Read Part 1 of Pentagon investigates Jason Bourne spy program
Title 10 vs. Title 50
A major part of the controversy surrounding a Defense Department official by the name of Michael Furlong who diverted government funds to establish an illegal spy ring to assasinate militants in Paksitan and Afghanistan, involves a territorial dispute between the CIA and military intelligence agencies over who can carry out covert versus clandestine operations, which are distinct.
According to Title 50 of the U.S. Code section 413(e) covert action is the sole authority of the CIA. Covert action is defined by federal law as: “an activity or activities of the United States Government to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly.”
Whereas clandestine means the operation is concealed but not the sponsor. Putting it simply, to the U.S. government clandestine means “hidden” while covert means “deniable.” It is important to note that federal law requires Presidential approval and significant executive and legislative oversight of covert action, which reduces the risk of “rogue” programs.
Traditional military activities are defined under Title 10 and do not require the same approval and oversight as those categorized as covert. Sometimes the Defense Department will use loopholes to categorize certain operations as traditional versus covert for this reason. An action is not covert, according to one interpretation, if the intelligence gathered or the operation supports ongoing hostilities.
According to David Ignatius in the Washington Post yesterday, Furlong tried to use one of these loopholes:
Under the heading of ‘information operations’ or ‘force protection’ the military has launched intelligence activities that, were they conducted by the CIA, might require a presidential finding and notification of Congress. And by using contractors who operate ‘outside the wire’ in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the military has gotten information that is sometimes better than what the CIA is offering.”
Ignatius also parses the semantics used by Furlong to categorize the work by Clarridge. Clarridge’s reports were labeled “force protection atmospherics,” not intelligence, and that sources were called “cooperators.” By avoiding using intelligence collection vocabulary, Clarridge’s network evidently tried to avoid crossing the line into Title 50.
Shadowy Connections
It is interesting to note that of all the news outlets to break this story, it was the New York Times which, according to Mr. Ignatius, hired the aforementioned American International Security Corp. (AISC) in November of 2008 to help free its reporter David Rohde who had been kidnapped by the Taliban. Who did the firm use to lead the mission? Duane "Dewey" Clarridge. Mr. Clarridge then began establishing a network of informants around the globe.
Clarridge currently has about 10 case officers under his domain from the United States, Britain, South Africa and a few other countries, who run about 20 "principal agents" who are in contact with roughly 40 sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Clarridge's contacts with the military deepened last July after he provided detailed intelligence about Bowe Bergdahl, an Army soldier who had also been captured by the Taliban. Ignatius also mentions that Clarridge's network continues to provide fresh intelligence, including his latest report from Paktia province on Monday, the same day the New York Times article appeared.
Furlong hired another controversial figure by the name of Eason Jordan, a former Chief News Executive for CNN, to run a public Web site called AfPax Insider to help the government gain a better understanding of the region, although this intelligence was also used to hunt and kill militants. Mr. Jordan is infamous for revealing in 2003 that CNN knew about human rights abuses committed in Iraq by Saddam Hussein since 1990. In 2005 Mr. Jordan resigned after claiming that it was official U.S. military policy to take out journalists, though he possessed scant evidence to validate his assertions.
Fujrlong also contracted International Media Ventures (IMV), a company describing itself as a public relations company and “an industry leader in creating potent messaging content and interactive communications.” Several of its senior executives are former members of the military’s Special Operations forces, including former commandos from Delta Force.
The company’s President Robert Pack said they provide "information and media atmospherics, research and analysis for good governance and development in Afghanistan, civil society demographics and dynamics, key audience and influence group analysis, and media channel utilization.”
Journalists as spies
It is still unclear who authorized Mr. Furlong’s rogue escapades, but one American government official said: “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.”
Frederick Forsyth, the author of the Day of the Jackal, had an interesting perspective on the matter:
If you want to have journalists on the payroll, a far easier way to go is to insert a professional trained agent as a journalist...if you take an ordinary journalist and say 'hey, become a spy,' he's likely to get up dead.”
Read Part 1 of Pentagon investigates Jason Bourne spy program
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Comments
My name is Caleb Taylor, and I am unsure of the classification of my abuse, however, I am a human mind control victim of what is probably the U.S. government's program. Amazingly, they are able to dictate what I type, and can see what I see. I need some help with this, if you can prove without a doubt that this is happening to me or not, PLEASE email me, I AM DESPARATE, I plan to abandone the USA soon. I would be a refugee, but I doubt I could claim that status, Please, do look into this, I can guarantee your news website full coverage if you can indeed prove this to be happening. Feel Free to email me at emphero99(aat)yahoo(doot)com
When the NYT ran its story, it had 3 sources for its allegations, Robert Pelton, Eason Jordan, and some guy name unnamed source. Based on the NYT story, the second generation stories used the same quotes but no longer attributed them to Jordan and Pelton, but rather to the NYT. Now, I see that the current crop of stories has dropped the term “allegations” altogether. We are now quoting the Pelton accusations as though they are historical fact. Let us remember that the DOD IG investigation, requested by the CIA after meeting with Jordan and Pelton, has not concluded, that Jordan is the guy CNN fired for lying about the military killing journalists, that Pelton is no longer welcomed as an embedded journalist by any unit in the US military due to his past character assassinations, and that this altruistic whistleblower only went public when Furlong declined to hire them. Neither were able to qualify for a security clearance and were ever on the inside of Furlong’s apparatus.
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