An alarming report in the New York Times that Defense Department is investigating a department official who allegedly used private contractors to search for Afghan militants.
According to the New York Times, a government official Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors, former CIA and Special Forces operatives who gathered intelligence on suspected militants and insurgent camps, and passed the information on to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It reports: "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 … Even in a region of the world known for intrigue, Mr. Furlong's story stands out. At times, his operation featured a mysterious American company run by retired Special Operations officers and an iconic C.I.A. figure who had a role in some of the agency's most famous episodes, including the Iran-Contra affair. The allegations that he ran this network come as the American intelligence community confronts other instances in which private contractors may have been improperly used on delicate and questionable operations, including secret raids in Iraq and an assassinations program that was halted before it got off the ground. 'While no legitimate intelligence operations got screwed up, it's generally a bad idea to have freelancers running around a war zone pretending to be James Bond,' one American government official said."
What we don't know is whether Furlong was running a rogue operation or whether he was under instructions from higher up. Nor do we know what procedures were used to vet the contractors or indeed, whether they were vetted and monitored.
When the military is running operations outside the law, it's a dangerous sign for any government.
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