“GRAB AND SNATCH” ACTIONS IN AND OUTSIDE PAKISTAN
[Note for WoP readers] A few days back, the federal interior minister Mr. Rehman Malik repeated once again that there were no Blckwater soldiers in Pakistan. Agreed there is no “Black water” in Pakistan. He has said this umpteen times. We believed it then as we believe it now, for it has come from no less a noble person than our honorable interior minister. Mr. Malik, however, very well knows “Blackwater” is nowhere now, not only in Pakistan but in all four corners of this world, for in Feb. this year when the company came into limelight, thanks to their soldiers’ high handedness in Iraq, [particularly their involvements in shameful acts like bribery, and ghastly acts like torture and murder in Abu Ghuraib Jail and streets of Baghdad] that Blackwater reincarnated as Xe International. The company having come into focus thus, its CEO resigned from company’s top position. So if Mr. Rehman says there is no Blackwater in Pakistan, technically he is right to say this, but the monster is very much there in Pakistan.
It appears that the Zardari Government is step by step towing the line adopted by US administration and their mainstream media not to talk much about this mercenary army, who has no respect for law of the land and indulge in sinister jobs where the US army could not afford to.
To apprise readers on activities of the rogue army, we put up a series of posts on our wordpress site (see under related posts at the bottom of this post)., Meanwhile Jeremy Sahill of the Nation magazine did remarkable job when he filed a detailed investigative report for his magazine, the Nation of USA.
This site has a policy to publish articles from other sources either through permission of the respective party / copyright owner /s or where a reproduction is allowed by the publisher / author as part of an endeavor to publicize the truthful information as much as possible, I therefore approached the copyright owners ‘Agence Global’ who very kindly allowed me to put up their work on pages of this site. [Nayyar]
by Jeremy Scahill
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."
Blackwater's founder Erik Prince contradicted this statement in a recent interview, telling Vanity Fair that Blackwater works with US Special Forces in identifying targets and planning missions, citing an operation in Syria. The magazine also published a photo of a Blackwater base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
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."
---Jeremy Scahill, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books. He is an award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for the national radio and TV
program Democracy Now!
Contd....
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Related Posts:
- http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/american-ngo-covers-for-blackwater-in-pakistan/
- http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/pakistan-a-suicidal-nation-in-the-crosshairs/
- http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/us-plans-for-‘imperial’-presence-in-pakistan/
- http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/the-sneaking-us-occupation-of-islamabad/
- http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/the-sneaking-us-occupation-of-islamabad-2/
- http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/without-any-let-or-hindrance/
- http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/blackwater-founder-fatcat-hired-gun-mercenary-spook-tycoon-contractor-soldier-spy/
- http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/erik-prince-quitting-blackwater-to-teach-high-school-history-and-economics/
- http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/why-the-worlds-largest-military-machine-is-unable-to-defeat-the-resistance-in-afghanistan/
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