutrality rules
Troops sue KBR over toxic waste in Iraq, Afghanistan
Wall Street job losses are surprisingly low, and firms eye record profits
Iraqi court ruling against Guardian seen as part of crackdown on media
IMF head eyes global currency change, presses on yuan
Peace activists, nuke supporters plead their case at Y-12 hearings
Obama picks pesticide lobbyist for agri-trade
British soldiers sexually abused us, claim Iraqis
The 40 million children who just didn’t exist
US unveils extended Bagram prison

Angola 3 News interviewed Jeanne Theoharris who wrote an article this April at The Nation on the arrest, imprisonment and legal battles of Syed Hashmi, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in New York City prison with “Guantánamo-like conditions”.

18 Nov 09 | Angola 3 News

Jeanne Theoharis is the author of an April, 2009 article in The Nation, entitled “Guantánamo At Home,” which focuses on the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of U.S. citizen Syed Hashmi in a New York City prison with Guantanamo-like conditions. Theoharis holds the endowed chair in women’s studies and is an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College, CUNY.

Syed Hashmi’s trial will begin in New York City on December 1. The website www.freefahad.com explains that: “Syed Hashmi, known to his family and friends as Fahad, was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1980, the second child of Syed Anwar Hashmi and Arifa Hashmi. Fahad immigrated with his family to America when he was three years old. His father said ‘We knew there would be many opportunities for us here in the United States. We came here to find the American dream.’ The large Hashmi family settled in Flushing, New York and soon developed deep roots throughout the tri-state area. Fahad graduated from Robert F. Wagner High School in 1998 and attended SUNY Stony Brook University. He transferred to Brooklyn College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2003. A devout Muslim, through the years Fahad established a reputation as an activist and advocate. In 2003, Fahad enrolled in London Metropolitan University in England to pursue a master’s degree in international relations, which he received in 2006. On June 6, 2006, Fahad was arrested in London Heathrow airport by British police based on an American indictment charging him with material support of Al Qaida. He was subsequently held in Belmarsh Prison, Britain’s most notorious jail.” For more information on the Hashmi case, also visit: www.educatorsforcivilliberties.org.

Angola 3 News: Can you please give us background on the arrest and prosecution of Syed Hashmi? For example, what are the charges against him? What is their evidence?

Jeanne Theoharis: In June 2006, Hashmi, who is a U.S. citizen, was arrested by the British police at Heathrow Airport (he was about to travel to Pakistan, where he has family) on a warrant issued by the U.S. government. In May 2007, he was extradited to the United States, the first U.S. citizen to be extradited under terrorism laws passed after 9/11. Since then, he has since been held in solitary confinement at Metropolitan Correctional Center (M.C.C.).

The U.S. government alleges that early in 2004, a man by the name of Junaid Babar, also a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, stayed with Hashmi at his London apartment for two weeks. According to the government, Babar stored luggage containing raincoats, ponchos, and waterproof socks in Hashmi’s apartment and then Babar delivered these materials to the third-ranking member of al-Qa’ida in South Waziristan, Pakistan. In addition, Hashmi allegedly allowed Babar to use his cell phone to call other conspirators in terrorist plots.

The government has claimed that Babar’s testimony is the “centerpiece” of its case. Babar, who has pleaded guilty to five counts of material support for al-Qa’ida, faces up to seventy years in prison. While awaiting sentence, he has agreed to serve as a government witness in terrorism trials in Britain and Canada as well as in Hashmi’s trial. Under a plea agreement reported in the media, Babar will receive a reduced sentence in return for his cooperation.

A3N: What can you tell us about Hashmi as a person, especially your personal experience of knowing him when he was a student of yours?

JT: Fahad was a student of mine at Brooklyn College in 2002. An outspoken Muslim student activist, Fahad wrote his senior seminar paper with me on the treatment of Muslim groups within the United States and the violations of civil rights and liberties that many groups were facing. Needless to say, this feels particularly chilling—and no longer academic—as we have now witnessed his own rights being violated.

A3N: Since his arrest, what have the conditions of his incarceration been?

JT: Under special administrative measures (SAMs) imposed in October 2007 by the former Attorney General, Hashmi must be held in solitary confinement and may not communicate with anyone inside the prison other than prison officials. Family visits are limited to one person every other week for one and a half hours and cannot involve physical contact. While his correspondence to members of Congress and other government officials is not restricted, he may write only one letter (of no more than three pieces of paper) per week to one family member. He may not communicate, either directly or through his attorneys, with the news media. He may read only designated portions of newspapers—and not until thirty days after their publication – and his access to other reading material is restricted. He may not listen to or watch news-oriented radio stations and television channels. He may not participate in group prayer. He is subject to 24-hour electronic monitoring inside and outside his cell—including when he showers or relieves himself—and 23-hour lockdown. He has no access to fresh air and must take his one hour of daily recreation—when it is given—inside a cage.

As the expert testimony supplied by Hashmi’s attorneys in a pre-trial motion of December 2008 attests, the conditions of Hashmi’s detention may have severe physical and mental consequences and impair his mental state and ability to testify on his own behalf.

While former Acting Attorney General Keisler claimed that these measures are necessary because “there is substantial risk that [Hashmi’s] communications or contacts with persons could result in death or serious bodily injury to persons,” Hashmi was held with other prisoners in a British jail for eleven months without incident. The SAMs were renewed by Attorney General Mukasey in November 2008 and upheld by Judge Loretta Preska in January 2009, citing Hashmi’s “proclivity for violence.” There has been no change to the SAMs under the Obama Administration. They were renewed again by Attorney General Holder in early November 2009. Yet, Hashmi is not being charged and has never been charged with committing an actual act of violence.

Currently, according to research by The New York Times in February 2009, there are six people in the United States being held on pre-trial terrorism SAMs; three (including Hashmi) are under the jurisdiction of the Southern District of New York, which has long served as a stepping stone to national political office.

A3N: Looking particularly at the harsh solitary confinement imposed on Hashmi, how is this officially justified? Do you think the stated reason is the actual motivation, or do you think there are other reasons for the solitary confinement and other harsh restrictions?

JT: My colleagues and I have begun to come to the conclusion that the use of prolonged solitary confinement is a tactic to ensure convictions. Such conditions weaken people mentally and the toll of sensory deprivation and isolation simultaneously makes people more eager to take a plea or not able to fully assist their counsel. Most experts agree it is torture (see Atul Gawande’s “Hellhole” in The New Yorker). While our public discussions have tended to see torture as a tactic to get information, in cases like Hashmi’s, torture is being used to help secure convictions.

A3N: How are the prion conditions for Hashmi in N.Y.C. different from those in Guantanamo?

JT: There are key similarities of prolonged isolation and sensory deprivation between Hashmi’s treatment at M.C.C. in lower Manhattan and what we have heard of the conditions at Guantanamo. However, there has been much less attention to these inhumane conditions within the United States.

The focus on prisons like Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and Baghram stems, in part, from a larger post-civil rights paradigm that assumes the judicial process is now fair in the United States and relatively incorruptible and thus it was necessary to go outside of the U.S. courts to do the extreme bad things.

Rather, what made Guantanamo possible stemmed from domestic legal practices, many already in place and many others expanded after 9/11, which have continued almost unabated under the Obama Administration.

A3N: With Hashmi’s trial beginning on December 1, what are activists currently doing to support him?

JH: Theaters Against War began holding weekly vigils in October to draw attention to the inhumane conditions of confinement and the due process violations Hashmi and others are facing within the federal courts. Artists and actors such as Wallace Shawn, Kathleen Chalfant, Bill Irwin, Jan Maxwell, Betty Shamieh, and Christine Moore have performed at the vigils.

A3N: Any closing thoughts?

JH: Three central Constitutional issues have become clear in the treatment of Hashmi and others within the federal system: the inhumane conditions of confinement, the abridgement of due process rights , and the lack of 1st Amendment protections.

If these are not addressed, then moving the Guantánamo detainees into the federal system does little to return America to the rule of law, of which we are rightfully proud. I am reminded of that quote by former Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1967, “”It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of…those liberties…which [make] the defense of the nation worthwhile.”

Free Fahad: Part One (9:44):

Free Fahad: Part Two (3:36):

(h/t: InfoShop News)

Those damn dirty contractors.

Each night, KBR throws out garbage cans full of food.  Contractors are not allowed to take food out of the Dining Facility.  I suppose the US Army thinks that Contractors get paid enough and they should be satisfied.  Contractors don’t need any extra benefits like taking all of that fabulous food out of the Dining Facility.  The US Army would rather throw it all in the garbage.

The message here is what?

“Fuck Contractors!  We’d rather throw all that extra food in the garbage than let them take a few scraps back to their rooms to eat.”

Typical Army bullshit.

The guy who made this rule is probably a pissed off Master Sergeant who wound up a Contractor after he retired.

That’s usually what happens.

I’ve seen it hundreds of times.  The biggest assholes that I’ve had to deal with overseas while contracting with the Army were guys who came to you at the end of their tour of duty begging for a job.  If it were up to me, I’d not hire one of them.

Bunch of hypocritical assholes all.  Fuck ‘em.

Since I have begun this deployment, I have often commented about the challenges of working with our sister services, specifically the US Army.  Today’s debacle revolved around proper licensing to drive the MRAP vehicles.  Keep in mind; we have been driving these vehicles for several months now.  Before I vent about today’s fiasco, I need to prepare the stage so you can laugh with me.

Initially at Fort Riley we attended 62 days of deployment training to prepare us for our current mission.  We were issued armored Humvees and the requirement was to have a state driver’s license.  We were given several hours of instruction and then required to drive the vehicle one lap around a grassy field.  Later that night, we were issued night-vision goggles and gathered in a room.  We were instructed to adjust our goggles and then got inside the Humvees.  We drove up into the hills on a paved road.  The driving portion lasted approximately 15 minutes.  A few days later we got our Army driving licenses listing up-armored Humvees.  We were also informed that we would probably drive MRAPs once we got into country, but none were available at the deployment training. Our instructor humored us by showing a PowerPoint presentation with pictures of the various models.

Once in country and in anticipation of being issued MRAPs, we sent several of our teammates to the MRAP course.  The instruction consisted of 4 days of classroom instruction, PowerPoint charts to ad-nausea and about 15 minutes of actually driving the vehicle.  I was informed that one hour of the course revolved around opening and closing of the hydraulic doors.  Talk about job security for contractors who are paid 6 figures to teach this course.  Anyhow, my teammates received certification for driving MRAPs.

After a painful wait for our MRAPs, we finally received them.  Our ETT team along with most other ETT teams was ranked on the bottom of the priority list.  Understandably priority went to the kinetic forces like the Marines, but other teams were given MRAPs and their missions never left the hard road.  Meanwhile my team is driving through perilous dirt mountain roads in the middle of nowhere.

After being issued our MRAPs we were informed we couldn’t drive them anymore because we didn’t have the proper model of MRAP on our Army license.  My response, “Are you serious?”  For the most part the MRAP models are very similar with some minor differences.  It’s like being told you can drive a Ford pick-up truck, but you aren’t qualified to drive a Chevy or a Dodge unless you go through additional instruction.  It doesn’t matter you have been driving them all along.  You are still required to attend another boring course and then demonstrate for 15 minutes you can drive another MRAP model.

Since my team is not one for willfully disobeying the rules, we made half a dozen phone calls to find a certified trainer for our type of MRAP.  We will have to wait until the end of the month because the trainers are all being trained on the new M-ATV MRAP.  I wonder will the Marines actually send their people to BAF to get qualified and certified on this new model.  I doubt it, but for now my team will have to attend this training.  We have one more problem to resolve.  Since they don’t have this model readily available, I guess we will drive them to BAF so they can teach us how to drive them.

Our ETT Team leader departed today for a conference and in a few days will be basking in the warm temperatures in Florida for his 2-week vacation.  In the interim, the Captain and I have the ship.  Oh wait a minute, isn’t that a Navy term.  I will have to be “re-blued” with the Air Force when I finish this deployment.  I have injected Army, Marine, and Navy terminology into my vernacular.  My peers will think I have gone off the deep end.  “Roger, on vics at 0600 hrs.  PMCS the vics, perform your PCCs and PCIs and then SP at 0700 hrs.  Turn Dukes to run, let’s Oscar Mike.”

Future brigade XO.

This afternoon while visiting the brigade office, I saw a cat sitting in a chair.  Somehow he got inside the building and made itself at home.  Some of the guys joked about it being the new XO.

Camp dartboard is finally hung on the wall.

Lastly, I made time to hang the dartboard today.  The garrison commander likes to throw darts and he assisted me.  Special thanks to Mrs Jan Erwin and her husband for sending this gift.  It will be enjoyed by all the military personnel and contractors at the camp.

Maher Arar is both a Canadian and Syrian citizen of Syrian descent.  A telecommunications engineer and graduate of Montreal’s McGill University, he has lived in Canada since he’s 17 years old.  In 2002, he was returning home to Canada from vacation when, on a stopover at JFK Airport, he was (a) detained by U.S. officials, (b) accused of being a Terrorist, (c) held for two weeks incommunicado and without access to counsel while he was abusively interrogated, and then (d) was “rendered” – despite his pleas that he would be tortured — to Syria, to be interrogated and tortured.  He remained in Syria for the next 10 months under the most brutal and inhumane conditions imaginable, where he was repeatedly tortured.

In January, 2007, the Canadian Prime Minister publicly apologized to Arar for the role Canada played in these events, and the Canadian government paid him $9 million in compensation.

By stark and very revealing contrast, the U.S. Government has never admitted any wrongdoing or even spoken publicly about what it did. What does that behavioral disparity between the two nations say about how “democratic,” ”accountable,” and “open” the United States is? And days ago the Second Circuit — by a vote of 7-4 –  agreed with the government and dismissed Arar’s case in its entirety.

The commentary about this case from Harper’s Scott Horton perfectly captures the depravity of what our Government has done — and continues to do — to Arar.  He concludes with this statement:

“The Court that once affirmed that those who torture are the ‘enemies of all mankind’ now tells us that U.S. government officials can torture without worry, because the security of our state might some day depend upon it.”

The permanent claims of existential threats from an endless array of enemies means that secrecy is paramount, accountability is deemed a luxury, and National Security trumps every other consideration — even including basic liberties and the rule of law.  Worst of all, the President takes on the attributes of a protector-deity who can and must never be questioned lest we prevent him from keeping us safe.

Salon

New MRAP gunner's harness and seat.

Here is a link to a radio interview that aired on WUSF Radio in Tampa during NPR’s “All Things Considered” last night and during “Morning Edition” this morning. Topics discussed included the latest mission to Bagram and the “snafus” in getting new supplies for the troops.

My Last Tour: Baffled in Bagram

I highly recommend Philip Caputo’s “A Rumor of War,” which I have just completed.  Caputo was a Marine lieutenant who served for nearly a year in Vietnam and later went on to become a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.

The book is a work of non-fiction, a virtual day by day account of the madness that was Vietnam.  The author takes pains to make no overt political analysis or judgment, but along the undercurrent flows the unmistakable notion that political ambition and mindless bureaucracy at the highest levels sent hundreds of thousands to senseless death and suffering.

For me the experience of reading “A Rumor of War” was a reminder, one that in truth I shouldn’t need, that the United States has a long history of wartime atrocity.  It didn’t all begin with George W. Bush.  From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli; from tubercular blankets and other forms of genocide perpetrated on the First Nations peoples to training grounds for Latin American Death Squad colonels at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Here’s what I learned about U.S. military practices in Vietnam forty some years ago that have eerie echoes today:

Although on paper the U.S. military treated prisoners of war according to the Geneva Conventions, they routinely turned over captured suspected Viet Cong to the ARVN (South Vietnamese Army) to be tortured and killed.  This has been the case with the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan where prisoners have been turned over to local armies for torture and death; not to mention extraordinary rendition.

In Vietnam Mai Lai was probably the tip of the iceberg.  U.S. ground forces routinely used white phosphorous grenades to incinerate entire villages.  Apparently U.S. supplied white phosphorous was used by the Israeli military in its recent massacre of civilians in Gaza.

The military leaders in Vietnam were obsessed with kill ratios.  They wanted favorable stats on the number of Viet Cong killed.  The policy handed down was as follows: if it’s dead and it’s Vietnamese, then it’s VC.  One thinks of Colombia, a U.S. client state, where U.S. trained Colombian military have gone as far as killing civilians and dressing their corpses as guerrillas in order to up the count.

Caputo points out certain ironies, that, for example, it was forbidden to execute a Viet Cong prisoner while it was legitimate to kill him at long range; that it was forbidden to use white phosphorous grenades on civilians while at the same time napalming them from the air.  He concluded that when in doubt you could always get away with killing at a distance with high tech weapons.  Today’s overall U.S. military strategy from Iraq to Afghanistan to Pakistan is to bombard with so-called smart weapons.  Unmanned Predator Missiles are a favorite.

In Caputo’s account we see U.S. marines growing frustrated and vengeful towards Vietnamese villagers who gave aid to the Viet Cong.  This is a natural reaction because, after all, it is the Viet Cong who are intent on killing U.S. marines.  It is what led to a number of atrocities committed against Vietnamese civilians, including children and the elderly.  A marine, of course, has been trained to the bone to take orders without question.  That he should be in Vietnam, 10,000 miles from home, fighting a guerrilla army made up of Vietnamese for the purpose of Vietnamese national liberation – this is not supposed to occur to him.  So, while the war criminals in Washington, those who put him there in the first place for reasons that have nothing to do with the fundamental interests of either the Vietnamese or the American people, act with impunity; the marine grunt finds himself turning into a desensitized and dehumanized killing machine.

The tragic and undeniable conclusion is that fundamentally no lessons were learned from the Vietnam debacle (where hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese were killed and wounded).  You do not win the “hearts and minds” of a people (much less instil democratic values and institutions) by invading a country with overpowering weaponry administered by soldiers inculcated with racist stereotypes and triumphalist attitudes.  Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram, extraordinary rendition, CIA torture chambers: these are today’s atrocities.

As the song goes: “When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?”

It was pretty obvious we were not going to leave BAF today so we settled into our transitory tents.  The tent was rather large and filled with about 65 big stinky men sleeping on cots.  I suppose the “fragrance” we emitted only combined with the existing stagnant aroma.  Most of the people in our tent were waiting on a space available flight home or a ride to another location.  So like good soldiers or cattle we carried our ruck sacks and personnel gear to the tent and set up sleeping quarters on the available cots.

Around 1:30 am, the insurgents decided to give us a wake-up call by launching 3 rockets (indirect fire) in hopes of hitting something on BAF, which is spread out over 6,000 acres.  Although I am not completely certain, I think the enemy was using 107mm Chinese-made rockets.  These rockets make a very distinct whirl and my auditory senses have been attuned to this sound.  Like a small herd of sheep we took cover in the concrete bunkers until accountability was taken and an “all clear” was given.

The next day we made plans to visit the Army supply buildings in hopes of getting some additional fire retardant uniforms and boots for my teammates and interpreters.  A small group of my teammates decided to we had nothing to lose and everything to gain.  We walked toward the Rapid Field Initiative (RIF) and two burly civilian contractors were standing outside.  It seemed like they were guarding their facility and protecting the goods stored inside, hoping they wouldn’t have to issue out anything.  They directed me to go next door to the Central Issuing Facility (CIF) for assistance.

I was greeted cordially and signed in waiting to be serviced by one of their friendly customer service representatives.  The shelves behind them were stocked completely full of combat boots, winter items and everything that was on my wish list.  It was almost too good to be true.  But just as quickly as I started salivating at the thought of being issued these items, my daydreaming came to an abrupt end.  I did not have a proper Department of Army Form 1687 or an assumption of command letter (whatever that might be) and our supply sergeant was not with us [only because he is living with the ANA 2 provinces South from here].  I thought quickly on my feet and requested a blank DA Form.  I was certain in this base housing 20,000 people, I could find a colonel (O-6) who would feel pity on us and sign the form along with the other letter.  Here is how the conversation went:

Me:  Where can I get a blank DA Form 1687?

Contractor:  Wherever you can find a computer.

Me:  [Looking perplexed and staring at 2 computers in the facility and one directly in front of the contractor] Could you print me one out?

Contractor:  I don’t know how to access them.  You need to find your supply sergeant; they will provide you the proper documentation and then it will be input into our database.  Unless your name is in the database, we aren’t allowed to issue anything to you.

Contractor: [after observing my sense of disgust and frustration]  I feel so sorry for you soldiers, they come in here all the time with holes in their boots and torn uniforms and we cannot help them either without the proper documentation.

I am totally BAF-f-l-e-d!!!  Now I understand how my ANA counterparts feel since they have adopted the antiquated Army system for logistics.  Yet every day we prod them to have faith in the system.  I am so glad they weren’t there to witness this event.  Feeling dejected, my teammates and I left the facility.

After our experience at the CIF, we decided to visit the PX and stock up on some toiletries since we don’t have a camp store or PX at our camp.  Afterward we would eat chicken at Popeye’s or a whopper at Burger King.  I quickly found my items and noticed the checkout lines stretched to the back end of the store, but appeared to be moving rather quickly.  I was 5 people away from the register when the computers went down.  Surely this can’t be happening, but it was.  After waiting 15 minutes I inquired whether it was possible to take cash.  The employee informed me this wasn’t possible and to be patient because the servers were being rebooted.

By now my appetite was growing and I was looking forward to some Popeye’s chicken.  Normally the waiting line is usually long but today it was rather short.  The closer I got, I noticed a small sign informing the patrons they only had spicy chicken.  I figured this was better than nothing despite not being fond of spicy chicken.  I was 2 people away from ordering when the employee informed the line, they were out of chicken.  So off I went in a half-sprint to Burger King.  The line was rather long, but the thought of sinking my teeth into a Whopper helped contain my growing impatience.  As I got closer to the Burger King trailer, I noticed a small piece of paper taped on the window in front of the cashier.  I also listened to the groans of the patrons who were ordering.  What did that little sign say?  I stepped out of line to read it.  Burger King was out of burgers!!! Surely this is a bad dream and I need to wake up.  But it wasn’t and the only thing on the menu was chicken sandwiches and spicy potato wedges.

Exhausted Navy Petty Officer.

My teammates and I sat down at a picnic table with our chicken sandwiches and spicy potato wedges.  Everyone was rather quiet.  We ate our food and then returned back to our transitory tent.

Later that night we decided to visit the PX again along with the USO and MWR facilities.  I made a decision to get a haircut.  I always feel better after getting a haircut and there wasn’t a waiting line.  I sat down in the barber’s chair and explained how I wanted my hair cut.  Apparently I was speaking in foreign tongues because it took him about 5 minutes to cut or buzz my hair.  Something was missing and I couldn’t put my finger on it.  I didn’t feel any better and it wasn’t until later that I saw see the botched up job the barber did.

We returned to the tents and were informed the MRAPs would be ready to go in the morning.  Everyone was smiling and looking forward to the sun rising in the morning.  I was still feeling itchy from my haircut and walked 155 paces to the shower houses.  I turned on the water and to the touch it felt luke-warm.  But I’m a patient person, so I waited another minute or two hoping the temperature would increase.  It didn’t and it was only fitting after this hellish day I would take a cold shower before going to bed.  I trekked another 155 paces over freshly laid shale in my flip-flops back to my tent and called it a night.

It’s 3 am and I am startled from a deep REM sleep. I struggle and rise from my bed as if in a drunken stupor. My alarm clock is chirping incessantly. The off switch is hidden strategically behind the clock and is the size of a pin head. Somehow my stumbling fingers find the little off button and all is quiet for a few seconds. As I regain my senses, I am quickly reminded this is not an alarm clock malfunction and it’s time to wake up for our mission. It’s rather chilly outside but I walk or perhaps stumble 47 paces to the latrine to shave and brush my teeth. The cold air is nipping at my toes which are thinly protected by a pair of flip-flops. Today’s mission is to visit Bagram Air Field (BAF), turn in 5 older model HMMVWs and pick up 6 refurbished MRAPs for the Marines. Say goodbye to Marine Master Guns and drop him off at the air terminal for his flight home. Sounds simple, but it wasn’t.
Everything was going as planned until it was revealed a convoy member didn’t have his M-4 rifle. Apparently he left it unattended at the DFAC and it was confiscated by someone. This debacle would cost us several hours of delay. The weapon was secured by the Garrison commander and eventually released back to the member. By now the sun had replaced the moons and stars, but we were on our merry way.
We departed the camp with a 5-vehicle convoy. The city was awake and the streets and roads were filled with people, wheelbarrows, donkey carts and small herds of sheep. We drove past the Serena Hotel housing the UN guests which was attacked several days ago. The ANP were out in full force providing additional protection to this landmark. As we continued on our journey, I took a few snapshots of the pedestrians and the vendors along the route. They looked rather cold, yet they were still wearing their flip-flops. But I did notice more people were wearing socks and shoes than on previous trips. Out of the corner of my eye I saw an older man hobbling along on his crutches. He is one of the thousands of amputees in this country. I pondered for a second wondering what caused his misfortune. Perhaps a hidden landmine or perhaps he was a former mujahedeen fighter and lost his leg while fighting the Soviets. I will never know.
The road to BAF was all too familiar including going down the wrong road to a closed gate. Since I wasn’t the convoy commander, I made an assumption that the gate was reopened, but it wasn’t. So round the round-a-bout we went with the entire convoy. The sidewalk was packed with people staring at us as we drove by. They didn’t seem too surprised, so I figured this is a common occurrence. Fortunately there is a round-a-bout leading back out; otherwise, it would be a dead-end street.
We made our way to the storage yard and the MRAPs were neatly parked to each other. So far, so good, but this is BAF and like an albatross round our neck, something just didn’t seem right. We spent several hours prepping the vehicles, unloading and inventorying all the contents. We transferred all our gear, cots, weapons, etc. to the MRAPs. Then just like a bolt of lightning parting the clouds, problems arose. The communication radios did not arrive like they were supposed to. Technical problems arose with the Electronic Countermeasure systems (ECM). But there was still a glimmer of hope, the radios would arrive in the afternoon and we could quickly install/program them and continue our mission. The glitch in the ECMs would be worked out and we could leave bright and early tomorrow. In the interim, we would check into billeting and be assigned a tent for the night and bid farewell to Master Guns. We would also enjoy some lunch at the DFAC.
For brevity’s sake, I have decided not to detail every facet of this trip because we had so many frustrating delays and technical difficulties. Instead I will provide you some of the highlights and share some of the pictures I took with some explanations. Part Two..to be continued…..

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan

Senior Airman Charlene Grant, an aircrew flight equipment Airman from the 445th Expeditionary Operation Support Squadron, inspects an oxygen mask Nov. 2, 2009.

Inspections are done to assure there are no cracks or other damage.

Airman Grant is deployed from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and hails from Chicago.

(U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Felicia Juenke)

According to the New York Times: F.B.I. agents who arrived at a secret C.I.A. jail overseas in September 2002 found prisoners “manacled to the ceiling and subjected to blaring music around the clock.”

What is more frightening — that the C.I.A. got its jollies by torturing, even murdering human beings in its secret sodomy frat-houses — or that the F.B.I. took one look, fled the scene and remained silent for years?

Or perhaps it’s the two-page memo President George Bush had circulated seven months earlier wherein he determined — under his authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive of the United States –

“…none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world because, among other reasons, al Qaeda is not a High Contracting Party to Geneva.” (emphasis added)

According to the Times, the documents were released as a result of several Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Judicial Watch. Makes you wonder if this nation’s mainstream media, both print and electronic, has no access — nor interest — in freedom of information, doesn’t it?

-From a post by Sheila Samples