CIA runs private army in Afghanistan and Pakistan

[Panaconda]

CIA runs private army in Afghanistan and Pakistan
By Tom Peters

September 30, 2010

The new book Obama’s Wars, by long-time Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, publicly confirms that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been running a private army of Afghan mercenaries since at least 2002. On September 22, the Washington Post reported that the 3,000-strong so-called Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams (CTPT) are "being used for surveillance, raids and combat operations in Afghanistan crucial to the United States’ secret war in Pakistan, according to current and former U.S. officials".

Unnamed US "intelligence officials" told the Post that the CIA began to assemble the Afghan force "almost immediately" after the invasion of the country in 2001. According to the paper, the units are based in Kabul and Kandahar as well as Firebase Lilley and Forward Operating Base Orgun-E in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan. The Associated Press reported that "some have trained at CIA facilities in the United States".

The CTPT units operate in secrecy and are unaccountable to either the Afghan army or the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Some of their activities, however, were revealed in the 76,000 US military documents published in July by WikiLeaks. The Post report notes that "Army field reports suggest that the Afghan paramilitary forces can… be ruthless. On Oct. 23, 2007, military personnel at Orgun-E reported treating a 30-year-old Afghan man for the 'traumatic amputation of fingers’ on his left hand. The man had been 'injured by Afghan OGA during a home breach’, according to the report." Afghan OGA stands for "other government agency" and is "generally used as a reference to the CIA," according to the Post.

Such acts of brutality are carried out with impunity. Jonathan Horowitz, a human rights expert from the Open Society Institute, told the Associated Press (AP) on September 22 that given the group’s secrecy, "accountability for their abuses is nearly impossible for most Afghans. These forces don’t fall under an Afghan military chain of command, and if a civilian is killed or maimed, the US can say it wasn’t the fault of the US." The AP reported that Horowitz "added that Afghan civilians have regularly accused these paramilitary groups of physical abuse and theft of property during night raids".

...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/afpk-s30.shtml

[burnsei sensei]

1. This is how you occupy a country

without occupying it.
The empire is not being foreclosed on, it seems.
Our "creditors" are too generous for the wrong projects, and not generous enough for the right ones.

[Panaconda]

2. Here's another story about this

Outsourcing the Dirty War in Afghanistan
Erica Gaston

September 29, 2010

A big revelation from Bob Woodward's new book "Obama's Wars" is that the CIA maintains a 3000-strong Afghan paramilitary force that conducts cross-border operations into Pakistan. Though news to the U.S. public, these abusive paramilitary forces are unfortunately far too well known to many Afghan civilians.

As a human rights researcher in Afghanistan for the last two years, I have found that some of the worst behavior toward civilians comes from these CIA paramilitary forces. Civilians described how these groups, often called "campaign forces", used disproportionate and indiscriminate force, throwing grenades or firing into homes without provocation during night-time house raids. Those who were detained by these paramilitary forces described being beaten, gun-butted, or otherwise abused.

Many civilians believe that assassinations and targeted killings that are publicly blamed on NATO forces or insurgents are actually carried out by these paramilitary forces. In the most publicized incident to date, these paramilitary forces attacked the police headquarters in Kandahar city, killing the chief of police.

Former detainees frequently report semi-permanent detention facilities at the campaign force bases. Given the secrecy surrounding these forces, verifying any of these claims is nearly impossible. Although significant reforms have been made to improve the transparency of U.S. detention practices, the detention practices of these rogue forces, like the rest of their conduct, is a black hole.

...

www.huffingtonpost.com/erica-gaston/outsourcing-the-dirty-war_b_744618.html

[burnsei sensei]

3. Outsourcing is another way of

destroying the integrity and accountability of the nation-state.
Another blessing of the multicultural, globalist world.
The world has become lawless; education confers no depth of understanding; and our responses to these realities must become active.

[Panaconda]

4. Related

US escalates killing on both sides of Afghanistan-Pakistan border
29 September 2010

Amid signs of increasing desperation in the nine-year US war in Afghanistan, Washington has simultaneously launched a major offensive against the country’s second-largest city, Kandahar, and stepped up its attacks in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), escalating the bloodshed on both sides of the border.

Tens of thousands of US troops have been massed in southern Kandahar province, a stronghold of the Taliban, for an offensive aimed at crushing armed resistance in the area and imposing control by the occupation forces and the puppet government of President Hamid Karzai.

“Operation Dragon Strike,” as the offensive has been dubbed by Washington, has already driven thousands from their homes and destroyed farmers’ crops, as the US military levels wide swathes of land to remove improvised explosive devices.

A spokesman for the occupation, Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz, said Monday that the ground operation was proceeding with air support, increasing the threat of mass civilian casualties. He predicted “hard fighting” in the days and weeks ahead. The US troops, he said, “are destroying Taliban positions so they will have nowhere to hide. Once this is done, insurgents will be forced to leave the area or fight and be killed.”

...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/pers-s29.shtml