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Reining in U.S. Rent-a-Rambos
Scandal has shone the light on America’s dirty little secret armies in Afghanistan and Iraq wars
A fascinating scandal has erupted in Washington that is exposing the sordid underbelly of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
According to a New York Times investigation and a torrent of Washington leaks, the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies fielded covert mercenary networks in Afghanistan, Pakistan (a.k.a. "Afpak") and Iraq to murder tribal militants and nationalists opposing western occupation.
U.S. law forbids murder or using mercenaries. But, as Cicero said, "Laws are silent in times of war."
A former senior Pentagon official specializing in murky foreign operations, Mike Furlong, set up a company, International Media Ventures (IMV), to supposedly provide the U.S. military with "cultural information" about Afghanistan's Pashtun tribes. Codename: Operation Capstone.
Two obscure, Orwellian Pentagon outfits, the Cultural Engineering Group, of Florida, and Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program, of Virginia, funded Furlong with $24.6 million.
Furlong hired a bunch of former special forces types and assorted thugs. These rent-a-Rambos' real mission was to allegedly assassinate Pashtun leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and target tribal compounds for strikes by U.S. Predator drones. Another heartwarming example of free enterprise at work and how to win Muslim hearts and minds.
In short, a 2010 version of the Mafia's contract killers, known as "Murder Inc."
Thickening this plot, retired CIA types, including the flamboyant Dewey Clarridge, whom I well recall from the 1980s Afghan war, were reportedly involved. IMV's CEO came from major defence contractor L-3, long involved in top secret operations.
Add into this stew a money-hungry former news director of a major TV network who had me blacklisted in 2003 on the demand of the Bush White House because of my warnings that Iraq would be a disaster.
It is uncertain if Furlong's Murder Inc. had time to go operational. But its exposure is causing a huge ruckus. In best U.S. government tradition, the Pentagon has cut Furlong adrift. He is now under criminal investigation.
Shades of CIA agent Ed Wilson, whose frightful case I long followed. Wilson was set up as a deniable "independent" by the CIA to supply arms and explosives to Libya and Angola. When this intrigue blew wide open, Wilson was kidnapped by U.S. agents, convicted on the basis of lies by the government and buried alive in federal prison.
The Furlong scandal comes at a time of growing criticism of the U.S. government's use of more than 275,000 mercenaries (a.k.a. "private contractors") in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. These hired gunmen and logistics personnel operate without any accountability, legal structure or oversight.
Private mercenary firms like Xe (formerly Blackwater) and DynCorp have raked in fortunes running private armies for the U.S. They are major donors to the far right of the Republican Party. Deeply worried civil libertarians call these private armies potential, 1930s-style Brownshirts.
Amazingly, U.S. Special Forces in Afpak have not until this month been under the control of supreme commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. They apparently reported to his rival, Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus in Tampa. These Rambos have been rampaging around, killing at will and committing atrocities against civilians, the UN reports.
To the Pentagon's fury, the CIA runs its own killer paramilitary units and drone assassination operations, 90% of whose victims are civilians, according to Pakistani media investigations.
The CIA's paramilitaries report only to Langley, which does not talk to the Pentagon. Pakistan's feeble government is not even informed in advance of Predator strikes and assassinations on its own soil.
How many of the 15 other U.S. intelligence agencies are running their own little illegal private armies? Add special forces from NATO contingents, including Canada, whose operations remain a deep secret.
The U.S. brands all al-Qaida suspects and Taliban "illegal combatants," denying them due process of law and the Geneva Convention's prisoner protections. It's OK to murder and torture such "terrorists," says Washington.
What, then, about the army of U.S. mercenary Rambos that are running amok, who wear no uniform, kill at will and have no legal oversight?
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Show All[What, then, about the army of U.S. mercenary Rambos that are running amok, who wear no uniform, kill at will and have no legal oversight?]
Well, they're 'freedom fighters' of course. After all it's only 'terrorists' who kill civilians - or are they only terrorists when they kill those civilians (or soldiers) we actually like?
The information related in this dire little article is of extreme importance to us all.
"Deeply worried civil libertarians call these private armies potential, 1930s-style Brownshirts."
Believe it. I would simply remove the adjective "potential." But when the ME wars wind down, as they must, watch out for these goons on the home front. Blackwater thugs were patrolling NE after Katrina and were also present in the police-state spectacle we were treated to for the G20 in Pittsburgh.
"To the Pentagon's fury, the CIA runs its own killer paramilitary units and drone assassination operations..."
I wouldn't give to much credence to this "fury" (probably more like tacit approval while giving a public display of being "shocked, shocked"), but you can be sure that more than a few of the marketplace massacres and demolished mosques attributed to the usual mysterious "suicide bombers" (which the insurgency/"Al-Qaida"/the "terrorists" never seem to run out of) are false flag ops being run by "our" psychopaths, whether private or public. If it's the mercs doing it, then it's even easier for the brass to deny any wrongdoing.
If these deadly forces (including, first and foremost, the US military and the MIC) are not brought to heel soon, expect the worst, especially when the economy finally disappears for a while.
Who's going to pull us out of this one? Certainly not Obombya. The only hope would seem to be a truly mass uprising and shutdown of the system, or else a palace coup by the few remaining military brass with any sense of honor, who, once they had cleaned house, could re-institute elections free of lobbies, campaign contributions, and the MSM. Unfortunately, military takeovers are not usually so quick to hand back democratic power.
Excellent post Clovis!
Sioux Rose
CLOVIS: Excellent post.
No one has yet brought up the statistics related: 90% of those impacted are civilians! There's not even any remaining pretense of protecting citizens! The "law of war" always struck me as the ultimate oxymoron, but this is an outrageous figure! It's equivalent to drift net sea-fishing operations. Just get "everyone" into the net, no distinctions required. They are destroying entire zones, making them impossible to live in: a blueprint of the "techniques" utilized in Iraq.
One can only begin to imagine the horror... and the karma, that 90% of a region's people are wiped out in pursuit of "the target." Notice how cheaply the Pentagon and its quasi-legal shadow army of soldiers values human life? 90 die so that 1 target may be apprehended or shot down? These statistics make Jack the Ripper and/or Attila the Hun look congenial by comparison. And this is where the public's money is going... as if in leaving so many broken families, any premise of national security can be furthered? It's a recipe for an eventual boomerang that will hit here in the homeland in-security state. And should a foreign force decide to kill 90% of civilians to get at their preferential target, what moral high ground would our adjudicating bodies have to stand on?
These mercenaries are to the ground what drones are to the air. Both are used illegally and with impunity. Both are turning the world against the US. Both will ultimately be used against the Superpower.
Ban mercenaries. Re-instate the draft.
and bring back slavery, too?
Those are two entirely different things. If - as the rightwing armchair warriors argue - the usa is indeed facing a major threat to its existence from the terrorist groups of the world, than it is their duty to argue that everyone serve in the military to fight off and defeat the threat. However, it's clear - by not having a draft for example - that the right wingnuts who are manning those armchairs know full well that the terrorist groups are no such threat. They know full well that a draft would stop their revenue flow. Hence there will not be a draft.
involuntary servitude is involuntary servitude.
some stupidly argue that by re-introducing the draft public outrage and resistence will be heightened.
A slave was and is 'property' for life. A soldier is not. If the person drafted really didn't want to serve, they could find ways not to do so. For some that would mean a jail term, for others they might eventually become president. Slaves had no rights, could be beaten to death at the whim of its owner and the owner would not face any other consequence but for the loss of 'property'. Soldiers do have rights.
You can be certain that if the draft was reintroduced the middle and upper classes would be livid about their children being 'forced' to serve alongside the poorer soldiers. The poor and middle class would be livid about the children of the rich who'd find ways of evading the draft without going to jail.
I'll say it again, if the survival of the nation is really at stake than the draft should not be something that anyone could oppose. But you know, and I know that the survival of the usa is not threatened by the 'terrorists' who are lurking in the caves of Afghanistan. The real threat to the usa comes from its elites, who think there's no problem with offshoring jobs, etc.
Draft the children and grandchildren of congressional people first.
America's foreign policy has been fascist for many years and like I predicted over 10 years ago, it would just be a matter of time until America's domestic policy would have to become overtly fascist also. Well unfortunately, it looks like I was correct. Civil Libertarians are deeply worried that these private armies have the potential to become 1930's style Brown shirts. That says it all.
Excellent Eric!
We have the MIC run amok.
Worse yet, most amerikans don't give a damn.
I think they would care, Chupacabra, if the mainstream media covered such stuff on the evening news. There, we are more likely to hear about how the military is working to capture the hearts and minds of the Afghanis and Pakistanis.
The Pentagon announced some months ago that it would no longer report the number of civilian casualties. We only hear about them because foreign and/or independent news agencies do report them (after which, the military 'fesses up).
Mercenaries working for the CIA (unless that's changed recently) also aim the drones using intelligence that is sometimes accurate and sometimes false stuff provided by those who want to embarrass the US. Drone aimers may be as far away as California sending instructions to the drones.
But hey . . . thank goodness we arrested that evil troublemaker Cindy Sheehan and got her off the street after her most despicable war protest in Washington. We can't have dangerous people like her running around, now can we? Peaceful Amerikans can finally go back to supporting the troops . . .
What we needs are laws to make it illegal to hold =Soldier of Fortune= magazine with just your subdominant hand.
these operations are but twenty- first century encores of operation phoenix, in which the c.ia. targeted the political arm of the viet cong for extinction. in 1966, it did not matter to richard helms if you were a village elder who renounced violence; if you were openly against the american occupation or military effort in vietnam, you wore our bullseye. the c.i.a. murdered over 20,000 such leaders during the 1960's. in other words, the u.s. carried out a kent state or boston massacre every day we were in vietnam. as john kerry the younger said, our actions rivalled those of ghengis khan. too bad he was swiftboated for telling this truth. worse yet was his backing away from those truths when he became the democratic nominee for president, as there was plenty of objective documentation for these crimes in the church committee reports. worst of all, the country held it all against kerry because americans just can't digest the truth sometimes.
"The CIA's paramilitaries report only to Langley, which does not talk to the Pentagon. Pakistan's feeble government is not even informed in advance of Predator drone attacks or assassinations on its own soil. How many of the 15 other US intelligence agencies are running their own little illegal private armies?
"The US brands all Al-Qaida and Taliban 'illegal combatants', denying them due process and Geneva Conventions' prisoner protections. It's OK to murder and torture such 'terrorists', says Washington. What, then, about the US mercenary army of Rambos who are running amok, who wear no uniform, kill at will and have no legal oversight?"
The first order of business is for Congress to enact a simple, straight forward statute (preferably a short, concise amendment to the National Security Act of 1947) to criminally outlaw all intelligence agencies' use of deadly force except in pure self defense. Get the CIA out of the targeted assassination business completely - whether by use of Predator drones, explosives, firearms, knives, exotic poisons, or any other form of lethal gadgetry.
The active duty military, and only the active duty military, should hold an absolute monopoly upon killing people in the name of the United States government. Period. From there, you rigidly adhere to the traditional chain of command structure, from the field barracks up through the top of the Pentagon power heirarchy, with a civilian Secretary of Defense and the president as Commander-in-Chief ultimately holding the-buck-stops-here accountability back to Congress, the Constitution, and the American people.
What this article about Rent-A-Rambo vividly illustrates is how the dangerous, neofascist mentality of the Bush/Cheney regime's global war on terror very consciously, and very systematically, obliterated the distinction between military and civilian, public servant or private citizen, between being a soldier or being a spy. By blurring and fragmenting the lines of responsibility, everybody can claim plausible deniability when the bodies inevitably hit the floor.
If Barack Obama and the Democratic Party leadership blows once again its historic, rapidly dwindling chance to reassert first principles, restore the rule of law, and redraw the line which differentiates acts of war from acts of murder and mayhem, then the crazies have truly taken control of the entire asylum.
Bill from Saginaw
And remind me WHY we allow these stupid stupid stupid people to be in charge of our lives. These stupid ignorant moronic people have no ability to make any decision based upon rationale or wisdom. They are arrogant bullies who delight, yes delight, in harming others. Why do you think reagan closed down all the mental facilities in the 80's; he needed the psychopaths to join the rambo brigades.