SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Defense Secretary Robert Gates Confirms Blackwater in Pakistan
Jan 21, 2010
In an interview with the Pakistani TV station Express TV, Defense
Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that the private security firms
Blackwater and DynCorp are operating inside Pakistan. "They're
operating as individual companies here in Pakistan," Gates said,
according to a DoD transcript
of the interview. "There are rules concerning the contracting
companies. If they're contracting with us or with the State Department
here in Pakistan, then there are very clear rules set forth by the
State Department and by ourselves."
This appears to be a contradiction of previous statements made by
the Defense Department, by Blackwater, by the Pakistani government and
by the US embassy in Islamabad, all of whom claimed Blackwater was not
in the country. In September, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne
Patterson, denied Blackwater's presence in the country, stating
bluntly, "Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan." In December in The Nation magazine, I reported
on Blackwater's work for JSOC in Pakistan and on a subcontract with a
private Pakistani security company. The Pentagon did not issue any
clear public denials, and instead tried to pass the buck
to the State Department, which in turn passed it to the US embassy,
which in turn issued an unsigned statement saying the story was false.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said on numerous occasions that he would resign if it is proven that Blackwater is operating inside Pakistan.
Asked what the US response would be if the Pakistani parliament
passed a law banning private security companies, Gates said, "If it's
Pakistani law, we will absolutely comply."
Asked about Seymour Hersh's recent report in The New Yorker
that US special forces were inside Pakistan helping to secure the
country's nuclear weapons, Gates said, "Well, you know, we sometimes
have journalistic reports in the United States that aren't terribly
accurate either. You can't respond to all of them. I think that one
was not true."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Jeremy Scahill
Jeremy Scahill is an investigative reporter, war correspondent, co-founder of The Intercept, and author of the international bestselling books "Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield"(2014) and "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" (2008). He has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere across the globe. Scahill has served as the national security correspondent for The Nation and Democracy Now!, and in 2014 co-founded The Intercept with fellow journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and investor Pierre Omidyar.
In an interview with the Pakistani TV station Express TV, Defense
Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that the private security firms
Blackwater and DynCorp are operating inside Pakistan. "They're
operating as individual companies here in Pakistan," Gates said,
according to a DoD transcript
of the interview. "There are rules concerning the contracting
companies. If they're contracting with us or with the State Department
here in Pakistan, then there are very clear rules set forth by the
State Department and by ourselves."
This appears to be a contradiction of previous statements made by
the Defense Department, by Blackwater, by the Pakistani government and
by the US embassy in Islamabad, all of whom claimed Blackwater was not
in the country. In September, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne
Patterson, denied Blackwater's presence in the country, stating
bluntly, "Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan." In December in The Nation magazine, I reported
on Blackwater's work for JSOC in Pakistan and on a subcontract with a
private Pakistani security company. The Pentagon did not issue any
clear public denials, and instead tried to pass the buck
to the State Department, which in turn passed it to the US embassy,
which in turn issued an unsigned statement saying the story was false.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said on numerous occasions that he would resign if it is proven that Blackwater is operating inside Pakistan.
Asked what the US response would be if the Pakistani parliament
passed a law banning private security companies, Gates said, "If it's
Pakistani law, we will absolutely comply."
Asked about Seymour Hersh's recent report in The New Yorker
that US special forces were inside Pakistan helping to secure the
country's nuclear weapons, Gates said, "Well, you know, we sometimes
have journalistic reports in the United States that aren't terribly
accurate either. You can't respond to all of them. I think that one
was not true."
Jeremy Scahill
Jeremy Scahill is an investigative reporter, war correspondent, co-founder of The Intercept, and author of the international bestselling books "Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield"(2014) and "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" (2008). He has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere across the globe. Scahill has served as the national security correspondent for The Nation and Democracy Now!, and in 2014 co-founded The Intercept with fellow journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and investor Pierre Omidyar.
In an interview with the Pakistani TV station Express TV, Defense
Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that the private security firms
Blackwater and DynCorp are operating inside Pakistan. "They're
operating as individual companies here in Pakistan," Gates said,
according to a DoD transcript
of the interview. "There are rules concerning the contracting
companies. If they're contracting with us or with the State Department
here in Pakistan, then there are very clear rules set forth by the
State Department and by ourselves."
This appears to be a contradiction of previous statements made by
the Defense Department, by Blackwater, by the Pakistani government and
by the US embassy in Islamabad, all of whom claimed Blackwater was not
in the country. In September, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne
Patterson, denied Blackwater's presence in the country, stating
bluntly, "Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan." In December in The Nation magazine, I reported
on Blackwater's work for JSOC in Pakistan and on a subcontract with a
private Pakistani security company. The Pentagon did not issue any
clear public denials, and instead tried to pass the buck
to the State Department, which in turn passed it to the US embassy,
which in turn issued an unsigned statement saying the story was false.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said on numerous occasions that he would resign if it is proven that Blackwater is operating inside Pakistan.
Asked what the US response would be if the Pakistani parliament
passed a law banning private security companies, Gates said, "If it's
Pakistani law, we will absolutely comply."
Asked about Seymour Hersh's recent report in The New Yorker
that US special forces were inside Pakistan helping to secure the
country's nuclear weapons, Gates said, "Well, you know, we sometimes
have journalistic reports in the United States that aren't terribly
accurate either. You can't respond to all of them. I think that one
was not true."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.