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http://baghdadtobasra.blogspot.com/2010/03/senator-warns-against-1b-deal-with.html
Blackwater launching missions from Karachi’
* US paper says Blackwater assisting CIA in assassinations of Taliban, Al Qaeda operatives, ‘sensitive action inside, outside Pakistan’
* Blackwater’s help to secret US military drone attacks runs parallel to well-documented CIA predator strikes
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Members of an elite division of Blackwater (Xe Services) are conducting a secret programme from Karachi 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 investigative report by US-based newspaper The Nation has revealed.
Citing a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus, the paper said the covert forward operating base, run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), is assisted by Blackwater operatives in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes.
The source, which The Nation said has worked on covert US military programmes for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, had direct knowledge of Blackwater’s involvement.
The source told the paper that the programme was so “compartmentalised” that senior figures within President’s Barack Obama’s administration and the US military chain of command might not be aware of its existence.
The White House did not comment on the story, The Nation said.
A defence official denied that Blackwater worked on drone strikes or intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan, saying they “don’t have any contracts to do that work for us. We don’t contract that kind of work out, period”.
The paper’s source said the Blackwater programme was distinct from the CIA assassination programme that the agency’s director, Leon Panetta, announced he had cancelled in June 2009.
A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the source’s claim that the company was working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC.
He even said Blackwater was also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm “that puts Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces”.
The Nation said the covert JSOC programme with Blackwater in Pakistan dates back to at least 2007, according to the source. Blackwater’s work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task Force based at Bagram Air Base in 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”
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Blackwater: another aspect
By Huma Yusuf
Tuesday, 01 Dec, 2009
Until now, Pakistani ire against Blackwater has mostly been ensconced in anti-America rhetoric.—File photo
Pakistan
US Embassy rejects report about Blackwater
Thanks to Jeremy Scahill’s recent article in the US-based The Nation — which alleges that Blackwater is operating in Pakistan — the notorious and despised American security firm (now formally known as Xe Services) is back in the headlines.
Unfortunately, the impassioned conversation about Blackwater in Pakistan is sidestepping some of the major issues that such mercenary activity raises in the context of the war against terror.
The possibility that Blackwater is here — US officials have explicitly rejected Scahill’s claims — justifiably fuels anti-American sentiment.
Once again, public anger is directed against perceived infringements of Pakistani national sovereignty, though it is not always articulated as such.
Many Pakistanis believe any US military or government contract with such a security firm is a case of America being up to its old tricks, finding a way to have eyes and ears on the ground without having to acknowledge troop presence in Pakistan.
Blogs are buzzing about Blackwater’s alleged activities here, ranging from advance missions for US/Nato forces to plots to capture Dr A.Q. Khan.
Scahill’s report suggests that Blackwater operatives are working with the US Joint Special Operations Command on a secret programme to assassinate Taliban and Al Qaeda militants and conduct ‘snatch and grabs’ of other high-value targets.
Pakistanis are also enraged at the idea that Blackwater employees — who operate outside any legal framework — are running around their country, taking pot shots at anyone who seems suspicious, or is deemed problematic by the US.
A simple search research shows , even with imposed wars, invasions war torn cities produced best students, scientists whose services are now being hired, accredited by Western Universities.
The Youngest Mathematician Wonder Student in Sweden is not Swiss , he is Baghdadi.
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US Democracy diregard Scientists and Universities!
Despite 5000 universities and millions of graduates, a large proportion of Americans don't bother to vote in a national election. As if this was not enough, Americans elected a second-rated actor, like imbecile Reagan, with a landslide. US Politics is a dirty field dominated by the crooks. Politicians from both parties represent special interests groups and power centres, not the people. In other words, people are free to talk and to criticise as long as as they don't affect the status quo. Unfortunately, the American money has started to corrupt European politics. In order to play a role in US politics, the scientists need to invest on politicians as much as on Boeing, Haliburton, Bechtel and the Jewish mafia.
According to aliraqnews.com (Arabic) of 06.08.08, the US Department of State (Condoleezza) has drafted a report to George W. Bush, stating that “our forces in collaboration with Israeli MOSSAD commandos have killed 350 Iraqi nuclear scientists and 300 University professors since the occupation in 2003”. The report confirmed that “The Israeli Commandos’ main duty was to eliminate Iraq nuclear scientists after the US failure to make them leave Iraq and to work in America”. The report has also admitted that “A special American Security unit was assigned to track the Iraqi scientists and to provide information for Israeli MOSSAD for action”. The Iraqi CIA agents and US-controlled media have tried to implicate Iran in the killing, but the Iraqi people knew from the beginning that it was a joint USraeli operation. The scientists were detained, interrogated and tortured before their disappearance. That is why Barak Obama mustn't limit his talks to withdrawing US troops from Iraq but to apologise and to compensate the Iraqis besides punishing the USraeli criminals.
Killing anyone is a crime. The USraelis have been killing people with impunity. All will fire back at the purpetrators. The apology is for Obama as a civilisied person and not for us. Apology or not, we will exact revenge unless the criminals are punished.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
http://albawabaforums.com/read.php3?f=3&i=58083&t=58081
http://albawabaforums.com/read.php3?f=3&i=299384&t=299 84
Blackwater’s reputation for getting away with murder certainly doesn’t help the situation. News that the firm sent US$1m to its Iraq office to buy the silence of government officials outraged by the shootings of 17 civilians by Blackwater employees in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square in September 2007 preceded Scahill’s revelations by only a few days.
Until now, Pakistani ire against Blackwater has mostly been ensconced in anti-America rhetoric. But by exclusively framing the problem as such, we’re neglecting to consider one dimension of the mercenary business that could have profound implications on how Pakistan conducts its war against terrorism.
In Iraq, Afghanistan, and now, as per Scahill’s report, Pakistan, Blackwater is primarily associated with targeted assassinations of high-value militants.
Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that the CIA in 2004 hired Blackwater to locate and assassinate top Al Qaeda operatives.
The CIA deployed that secret programme (which has been suspended and did not successfully capture or kill any terrorists) as an alternative to drone attacks that often kill civilians and are unsuited to urban environments.
In other words, the CIA tasked Blackwater operatives, often described as ‘hired guns’, to extend its policy of extrajudicial killings of known and suspected terrorists.
The US’s reliance on the extrajudicial killing of terrorists as an effective strategy to control insurgencies in the long run requires more public debate.
In October, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions asked the US to explain the legality of drone attacks and reminded the Obama administration that arbitrary and extrajudicial executions violate international humanitarian laws.
By the same logic, Blackwater operatives tasked with assassinating terrorist suspects are also in violation of international law. Indeed, US President Barack Obama has acknowledged the need for mercenaries to work within a legal framework and has called for greater accountability for the employees of private security firms.
Rather than conflate condemnations of Blackwater operations with a more general anti-Americanism, Pakistanis should specifically reject the practice of extrajudicial killings.
Such focused opposition to mercenary activity will also put pressure on the Pakistani government to wage a clean war against terrorism, one that can win this ideological battle rather than generate more sympathy for the militant cause.
Public condemnations of Blackwater in this context will also give fillip to investigations into unconfirmed reports of extrajudicial killings (whether by army officers or local lashkars, it remains to be investigated) in Malakand in the wake of Operation Rah-i-Rast.
Of course, demands for a cessation of extrajudicial killings serve doubly as calls for a more just and effective alternative.
The fact is, our government has yet to establish a clear legal and punitive infrastructure to ensure that terrorists are adequately dealt with.
Top militant leaders who have been apprehended by the authorities have yet to be charged or face trial. Pakistanis remain in the dark about the prosecution protocols and sentencing of terror suspects in anti-terrorism courts (ATCs).
Recently, several terror suspects have been acquitted by ATCs for lack of evidence. And the international community has already expressed reservations about the limitations placed on the prosecution in the trial of seven Lashkar-i-Taiba suspects in connection with last year’s Mumbai attacks, which kicked off some days ago in an ATC in Rawalpindi.
Lengthy jail terms will also serve as little consolation for a public — and international community — that wants to see convicted terrorists punished in a way that deters future recruitment.
It is well known that the members of banned Pakistani militant organisations continue operating from their jail cells. Recent revelations that Omar Saeed made hoax calls that stoked India-Pakistan tensions from a Hyderabad jail cell make jail sentences seem like ineffective responses to terrorism.
In the absence of a robust legal framework that can deal justly and proportionately with terrorists, extrajudicial killings will remain an attractive option for stakeholders in the war against terrorism.
In that event, Blackwater operatives, or the employees of other private security firms, working with the US and/or Pakistani militaries and intelligence agencies, will have cause to launch secret programmes in Pakistan.
And as long as that happens, Taliban spokesmen will continue to find a scapegoat for their heinous attacks, winning public sympathy while pinning their crimes on other ‘non-state actors’.
huma.yusuf@gmail.com
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CIA terminates contract with Blackwater: report
Saturday, 12 Dec, 2009
This file picture shows contractors of the US private security firm Blackwater securing the site of a roadside bomb attack in Iraq. Disclosure about the terminated contract comes a day after Blackwater employees joined CIA operatives in Iraq and Afghanistan. –AFP Photo
World
WASHINGTON: The US Central Intelligence Agency has cancelled a contract with a security company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide that allowed the company to load bombs on CIA drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, The New York Times reported late Friday.
Citing intelligence officials, the newspaper said the contract gave Blackwater employees an operational role in one of the CIA’s most significant covert programs, which has killed dozens of militants with Predator and Reaper drones, AFP reported.
The contract with the company, now called Xe Services, was canceled this year by CIA Director Leon Panetta, the report said.
CIA spokesman George Little said Panetta had ordered that the agency’s employees take over the jobs from Xe employees at the remote drone bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the paper noted.
Panetta had also ordered a review of all contracts with the company, according to the report
‘At this time, Blackwater is not involved in any CIA operations other than in a security or support role,’ Little was quoted by The Times as saying.
The disclosure about the terminated contract comes a day after The Times reported that Blackwater employees had joined CIA operatives in secret operations against suspected militants in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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CIA asked Blackwater to take out AQ Khan’
* Blackwater chief Erik Prince admits to running secret missions for CIA
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE:
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had asked private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide to kill Dr AQ Khan, the Pakistani scientist “who shared nuclear know-how with Iran, Libya, and North Korea”, agency’s founder Erik Prince admitted in an interview with Vanity Fair.
According to a source who spoke to the magazine, the authorities in Washington “chose not to pull the trigger”, however, adding “Dr Khan’s inclusion on the target list would suggest that the assassination effort was broader than has previously been acknowledged”.
Admission: The New York Times (NYT) reported that Prince also admitted to participating in some of the CIA’s most sensitive operations, including raids on suspected militants in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now known as Xe Services, “Blackwater’s role in both wars changed sharply when its guards began providing security for CIA operatives in the field”.
Raids on suspected insurgents in Iraq, known as ‘snatch and grab’ operations, began happening almost nightly during the worst years of the war between 2004 and 2006.
The paper quoted several former Blackwater guards as saying operations to capture and kill militants in Iraq and Afghanistan became so routine that Blackwater personnel sometimes became partners in the missions rather than simply providing the security for the CIA officers.
The Washington Post’s sources reported that the actions taken by the agency’s personnel “went beyond the protective role specified in a classified Blackwater contract with the CIA” and included active participation in raids overseen by the CIA or special forces personnel.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Xe Services, was quoted as saying that Blackwater was never under contract to participate in covert raids with CIA or Special Forces troops “in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else”. “Any allegation to the contrary by any news organisation would be false,” he said.
Several former CIA counterterrorism officials told WP that CIA headquarters was not aware of such actions and did not authorise them. Separately, the NYT quoted former Blackwater employees as saying they helped provide security on some CIA flights transporting detainees in the years after the 2001 terror attacks in the US.
George Little, a CIA spokesman, would not comment on Blackwater’s ties to the agency. But he said the CIA employs contractors to “enhance the skills of our own work force, just as American law permits”.
Intelligence officials deny that the agency has ever used Blackwater to fly high-value detainees in and out of secret CIA prisons that were shut down earlier this year. The Blackwater spokesman said company personnel were never involved in CIA “rendition flights,” which transferred terrorism suspects to other countries for interrogation.
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The enemy is infiltrated among us, there is strong evidence that CIA in association with Blackwater planted several massive car bombs. They don't want to let the peace establish which will make a ground demand for their uninvited invasion of Iraq.
They will never leave Oil Desert of Iraq or Resourceful Mineral Mountains of PAKAF.
The falling US Empire need resources to feed their unemployed army which is boiling to bring a revolution soon.
We have all rights to invade Washington to bring peace at Mexico Border.
here is just 1 news clip enough to prove that CIA-Blackwater Operatives are infiltrated in our ranks:
By Rana Tanveer
LAHORE: Law enforcement personnel on Friday impounded a vehicle in the Cantonment, which was being used by US nationals and bore a fake registration number.
They stopped the vehicle for routine checking near Sherpao Bridge, but the US citizens, including a woman, refused inspection, claiming they were Americans and were not subject to snap checking.
Sources told Daily Times that their argument went on for quite some time before law enforcement personnel called senior officials to the scene for further action. Subsequent questioning revealed that the vehicle bore a fake registration number and the passengers were allegedly taking pictures of the cantonment area, which is prohibited by the authorities.
Sources said an official of the US embassy also arrived at the spot and secured the release of the passengers, but police refused to let the vehicle go as it carried a fake number plate.
Colonel Shahid Hussain of the Inter-Services Public Relations told Daily Times that the vehicle was stopped for routine checking and only the police could comment on any further details. Cantonment Supervisory Police Officer Tariq Sukhera told Daily Times police had impounded the vehicle, but its passengers had been allowed to leave. He said so far, it was not clear if the vehicle’s number plate was fake, adding that it would be ascertained after thorough investigations, adding that no case had been registered against any one so far.
Seperately, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif told reporters on Friday that he had asked for a report on the incident involving US nationals.
This is the second such incident in four days at the same place. On December 8, law enforcement officials stopped two vehicles carrying officials of the US consulate and had detained them for about three hours when they refused to subject their vehicles to security checks.
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US established private spy network in Pak, Afghanistan
Updated at: 1145 PST, Monday, March 15, 2010
WASHINGTON: Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a US Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.
The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives. The contractors, in turn, gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, and the information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said.
While it has been widely reported that the C.I.A. and the military are attacking operatives of Al Qaeda and others through unmanned, remote-controlled drone strikes, some American officials say they became troubled that Mr. Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation. The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised his work.
It is generally considered illegal for the military to hire contractors to act as covert spies. Officials said Mr. Furlong’s secret network might have been improperly financed by diverting money from a program designed to merely gather information about the region.
Moreover, in Pakistan, where Qaeda and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding, the secret use of private contractors may be seen as an attempt to get around the Pakistani government’s prohibition of American military personnel’s operating in the country.
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Sana Aijazi
http://sana.aijazi.com/202-urdu-speaking-foreigners-arrive-in-islamabad/#more-202
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Blackwater suit tossed 7 years after grisly deaths Buzz up! Share
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Obama on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan ABC News .
Play Video Iraq Video:Trial begins in Arizona 'honor killing' case AP .
By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Mike Baker, Associated Press – Tue Jan 25, 9:44 pm ET
RALEIGH, N.C. – A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit that blamed the security company formerly known as Blackwater for the deaths of four contractors killed in a grisly 2004 ambush on the restive streets of Iraq.
U.S. District Judge James C. Fox said court-ordered arbitration fell apart because neither side was paying the costs of that process so he decided to shut the case nearly seven years after the killings. Katy Helvenston, the mother of contractor Scott Helvenston, said Tuesday the families couldn't afford the costs, and she fears the case is over. The lawsuit was filed about a year after the men's deaths.,
"It's pretty much destroyed my life," Helvenston said. "I haven't known one moment of joy since Scotty was slaughtered. I think the worst part is the betrayal from my country. I feel so betrayed."
Insurgents killed the four contractors, then mutilated the bodies, dragged the charred remains through the streets and hung two of the corpses from a bridge. Images from the scene were relayed around the world, and the event triggered a massive U.S. military siege known as the Battle of Fallujah.
Survivors of the contractors contend Blackwater failed to prepare the men for their mission and didn't provide them with appropriate equipment, such as a map. Helvenston, Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Michael Teague were sent in Mitsubishi SUVs to guard a supply convoy. Their survivors argued they should have been given armored vehicles.
A congressional investigation concurred with that view, calling Blackwater an "unprepared and disorderly" organization on the day of the ambush.
Blackwater, however, argued that the men were betrayed by the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and targeted in a well-planned ambush. The company said the result of the ambush likely would have been the same even if they had stronger weapons, armored vehicles, maps or even more men.
Following a 2007 shooting in Baghdad, Blackwater changed its management, name and eventually its ownership. USTC Holdings, an investment firm with ties to founder Erik Prince, acquired the company that's now called Xe Services in December. The deal includes its training facility in Moyock, N.C.
Daniel Callahan, an attorney representing the survivors, said they plan to appeal the ruling. Helvenston said she doesn't expect success from further appeals. Donna Zovko, the mother of Jerry Zovko, said she wants to keep pursuing the lawsuit and believes the claim will eventually hold Blackwater responsible.
"It hurts very much. It's a very sad day. But this is just another bridge to cross," Zovko said.
In Hawaii, an attorney for Batalona's widow told The Honolulu Star-Advertiser said the family will appeal.
Marc Miles, a Southern California attorney who represents June Batalona told the newspaper, "The families had lost their case against Blackwater because they were not wealthy enough."
Xe declined to comment on the legal issues except to say that a government insurance program known as the Defense Base Act precluded the lawsuit claims. That program, which offers benefits to injured federal contractors and their survivors, prohibits those eligible for benefits from filing lawsuits against companies covered by the insurance.
"The company continues to remember and honor its fallen professionals and shares in their families' grief for all of those tragically lost or wounded while defending democracy in Iraq," Xe said in a statement provided through an attorney.
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