‘US uses Blackwater for killings in Pak’

At a covert forward operating base run by the US in Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the centre of a secret programme in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaida operatives, The Nation reported on Tuesday.
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, the US magazine said citing a well-placed source within the US intelligence apparatus.
The Blackwater programme, the Nation reported, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency’s director, Leon Panetta, announced he had cancelled in June 2009. The programme puts Blackwater at the epicentre of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the US has not declared war—knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the US and Pakistan.
Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe Services and US Training Center, is accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in a busy Baghdad square in 2007.
A former executive at Blackwater told The Nation that the military intelligence source’s claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabadbased security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the NWFP and elsewhere. This arrangement allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. AGENCIES
Afghanistan verdict few days away
Washington: President Barack Obama held a final strategy session with top aides on whether to send more US troops to Afghanistan and plans to announce his decision within days, the White House said. The session on Monday with vice president Joe Biden, secretary of state Hillary Clinton and defence secretary Robert Gates marked the ninth such meeting. Obama is nearing a decision on whether to add 40,000 troops to an eight-year-old war that began after the September 11 attacks. “After a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and will announce that decision within days,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. REUTERS

Copyrights TimesofIndia Newspaper 25-11-2009