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Blackwater behind plan to kill or snatch
Akhtar Jamal
Islamabad—An American newsmagazine has revealed a detailed report on
the secretive activities of Blackwater elements in Pakistan and
claimed that they were working on a plan to kill suspected Taliban
and Al-Qaeda operatives in Karachi.
The New York-based weekly The Nation in an extensive article claimed
that the Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence
and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign.
Quoting a reliable source the magazine said that “the programme 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 Nation also claimed that “the previously unreported programme,
the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA
assassination programme that the agency’s director, Leon Panetta,
announced he had cancelled in June 2009.”
The news report quoted a spokesman of Xe as saying that “Xe Services
has only one employee in Pakistan performing construction oversight
for the U.S. Government.” Blackwater spokesperson Mark Corallo was
also quoted as saying in a statement to The Nation, adding that the
company has “no other operations of any kind in Pakistan.”
However, a former senior executive at Blackwater was quoted as
confirming the “military intelligence source’s claim that the
company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier
counter terrorism 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.
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.
According to the report the covert JSOC programme with Blackwater in
Pakistan dates back to at least 2007, according to 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 operations in Pakistan, the source told the The Nation,
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 report added that “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 centre.”
According to the military intelligence source quoted by The Nation
“Blackwater’s work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task
Force based at Bagramme Air Base in neighbouring Afghanistan,. 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 US military intelligence source was quoted 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.
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.”
The Nation quoted the source that “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.”
It further added that “some of the Blackwater personnel work
undercover as aid workers. “Nobody even gives them a second
thought.”
The military intelligence source was quoted as adding 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.
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.”
The American news magazine claimed that “instead, US Special Forces
teams carry out the plans developed in part by Blackwater.”
A former Blackwater executive was also quoted as saying that
“Blackwater works on a subcontract for Kestral Logistics, a powerful
Pakistani firm, which specializes in military logistical support,
private security and intelligence consulting. “
The magazine also quoted federal lobbying records as saying that
“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.”
It added that “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.”
The New York-based news magazine said “As part of their strategy,
Rumsfeld and Cheney also created the Strategic Support Branch (SSB),
which pulled intelligence resources from the Defence Intelligence
Agency and the CIA for use in sensitive JSOC operations.”
The magazine quoted Washington Post as reporting that the SSB was
created using “reprogrammemed” funds “without explicit congressional
authority or appropriation.” 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.”
The Nation quoted Christian Science Monitor as recently reporting
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. It also
quoted the Blackwater spokesperson Stacey DeLuke as saying recently
that “We have no contracts in Pakistan,” and “We’ve been blamed for
all that has gone wrong in Peshawar, none of which is true, since we
have absolutely no presence there.”
The comprehensive story on “Blackwater’s secret war in Pakistan” is
written by The Nation’s Special Correspondent Jeremy Scahill who is
also the author of the best selling novel Blackwater. |
