Despite denials by the US Embassy in Islamabad, this incident exposes the presence of American private security operations similar to Blackwater in Pakistan. The embassy and US citizens working for either the US government or the US military are recruiting retired and well connected Pakistani military officers in order to build a network of informants and special operations agents inside Pakistan. This is tantamount to creating a US military presence in Pakistani cities without sending the US army into Pakistan. To counter reports the growing reports of how the US is raising private security militias armed with heavy weapons to supplement the existing information-gathering network and the coming expansion in the US diplomatic presence in Pakistan; the mainstream US media is churning out stories that seek to discredit these reports as ‘conspiracy theories’.
A secret military training facility where US defense contractor imparted training to Pakistani recruits on the outskirts of Pakistani capital. In March, US ambassador personally sought the help of the prime minister and interior minister to license DynCorp activities in Pakistan under the pretext of providing security to US diplomats. In September, Pakistani authorities canceled the license.
A AHMEDQURAISHI.COM Report
Monday, 28 September 2009.
WWW.AHMEDQIURAISHI.COM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Washington is invading Pakistan without the need to order the US military in Afghanistan to invade Pakistani territory.
Some influential lobbies within the US government, military and intelligence have been advocating a direct invasion of Pakistan for quite some time. It was impossible to achieve because of Washington would not prefer a direct confrontation with a nuclear-armed Pakistan.
But the Americans have achieved several breakthroughs in Pakistan recently without putting a single boot on the ground.
CIA-manned drones have so far killed less than 20 al-Qaeda terrorists at the cost of murdering more than 700 innocent men, women and children, Pakistani citizens, who have unfortunately been abandoned by the power elite in Islamabad.
Now evidence confirms that the United States has launched a massive program of recruitment of retired Pakistani military officers to create information-gathering networks and private militias tasked with special operations inside Pakistan.
Part of this expansion is the introduction of private American security firms, or American mercenaries, contracted by the US military and working on their behalf. The US embassy is being used as a cover. US diplomats often tell Pakistani authorities that the private security militias are tasked with the protection of US diplomats and five diplomatic missions in five major Pakistani cities. This is correct in many cases but not in all cases. The US program of recruitment of retired Pakistani military officers and bolstering the presence of private security firms is far larger than just the task of protection of US buildings in Pakistan.
Since the Pakistani military and Pakistan’s intelligence agencies remain on Washington’s target list, retired military officers can provide a valuable insight and access into the inner side of the Pakistani military. US diplomats and others directly seeking this type of insight would alert Pakistani security authorities. But not if the same is done using retired Pakistani officers.
The case of a former Pakistani special operations officer Captain Ali Zaidi must send alarm bells ringing within the Pakistani national security community.
Capt. Zaidi’s Inter-Risk security firm was the Pakistani face for US defense contractor DynCorp, which provides defense-related maintenance and supply services to US military bases worldwide. But in Pakistan, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, DynCorp was helping Washington create private security militias, or mercenaries in real terms, with proper military training and access to advanced weapons.
This is tantamount to creating an indirect US military presence inside Pakistani cities. The alarming part is the Zaidi and DynCorp had created an elaborate physical setup right in the heart of Pakistan to train recruited Pakistanis. Using his connections within the Pakistani civilian and military bureaucracy, Mr. Zaidi is suspected of smuggling advanced weapons into the country to be used by the Americans and their hired recruits. As a legal, cover, the US Embassy in Islamabad told Pakistani authorities that Zaidi/DynCorp were providing security services to US diplomats.
Pakistani newspaper The Nation broke the story on Sept. 29, with hard evidence, including photographs of an elaborate building on the outskirts of the Pakistani federal capital that was acting as a military training facility for the Pakistani recruits. The facility was camouflaged as a car repair workshop.
The activities of Mr. Zaidi and the US defense contractor DynCorp were obviously being protected by individuals at high levels of the Pakistani government. In fact, US Ambassador Anne Patterson personally intervened earlier this year with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik seeking licenses for Mr. Zaidi and DynCorp to operate in entire territory of Pakistan. This is why Mr. Zaidi managed to stay away from Pakistani investigators thanks to a bail. But The Nation reports today that the court has cancelled his bail and that he has been arrested yesterday, which is an indication of how seriously Pakistani authorities are taking this case. [continued below]
[On Sept. 30, Mr. Ansar Abbasi of The News published the full content of a letter written by Ambassador Patterson to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, dated March 30, seeking his "intervention" to grant Inter-Risk and DynCorp "the requisite prohibited bore arms licenses to operate in the territorial limits of Pakistan and as soon as possible."
The letter creates a new dent in the US embassy's counteroffensive that seeks to downplay the presence of private US security firms in the country. A Web news portal, PakNationalists/AhmedQuraishi.com released fresh evidence this month showing the infamous US security firm formerly known as Blackwater recruiting military-trained agents fluent in Urdu and Punjabi.]
[The Americans are looking for ambitious risk-takers such as Mr. Zaidi. For more information on how this retired officer describes himself, see his own brief biography posted at a Pakistani news website that introduces him as an 'investigative editor'.]
HIRING ACADEMICS/MEDIA COMMENTATORS
Retired Pakistani military officers are not the only people being hired by the Americans in Pakistan to spy on their own country. Washington’s military and intelligence has also hired the services of a handful of Pakistani academics and media commentators. These civilian recruits are longtime critics of their own country and its national interest. The Americans are using them to present a Pakistani face to what essentially are American plans for Pakistan. These academics/commentators also provide occasional input into US plans and Washington uses them to sell these ideas and plans to the US public as something that the Pakistanis people themselves are demanding.
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