Is the FBI Using Spies To Investigate Aid Workers, or Other Spies?

If the FBI is using Duane Clarridge’s spy network in Afghanistan and Pakistan to investigate the murder of ten aid workers which the Taliban publicly labels as CIA spies, is it a cover-up, or another “false flag” operation?  Clarridge recently renamed his network the “Eclipse Group,” because it is intended to be just that, an eclipse that blocks-out our memories of what his boys have been up to along the Durand Line.  Just last year, his group’s activities were allegedly suspended by the Pentagon.

Duane R. Clarridge

FBI utilising private spy network’s skills to investigate Afghan aid workers’ deaths

 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reportedly taking the help of a private spy network operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan to investigate the killing of 10 medical aid workers in northern Afghanistan.

The New York Times quoted American officials and private contractors as saying that the spy network, managed by a former top official at the Central Intelligence Agency named Duane R. Clarridge, has provided agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Kabul with intelligence reports about militants who may have been involved in the attack, which killed six Americans last August.

Clarridge’s network, recently renamed the Eclipse Group, has also fed information to an F.B.I.-supervised task force in Kabul that is in charge of dealing with corruption inside Afghanistan’s government, people familiar with the operation have said.

The group has reportedly disclosed information ranging from the business dealings of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half-brother of President Hamid Karzai, to rumours that Afghan officials had secretly shipped large amounts of money to Dubai, the paper said.

An F.B.I. spokesman declined to comment on Clarridge’s work with the bureau in Afghanistan.

Clarridge’s lawyer, Raymond Granger, though declining to discuss any ties between his client and the F.B.I, said that The Eclipse Group was “cooperating with the Justice Department’s investigation in the murder of the 10 aid workers, and is prepared to assist in other areas as well.”

Granger also said that the F.B.I.’s use of private citizens for help in criminal investigations, in the United States or abroad, was “as basic as it gets,” adding that Clarridge was not paid for any work he did for the government.

The attack on the 10 medical aid workers in the remote mountains of Badakhshan Province on August 2010 was the largest killing of aid workers in the country in years.

American officials have not been able to figure out so far who exactly were behind the attacks.

Days after the killings, the Taliban had claimed in its press releases that the group consisted of Western spies. (ANI)

Spooks and Private Contractors Hunting Pakistanis

From left: Michael D. Furlong, the official who was said to have hired private contractors to track militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan; Robert Young Pelton, a contractor; Duane Clarridge, a former C.I.A. official; and Eason Jordan, a former television news executive.

(Photo credits–From Left: United States Air Force; Robert Young Pelton; Mike Wintroath/Associated Press; Adam Berry/Bloomberg News)

[After Clarridge’s outfit was outed by the N. Y. Times, last year, (photo above) they were allegedly shut down pending alleged multiple investigations, charging that they were using a  human intelligence information , “HUMINT” gathering operation for the real purpose of targeting Taliban and “al-Qaeda,” possibly for drone targeting info.   The AfPax Insider (SEE:AfPax Insider Part of Pakistani Taliban?) was their baby.  The following video from the site is remarkable:

The fact that this outfit was somehow able to get right inside the Pakistani Taliban to make this video confirmed suspicions that there was something much more sinister to this group than simple intelligence gathering on Afghan/Pakistani social networking.  In the video we see clear evidence that the photographers were very familiar, if not outright friendly to the Pakistani Taliban, seen smiling for the cameraman.   It seems apparent that either AfPax had been finding drone targets, or that they served as some sort of connection between TTP and CIA.  It is highly doubtful that Pentagon investigations will dwell on either possibility.

In the video the “militants” witness an American F16 airstrike, which appears to be somewhere near Ft. Sararoga outside Wana, S. Waziristan.  In AfPak Insider Interview With Qari Zain Mehsud, The man being interviewed is Qari Zianuddin Mehsud. On June 24, 2009, sometime after the filming of this video, Qari Zain was murdered in his sleep, allegedly by Baitullah Mehsud’s cousin, Gulbadin.

So maybe AfPax was doing the legwork for death squads.  At first I thought that the intelligence guys were letting the cameramen inside the circus, backstage passes to the great game being staged for our amusement, watching the airstrikes, while they bravely fired a few rounds of with heavy machine guns, only to go in right after the strikes to film rubble that no one seemed to think had people lying under it.  Another fact that seemed odd, was all the laughter being passed around among the men after the airstrike, theoretically their compounds or friends’ homes.

Then I watched the next video and realized who the guy on camera was, Qari Zanuddin Mehsud.  Then it hit me, that we were witnessing filming taking place inside the camp of anti-Baitullah Mehsud forces, just before their leader was snuffed-out.  Qari was being  sized-up for the kill.  Whoever gave these AfPax guys access to Baitullah’s enemies, the one supposedly working for the Pak Army, and you see that we were witnessing the taking-out of the next man to lead the Pakistani Army’s anti-Mehsud faction.  Once again, it resembled the days before Obama, when Pakistan could not get the CIA to hit Mehsud, even when they supplied the exact coordinates.  Obama came in, started hitting near Mehsud, until Pakistan tricked them into actually killing him.  Before that, Pakistan could get no help with Baitullah.  Before Qari’s murder, they could get no support for their anti-Mehsud actions.  Now that Qari is dead, and Mullah Nazir before him, while Qari Zain’s primary ally Turkestan Bhitani was recently “run out of Dodge,” all of the anti-Taliban leaders being groomed by the Pak Army are gone, leaving only American solutions, solutions that the Army is dead-set against.

Qari Zain and his boys were followers of Abdullah Mehsud, after his split with Baitullah.  Zain and his men believe that Baitullah arranged for Abdullah’s death, just like Zain’s.  Both Qari and Abdullah split with Baitullah because they thought he was CIA.  This is the way the agency operates, constant name-changing of its radical groups, as well as constant name-changing of its private contractors, like this AfPax Insider was retired and CIA boss Clarridge renames the network the ‘Eclipse Group.”  Just as Blackwater became XE, and so on, we see all of these elements using the same tactic of constant name-changing, whenever publicity exposes the group to the world.

This nearly makes it impossible to trace the secret network using the Internet.  If there were some way to “tag” these guys as they weave their way through the underworld, while they do their research and set up the very realistic false flag network, we might see a clear trail.  We don’t really know which faction we are looking at, when we examine an actor element, like the anti-Taliban, whether you are looking at the Pakistani side of the psyop, which makes the action real, or the American side, which acts by impersonating the Pakistani Taliban element, which they are sometimes hunting.

Abdullah Mehsud spends several years at Baghram and Guantanamo in their conditioning programs.

He is released in Afghanistan, where he crosses the border with an unknown number of Northern Alliance and Uzbek fighters, armed to the teeth, and apparently loaded with cash and the latest communications equipment.  This group stirs-up trouble in Wana and causes the creation of the first anti-Taliban militia, under Mullah Nazir, who battles the Uzbeks (only sites like Asia Times Online report it as “al-Qaeda” at the time), eventually evicting them from his area.

Baitullah Mehsud shelters the Uzbek rejects and shares them with Mullah Fazlullah in Swat, where they resume their “Sharia enforcing” attacks upon locals and launch a campaign of serial murder on tribal elders.  Wherever the remnants of Abdullah Mehsud’s original Guantanamo-Army (perhaps a “Guantanarmy”?) went they mixed with groups fighting against the Pakistan Army and began a murderous terror-bombing campaign against funerals and mosques (mostly all Shia).  What we have here is the anatomy of an active psyop, one staged to deceive the people of the world and convince us all that the American solution is the only solution–taking the war to Pakistan.

–peter.chamberlin@hotmail.com

 

Spooks and Private Contractors Hunting Pakistanis

Head Taliban-Hunter–”I am not…a crook.”

Pentagon says intel contractors went too far

AfPak Insider Interview With Qari Zain Mehsud

Vodpod videos no longer available.

AfPak Insider Interview With Qari Zain Mehsud, posted with vodpod

Cameron Offers British Troops To Separate Libyan Govt from Rebel Forces

We’ll use military force to free Libya, vows PM:

Cameron plans no-fly zone over country and even threatens to send British troops

By TIM SHIPMAN

Warning: David Cameron threatened Colonel Gaddafi with military action by imposing a no-fly zone and also suggested British troops could be involved in peacekeeping duties

David Cameron threatened Colonel Gaddafi with military action last night, promising a no-fly zone and arms shipments to his enemies.

The Prime Minister even suggested he could send British troops into Libya as a peacekeeping force to stop Gaddafi’s henchmen massacring democracy campaigners.

At a National Security Council meeting yesterday morning, he ordered military chiefs to draw up plans for the no-fly zone. If Gaddafi turned his air force on the rebels, RAF warplanes would be able to intervene.

Mr Cameron’s dramatic move, which may come to define his premiership, came on the day that:

• Papers revealed UK forces have trained Libyan troops in Britain;
• Gaddafi’s son Saif repeated his pledge that the regime would ‘fight to the last bullet’;
• The Pentagon started moving warships in preparation to police a no-fly zone;
• World leaders imposed a raft of diplomatic and financial sanctions;
• Tony Blair was condemned for ‘dodgy dealing’ that led to the now infamous ‘deal in the desert’ with Gaddafi in 2004.

Mr Cameron’s intervention was designed to pile the pressure on Gaddafi to quit – an outcome many had expected already.

But, while the dictator has lost control of much of his country, he still remains in charge of Tripoli, the capital and home to a third of Libya’s people.

Yesterday Gaddafi showed no sign of wanting to quit, giving a deranged interview to the world’s media. ‘They love me, all my people love me,’ he said. ‘They would die to protect me.’

Asked why so many appeared to be rebelling, he blamed Osama Bin Laden: ‘This is Al Qaeda, not my people. They come from outside.’

HOW MANY TROOPS CAN BRITAIN SEND?

Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan would severely stretch our ability to send ground forces into Libya, but it could be achieved, military sources said last night.

Currently, there are 10,000 UK troops fighting the Taliban, which would limit the size of any peacekeeping force. Britain also has 1,500 troops committed to the Falkland Islands, 850 in the Balkans, 1,500 in Northern Ireland and nearly 1,000 in the Gulf.

But insiders insist that if David Cameron demands the sending of UK troops into the North African state, it could be done.

If a no-fly zone is introduced the RAF’s state-of-the-art Typhoon fighter jets would be flown as part of a multi-national force to patrol the skies above Libya.  The warplanes could take off from Cyprus or other Nato bases in the Mediterranean. About 3,000 troops are based in Cyprus at RAF Akrotiri.

MoD sources played down accusations that the possible no-fly zone highlighted the folly of scrapping the HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier last month as part of the Coalition’s defence review.

Former commanders have said that flying the now-axed Harrier jumpjets from its decks would have been invaluable to provide air cover during the Libyan crisis.

However, the Harrier jets – which are bombers rather than fighters – would have been ineffective against Libyan jets as an air-to-air threat.

Despite having criticised Mr Blair’s speed at going to war, Mr Cameron said he wanted Britain to be ‘on the front foot’ over the North African crisis.

‘We must not tolerate this regime using military force against its own people,’ he told MPs. ‘In that context I have asked the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Staff to work with our allies on plans for a military no-fly zone. My message to Colonel Gaddafi is simple: go now.’

Asked whether Britain could supply arms to the Libyan opposition, Mr Cameron told MPs: ‘It is certainly something we should be considering.’

Britain signed an arms embargo at the weekend preventing further sales of weapons to Libya. But Mr Cameron could justify sending weapons to the rebels using a loophole in the embargo allowing ‘humanitarian’ weapons drops.

Sending in ground troops will be much more controversial.

‘We do not want to get into a situation where we are using ground troops,’ a senior No 10 official said.

‘We are not about to invade. This is just contingency planning but we want some ideas worked up if it gets to the point where Gaddafi is using extreme force against his own people.’

The war clouds darkened last night when the Pentagon announced it has begun to ‘reposition’ warships including an aircraft carrier with 90 fighter aircraft to join a no-fly zone. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: ‘The no-fly zone is an option we are actively considering. All options are on the table.’

Under the plans, Britain, the U.S. and other Nato allies would police a no-fly zone with different air forces providing cover at different times. The flight ban may cover the whole of Libya, or areas under rebel control.

Britain could deploy up to 59 Eurofighter Typhoons from RAF Coningsby and RAF Leuchars in Scotland – leaving 12 for home air defence. They are expected to fly from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, where British ‘eye in the sky’ AWACS aircraft are already stationed.

If troops are needed, a detachment of the Mercian regiment, earmarked for Afghanistan, is available in Cyprus. The Parachute regiment or the Royal Marines are the more likely options.

Last night Mr Cameron spoke to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has also backed a no-fly zone. They agreed the French and British military should work together.

Downing Street officials said they feared Gaddafi could use his stockpile of mustard gas.

Britain yesterday joined the European Union in agreeing to freeze the assets of another 12 senior members of the regime after a similar ban was placed on Gaddafi and his children.

A senior Foreign Office official said key figures would be warned they face prosecution for war crimes.

Mr Cameron’s bellicose rhetoric risks opening a coalition split with the Liberal Democrats. A senior Lib Dem said yesterday: ‘No government containing the Liberal Democrats is going to launch another war in the Middle East.’

Growing firepower of the rebels

A growing force dubbed the ‘New Libyan Army’ is hoping to play a major part in bringing down Colonel Gaddafi.

Bolstered by tens of thousands of defectors from the armed forces and police, the rebel movement is now in charge of formidable firepower.

In Zawiyah, the rebel-held city just 30 miles from the capital Tripoli, opponents yesterday showed off a frightening array of tanks, machineguns and anti-aircraft guns.

Arsenal: The New Libyan Army showed off a frightening array of weapons yesterday, including anti-aircraft guns

It is a far cry from the peaceful demonstrations staged in cities across the country two weeks ago that prompted Gaddafi to slaughter his own people.

Gaddafi’s lethal response saw army general Abdel Fattah Younes Al Abidi – a former close ally of the tyrant – switch sides. His defection encouraged other disaffected police, military and state security personnel to follow suit.

It is impossible to say how many of Libya’s 76,000 troops have defected. But it is clear that the pro-democracy ranks have access to large stores of weapons from looted military stockpiles or smuggled across the border. Citizen groups say they will use them to stop Gaddafi’s forces retaking rebel territory. The ‘New Libyan Army’ is becoming more organised and steps have been taken to establish a unified military council in the east.

Small groups of rebel soldiers have been dispatched to infiltrate the capital, according to commanders.

They said hundreds of young men are volunteering to go there to bolster the pro-democracy groups. Judging by the show of strength in Zawiyah, they are a force to be reckoned with.

 

American Forces Prepare to Take-Down Qaddafi

[WHY IS THE US “TIGHTENING ITS MILITARY GRIP” ON GADDAFI–

WHAT GIVES US THAT RIGHT?

It’s a pretty sickening world we live in when the American military can just swoop-in and take control in any country–and the world merely cheers us on!   It is the same way in the  “democratic-revolutions,” where the one American hand that is firing the revolution is sort of hidden and the other hand that is providing supporting rebels is sort of overlooked.  The process is the same, no matter whether it is in N. Africa or Central Asia.

This has nothing to do with fighting terrorism, building stability or any other Pentagon bullshit–this is meddling in another country’s business; it is aggression pure and simple, once again under the guise of humanitarianism.  We are going to bomb Tripoli back to the stone age, in order to “save Libya,” just as we have saved Iraq and Afghanistan.  War is created in another country, while the strong governments of the world meekly watch from the sidelines.  No world leader will dare to question American authority to enforce the will of the people of Libya upon its only leader.  If Qaddafi must go it is not our place to move him or arrest him.  In Libya, as in the other shaky states, American leaders have taken upon themselves the right to shape the Libyan unity govt. being built behind the scenes.

The world knows that the American military is uninterested in defense, since it is all about going on the offense.  It is as if all the leaders of the world have agreed amongst themselves to let American presidents do whatever they wanted, while they looked the other way, even if those American forces were doing their dirty deeds to their own countrymen.

If we were going after Jews like we have been going after Muslims, would the world stand still and silent?]

US tightens military grip on Gaddafi

Naval and air forces close in on Libya as David Cameron plans no-fly zone to protect civilians

• Julian Borger, Patrick Wintour and Martin Chulov in Benghazi
• guardian.co.uk

Pro-Gaddafi supporters in Sabratha, west of Tripoli. Gaddafi has remained defiant, saying: ‘All my people love me’. Photograph: Chris Helgren/Reuters

The west is edging towards a possible military confrontation withMuammar Gaddafi‘s regime, as the US deployed naval and air force units around Libya, and David Cameron ordered contingency plans for a no-fly zone.

The prime minister said he had told the Ministry of Defence and the chief of the defence staff to draw up the plans in coordination with Britain’sNato allies and report back to him within days.

A no-fly zone would be designed principally to prevent attacks on Libyan people by the Gaddafi regime – mainly by his helicopter gun ships.

Cameron suggested the UK might even consider arming the Libyan opposition forces if Tripoli used more violence to crush demonstrations.

Officials said discussions on a range of possible military options had begun last week between British and US officials at the Pentagon. They said that the support of US and British armed forces might also be required to protect corridors to channel humanitarian relief into Libya through Tunisia and Egypt if further conflict brought about a mass displacement of the population and a collapse in the food supply.

The prime minister discussed imposing a no-fly zone over Libya in a telephone call with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. An emergency summit of all the EU’s 27 leaders is now expected to be held in Brussels nest week .

Gaddafi remained defiant. “They love me, all my people love me,” he said in an interview with the BBC. “They would die to protect me.” He again blamed al-Qaida for the rebellions. “This is al-Qaida, not my people,” Gaddafi said. “They come from outside.”

Western officials say any military intervention in the unfolding conflict would require the approval of the UN Security Council, and that is far from guaranteed. Russia and China, who both hold a veto, have voiced their opposition to any outside interference.

A diplomatic source at the UN headquarters in New York said however that more security council meetings were likely this week and the pressure for action would rise as the bloodshed and suffering continued in Libya. “We have not yet reached the high-water mark for council involvement,” the source said.

The Gaddafi regime has continued to use its air force against the opposition. Libyan air force jets bombed the rebel-held city of Ajdabiya, 160 kilometres south of Benghazi this afternoon, the furthest east that loyalist forces have attacked since both cities were sacked nine days ago.

Two army officers from Benghazi’s military committee confirmed jets that had taken off from Tripoli each dropped bombs on the city around 4pm. “We had several anti-aircraft positions, which fired at the planes and they left,” said Colonel Hamid Belkhair, who runs the rebel military in Benghazi. “Then they fled. They were not interested in hanging around.”

Officials in Benghazi’s new interim council, which aims to provide a political face to the revolution, said Gaddafi loyalists intended to cut water and electricity supplies to cities in the east and attack them from the air. The city of Misrata, in western Libya was also bombed in the morning and strafed by helicopters in the afternoon, residents told the Guardian.

An anti-aircraft position was established on Benghazi’s waterfront against an expected increase in attacks. The east of the country remains lightly armed compared with the loyalist army. Large numbers of weapons were left behind as Gaddafi’s forces fled. However, even more were taken with them.

The rebel military has no anti-aircraft missiles and only a small number of old jets. The remnants of the air force still loyal to the veteran dictator are flying predominantly Russian-made MIGs.

The Pentagon’s announcement that it was repositioning naval and air forces in the region gave no details of what units were involved.

“We have planners working and various contingency plans and … as part of that we’re repositioning forces to be able to provide for that flexibility once decisions are made,” said Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.

In Geneva, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said that the warships could be used for humanitarian and rescue missions. “There is not any pending military action involving US naval vessels,” she said.

Following RAF rescue missions over the weekend, Cameron raised the possibility of further British military involvement in Libya. “We do not in any way rule out the use of military assets, we must not tolerate this regime using military force against its own people,” he said.

A Downing Street spokesman said later: “The prime minister spoke to President Sarkozy this evening to discuss the situation in Libya. They agreed that the actions of the Libyan regime had been totally unacceptable. The international community had been right to respond quickly through the UN and now the EU.

“They agreed that British and French experts should work together on the range of possible options for increasing pressure on the regime. In addition, they discussed the importance of transforming the EU’s approach to the region, and agreed that an early European Council was needed to consider further EU action on Libya.”

The defence secretary, Liam Fox, discussed the possibility of a no-fly zone with the Nato secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, but Rasmussen has said repeatedly that there would be no Nato involvement without UN Security Council approval.

“I think the framework here and now is, and should be, the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council last week. That resolution excludes the use of armed forces and a no-fly zone is not mentioned,” he said.