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Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan – The Nation — Good Lord. These clowns again. Why is Obama continuing to sanction their use and give them access to high level intelligence? What’s to stop Blackwater, or should I say Xe, following their own agenda?
At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program 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 investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.
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One of the concerns raised by the military intelligence source is that some Blackwater personnel are being given rolling security clearances above their approved clearances. Using Alternative Compartmentalized Control Measures (ACCMs), he said, the Blackwater personnel are granted clearance to a Special Access Program, the bureaucratic term used to describe highly classified “black” operations. “With an ACCM, the security manager can grant access to you to be exposed to and operate within compartmentalized programs far above ‘secret’–even though you have no business doing so,” said the source. It allows Blackwater personnel that “do not have the requisite security clearance or do not hold a security clearance whatsoever to participate in classified operations by virtue of trust,” he added. “Think of it as an ultra-exclusive level above top secret. That’s exactly what it is: a circle of love.” Blackwater, therefore, has access to “all source” reports that are culled in part from JSOC units in the field. “That’s how a lot of things over the years have been conducted with contractors,” said the source. “We have contractors that regularly see things that top policy-makers don’t unless they ask.”
#11 I don’t know if I can explain this to you Dallas but what it means is the Blackwater or whatever the present name may be is still on the pay role and doing very much the same things they did under Bush.
#12 I think Obama is going to make Carter look good but if you disagree rest assured time will tell.
#7 He was pretty harsh about the results of counting on mercs rather than citizen troops. However as long as they stay outside the homeland and represent only a tiny fraction of your real forces I’d say the risk is less but if you let it grow…They can and have ruined people as has using auxiliary troops from other nations.
A major mistake made by both Carthage and Rome.
On the other hand arming tribal groups in locations you have no intentions of remaining may not be stupid…You just have to remember that it was Germans led by a man trained by the Romans and a veteran of warfare inside the empire that terminated a couple of legions for the Romans in Germany and of the course the Sepoys in India that revolted against the British in 1857.
Heck we used the Taliban as proxy fighters against the Soviet Union and gave them the surface to air rockets they needed to win. You can see how well that worked out for us.
“What’s to stop Blackwater, or should I say Xe, following their own agenda?”
This is the dumbest question I’ve heard yet. What you think,….they operate over there all by themselves. No they follow rules given to them and they’re under the control of Gov staff personnel. This is like asking the question, “what if a group of gov employees decided to follow their own agenda?” They have no power and no decision making abilities. They conduct their statement of work as laid out in their contract.