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Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial of five ex-employees, set for next month. Lashing back at his critics, the wealthy former navy seal takes the author inside his operation in the U.S. and Afghanistan, revealing the role he's been playing in America's war on terror.

By Adam Ciralsky

Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater security firm (recently renamed Xe), at the company's Virginia offices. Photograph by Nigel Parry.

I put myself and my company at the C.I.A.'s disposal for some very risky missions,” says Erik Prince as he surveys his heavily fortified, 7,000-acre compound in rural Moyock, North Carolina. “But when it became politically expedient to do so, someone threw me under the bus.” Prince-the founder of Blackwater, the world's most notorious private military contractor-is royally steamed. He wants to vent. And he wants you to hear him vent.

Erik Prince has an image problem-the kind that's impervious to a Madison Avenue makeover. The 40-year-old heir to a Michigan auto-parts fortune, and a former navy seal , he has had the distinction of being vilified recently both in life and in art. In Washington, Prince has become a scapegoat for some of the Bush administration's misadventures in Iraq-though Blackwater's own deeds have also come in for withering criticism. Congressmen and lawyers, human-rights groups and pundits, have described Prince as a war profiteer, one who has assembled a rogue fighting force capable of toppling governments. His employees have been repeatedly accused of using excessive, even deadly force in Iraq; many Iraqis, in fact, have died during encounters with Blackwater. And in November, as a North Carolina grand jury was considering a raft of charges against the company, as a half-dozen civil suits were brewing in Virginia, and as five former Blackwater staffers were preparing for trial for their roles in the deaths of 17 Iraqis, The New York Times reported in a page-one story that Prince's firm, in the aftermath of the tragedy, had sought to bribe Iraqi officials for their compliance, charges which Prince calls “lies … undocumented, unsubstantiated anonymous.” (So infamous is the Blackwater brand that even the Taliban have floated far-fetched conspiracy theories, accusing the company of engaging in suicide bombings in Pakistan.)

In Hollywood, meanwhile, a town that loves nothing so much as a good villain, Prince, with his blond crop and Daniel Craig mien, has become the screenwriters' darling. In the film State of Play, a Blackwater clone (PointCorp.) uses its network of mercenaries for illegal surveillance and murder. On the Fox series 24, Jon Voight has played Jonas Hodges, a thinly veiled version of Prince, whose company (Starkwood) helps an African warlord procure nerve gas for use against U.S. targets.

But the truth about Prince may be orders of magnitude stranger than fiction. For the past six years, he appears to have led an astonishing double life. Publicly, he has served as Blackwater's C.E.O. and chairman. Privately, and secretly, he has been doing the C.I.A.'s bidding, helping to craft, fund, and execute operations ranging from inserting personnel into “denied areas”-places U.S. intelligence has trouble penetrating-to assembling hit teams targeting al-Qaeda members and their allies. Prince, according to sources with knowledge of his activities, has been working as a C.I.A. asset: in a word, as a spy. While his company was busy gleaning more than $1.5 billion in government contracts between 2001 and 2009-by acting, among other things, as an overseas Praetorian guard for C.I.A. and State Department officials-Prince became a Mr. Fix-It in the war on terror. His access to paramilitary forces, weapons, and aircraft, and his indefatigable ambition-the very attributes that have galvanized his critics-also made him extremely valuable, some say, to U.S. intelligence. (Full disclosure: In the 1990s, before becoming a journalist for CBS and then NBC News, I was a C.I.A. attorney. My contract was not renewed, under contentious circumstances.)

But Prince, with a new administration in power, and foes closing in, is finally coming in from the cold. This past fall, though he infrequently grants interviews, he decided it was time to tell his side of the story-to respond to the array of accusations, to reveal exactly what he has been doing in the shadows of the U.S. government, and to present his rationale. He also hoped to convey why he's going to walk away from it all.

To that end, he invited Vanity Fair to his training camp in North Carolina, to his Virginia offices, and to his Afghan outposts. It seemed like a propitious time to tag along.

Split Personality

Erik Prince can be a difficult man to wrap your mind around-an amalgam of contradictory caricatures. He has been branded a “Christian supremacist” who sanctions the murder of Iraqi civilians, yet he has built mosques at his overseas bases and supports a Muslim orphanage in Afghanistan. He and his family have long backed conservative causes, funded right-wing political candidates, and befriended evangelicals, but he calls himself a libertarian and is a practicing Roman Catholic. Sometimes considered arrogant and reclusive-Howard Hughes without the O.C.D.-he nonetheless enters competitions that combine mountain-biking, beach running, ocean kayaking, and rappelling.

The common denominator is a relentless intensity that seems to have no Off switch. Seated in the back of a Boeing 777 en route to Afghanistan, Prince leafs through Defense News while the film Taken beams from the in-flight entertainment system. In the movie, Liam Neeson plays a retired C.I.A. officer who mounts an aggressive rescue effort after his daughter is kidnapped in Paris. Neeson's character warns his daughter's captors:

If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills … skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now … I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

Prince comments, “I used that movie as a teaching tool for my girls.” (The father of seven, Prince remarried after his first wife died of cancer in 2003.) “I wanted them to understand the dangers out there. And I wanted them to know how I would respond.”

You can't escape the impression that Prince sees himself as somehow destined, his mission anointed. It comes out even in the most personal of stories. During the flight, he tells of being in Kabul in September 2008 and receiving a two a.m. call from his wife, Joanna. Prince's son Charlie, one year old at the time, had fallen into the family swimming pool. Charlie's brother Christian, then 12, pulled him out of the water, purple and motionless, and successfully performed CPR. Christian and three siblings, it turns out, had recently received Red Cross certification at the Blackwater training camp.

But there are intimations of a higher power at work as the story continues. Desperate to get home, Prince scrapped one itinerary, which called for a stay-over at the Marriott in Islamabad, and found a direct flight. That night, at the time Prince would have been checking in, terrorists struck the hotel with a truck bomb, killing more than 50. Prince says simply, “Christian saved Charlie's life and Charlie saved mine.” At times, his sense of his own place in history can border on the evangelical. When pressed about suggestions that he's a mercenary-a term he loathes-he rattles off the names of other freelance military figures, even citing Lafayette, the colonists' ally during the Revolutionary War.

Prince's default mode is one of readiness. He is clenched-jawed and tightly wound. He cannot stand down. Waiting in the security line at Dulles airport just hours before, Prince had delivered a little homily: “Every time an American goes through security, I want them to pause for a moment and think, What is my government doing to inconvenience the terrorists? Rendition teams, Predator drones, assassination squads. That's all part of it.”

Such brazenness is not lost on a listener, nor is the fact that Prince himself is quite familiar with some of these tactics. In fact Prince, like other contractors, has drawn fire for running a company that some call a “body shop”-many of its staffers having departed military or intelligence posts to take similar jobs at much higher salaries, paid mainly by Uncle Sam. And to get those jobs done-protecting, defending, and killing, if required-Prince has had to employ the services of some decorated vets as well as some ruthless types, snipers and spies among them.

Erik Prince flies coach internationally. It's not just economical (“Why should I pay for business? Fly coach, you arrive at the same time”) but also less likely to draw undue attention. He considers himself a marked man. Prince describes the diplomats and dignitaries Blackwater protects as “Al Jazeera-worthy,” meaning that, in his view, “bin Laden and his acolytes would love to kill them in a spectacular fashion and have it broadcast on televisions worldwide.”

Stepping off the plane at Kabul's international airport, Prince is treated as if he, too, were Al Jazeera-worthy. He is immediately shuffled into a waiting car and driven 50 yards to a second vehicle, a beat-up minivan that is native to the core: animal pelts on the dashboard, prayer card dangling from the rearview mirror. Blackwater's special-projects team is responsible for Prince's security in-country, and except for their language its men appear indistinguishable from Afghans. They have full beards, headscarves, and traditional knee-length shirts over baggy trousers. They remove Prince's sunglasses, fit him out with body armor, and have him change into Afghan garb. Prince is issued a homing beacon that will track his movements, and a cell phone with its speed dial programmed for Blackwater's tactical-operations center.

Prince in the tactical-operations center at a company base in Kabul. Photograph by Adam Ferguson.

Once in the van, Prince's team gives him a security briefing. Using satellite photos of the area, they review the route to Blackwater's compound and point out where weapons and ammunition are stored inside the vehicle. The men warn him that in the event that they are incapacitated or killed in an ambush Prince should assume control of the weapons and push the red button near the emergency brake, which will send out a silent alarm and call in reinforcements.

Black Hawks and Zeppelins

Blackwater's origins were humble, bordering on the primordial. The company took form in the dismal peat bogs of Moyock, North Carolina-not exactly a hotbed of the defense-contracting world.

In 1995, Prince's father, Edgar, died of a heart attack (the Evangelical James C. Dobson, founder of the socially conservative Focus on the Family, delivered the eulogy at the funeral). Edgar Prince left behind a vibrant auto-parts manufacturing business in Holland, Michigan, with 4,500 employees and a line of products ranging from a lighted sun visor to a programmable garage-door opener. At the time, 25-year-old Erik was serving as a navy seal (he saw service in Haiti, the Middle East, and Bosnia), and neither he nor his sisters were in a position to take over the business. They sold Prince Automotive for $1.35 billion.

Erik Prince and some of his navy friends, it so happens, had been kicking around the idea of opening a full-service training compound to replace the usual patchwork of such facilities. In 1996, Prince took an honorable discharge and began buying up land in North Carolina. “The idea was not to be a defense contractor per se,” Prince says, touring the grounds of what looks and feels like a Disneyland for alpha males. “I just wanted a first-rate training facility for law enforcement, the military, and, in particular, the special-operations community.”

Business was slow. The navy seal s came early-January 1998-but they didn't come often, and by the time the Blackwater Lodge and Training Center officially opened, that May, Prince's friends and advisers thought he was throwing good money after bad. “A lot of people said, 'This is a rich kid's hunting lodge,'” Prince explains. “They could not figure out what I was doing.”

Today, the site is the flagship for a network of facilities that train some 30,000 attendees a year. Prince, who owns an unmanned, zeppelin-esque airship and spent $45 million to build a fleet of customized, bomb-proof armored personnel carriers, often commutes to the lodge by air, piloting a Cessna Caravan from his home in Virginia. The training center has a private landing strip. Its hangars shelter a petting zoo of aircraft: Bell 412 helicopters (used to tail or shuttle diplomats in Iraq), Black Hawk helicopters (currently being modified to accommodate the security requests of a Gulf State client), a Dash 8 airplane (the type that ferries troops in Afghanistan). Amid the 52 firing ranges are virtual villages designed for addressing every conceivable real-world threat: small town squares, littered with blown-up cars, are situated near railway crossings and maritime mock-ups. At one junction, swat teams fire handguns, sniper rifles, and shotguns; at another, police officers tear around the world's longest tactical-driving track, dodging simulated roadside bombs.

Blackwater outpost near the Pakistan border, used for training Afghan police. Photograph by Adam Ferguson.

In keeping with the company's original name, the central complex, constructed of stone, glass, concrete, and logs, actually resembles a lodge, an REI store on steroids. Here and there are distinctive touches, such as door handles crafted from imitation gun barrels. Where other companies might have Us Weekly lying about the lobby, Blackwater has counterterror magazines with cover stories such as “How to Destroy Al Qaeda.”

In fact, it was al-Qaeda that put Blackwater on the map. In the aftermath of the group's October 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, in Yemen, the navy turned to Prince, among others, for help in re-training its sailors to fend off attackers at close range. (To date, the company says, it has put some 125,000 navy personnel through its programs.) In addition to providing a cash infusion, the navy contract helped Blackwater build a database of retired military men-many of them special-forces veterans-who could be called upon to serve as instructors.

When al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. mainland on 9/11, Prince says, he was struck with the urge to either re-enlist or join the C.I.A. He says he actually applied. “I was rejected,” he admits, grinning at the irony of courting the very agency that would later woo him. “They said I didn't have enough hard skills, enough time in the field.” Undeterred, he decided to turn his Rolodex into a roll call for what would in essence become a private army.

After the terror attacks, Prince's company toiled, even reveled, in relative obscurity, taking on assignments in Afghanistan and, after the U.S. invasion, in Iraq. Then came March 31, 2004. That was the day insurgents ambushed four of its employees in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. The men were shot, their bodies set on fire by a mob. The charred, hacked-up remains of two of them were left hanging from a bridge over the Euphrates.

“It was absolutely gut-wrenching,” Prince recalls. “I had been in the military, and no one under my command had ever died. At Blackwater, we had never even had a firearms training accident. Now all of a sudden four of my guys aren't just killed, but desecrated.” Three months later an edict from coalition authorities in Baghdad declared private contractors immune from Iraqi law.

Subsequently, the contractors' families sued Blackwater, contending the company had failed to protect their loved ones. Blackwater countersued the families for breaching contracts that forbid the men or their estates from filing such lawsuits; the company also claimed that, because it operates as an extension of the military, it cannot be held responsible for deaths in a war zone. (After five years, the case remains unresolved.) In 2007, a congressional investigation into the incident concluded that the employees had been sent into an insurgent stronghold “without sufficient preparation, resources, and support.” Blackwater called the report a “one-sided” version of a “tragic incident.”

After Fallujah, Blackwater became a household name. Its primary mission in Iraq had been to protect American dignitaries, and it did so, in part, by projecting an image of invincibility, sending heavily armed men in armored Suburbans racing through the streets of Baghdad with sirens blaring. The show of swagger and firepower, which alienated both the locals and the U.S. military, helped contribute to the allegations of excessive force. As the war dragged on, charges against the firm mounted. In one case, a contractor shot and killed an Iraqi father of six who was standing along the roadside in Hillah. (Prince later told Congress that the contractor was fired for trying to cover up the incident.) In another, a Blackwater firearms technician was accused of drinking too much at a party in the Green Zone and killing a bodyguard assigned to protect Iraq's vice president. The technician was fired but not prosecuted and later settled a wrongful-death suit with the man's family.

Those episodes, however, paled in comparison with the events of September 16, 2007, when a phalanx of Blackwater bodyguards emerged from their four-car convoy at a Baghdad intersection called Nisour Square and opened fire. When the smoke cleared, 17 Iraqi civilians lay dead. After 15 months of investigation, the Justice Department charged six with voluntary manslaughter and other offenses, insisting that the use of force was not only unjustified but unprovoked. One guard pleaded guilty and, in a trial set for February, is expected to testify against the others, all of whom maintain their innocence. The New York Times recently reported that in the wake of the shootings the company's top executives authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi higher-ups in order to buy their silence-a claim Prince dismisses as “false,” insisting “[there was] zero plan or discussion of bribing any officials.”

Nisour Square had disastrous repercussions for Blackwater. Its role in Iraq was curtailed, its revenue dropping 40 percent. Today, Prince claims, he is shelling out $2 million a month in legal fees to cope with a spate of civil lawsuits as well as what he calls a “giant proctological exam” by nearly a dozen federal agencies. “We used to spend money on R&D to develop better capabilities to serve the U.S. government,” says Prince. “Now we pay lawyers.”

Does he ever. In North Carolina, a federal grand jury is investigating various allegations, including the illegal transport of assault weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in dog-food sacks. (Blackwater denied this, but confirmed hiding weapons on pallets of dog food to protect against theft by “corrupt foreign customs agents.”) In Virginia, two ex-employees have filed affidavits claiming that Prince and Blackwater may have murdered or ordered the murder of people suspected of cooperating with U.S. authorities investigating the company-charges which Blackwater has characterized as “scandalous and baseless.” One of the men also asserted in filings that company employees ran a sex and wife-swapping ring, allegations which Blackwater has called “anonymous, unsubstantiated and offensive.”

Meanwhile, last February, Prince mounted an expensive rebranding campaign. Following the infamous ValuJet crash, in 1996, ValuJet disappeared into AirTran, after a merger, and moved on to a happy new life. Prince, likewise, decided to retire the Blackwater name and replace it with the name Xe, short for Xenon-an inert, non-combustible gas that, in keeping with his political leanings, sits on the far right of the periodic table. Still, Prince and other top company officials continued to use the name Blackwater among themselves. And as events would soon prove, the company's reputation would remain as combustible as ever.

Prince at a Kandahar airfield. Photograph Adam Ferguson.

Spies and Whispers

Last June, C.I.A. director Leon Panetta met in a closed session with the House and Senate intelligence committees to brief them on a covert-action program, which the agency had long concealed from Congress. Panetta explained that he had learned of the existence of the operation only the day before and had promptly shut it down. The reason, C.I.A. spokesman Paul Gimigliano now explains: “It hadn't taken any terrorists off the street.” During the meeting, according to two attendees, Panetta named both Erik Prince and Blackwater as key participants in the program. (When asked to verify this account, Gimigliano notes that “Director Panetta treats as confidential discussions with Congress that take place behind closed doors.”) Soon thereafter, Prince says, he began fielding inquisitive calls from people he characterizes as far outside the circle of trust.

It took three weeks for details, however sketchy, to surface. In July, The Wall Street Journal described the program as “an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives.” The agency reportedly planned to accomplish this task by dispatching small hit teams overseas. Lawmakers, who couldn't exactly quibble with the mission's objective, were in high dudgeon over having been kept in the dark. (Former C.I.A. officials reportedly saw the matter differently, characterizing the program as “more aspirational than operational” and implying that it had never progressed far enough to justify briefing the Hill.)

On August 20, the gloves came off. The New York Times published a story headlined cia sought blackwater's help to kill jihadists. The Washington Post concurred: cia hired firm for assassin program. Prince confesses to feeling betrayed. “I don't understand how a program this sensitive leaks,” he says. “And to 'out' me on top of it?” The next day, the Times went further, revealing Blackwater's role in the use of aerial drones to kill al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders: “At hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan … the company's contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft, work previously performed by employees of the Central Intelligence Agency.”

E rik Prince, almost overnight, had undergone a second rebranding of sorts, this one not of his own making. The war profiteer had become a merchant of death, with a license to kill on the ground and in the air. “I'm an easy target,” he says. “I'm from a Republican family and I own this company outright. Our competitors have nameless, faceless management teams.”

Prince blames Democrats in Congress for the leaks and maintains that there is a double standard at play. “The left complained about how [C.I.A. operative] Valerie Plame's identity was compromised for political reasons. A special prosecutor [was even] appointed. Well, what happened to me was worse. People acting for political reasons disclosed not only the existence of a very sensitive program but my name along with it.” As in the Plame case, though, the leaks prompted C.I.A. attorneys to send a referral to the Justice Department, requesting that a criminal investigation be undertaken to identify those responsible for providing highly classified information to the media.

By focusing so intently on Blackwater, Congress and the press overlooked the elephant in the room. Prince wasn't merely a contractor; he was, insiders say, a full-blown asset. Three sources with direct knowledge of the relationship say that the C.I.A.'s National Resources Division recruited Prince in 2004 to join a secret network of American citizens with special skills or unusual access to targets of interest. As assets go, Prince would have been quite a catch. He had more cash, transport, matériel, and personnel at his disposal than almost anyone Langley would have run in its 62-year history.

The C.I.A. won't comment further on such assertions, but Prince himself is slightly more forthcoming. “I was looking at creating a small, focused capability,” he says, “just like Donovan did years ago”-the reference being to William “Wild Bill” Donovan, who, in World War II, served as the head of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the modern C.I.A. (Prince's youngest son, Charles Donovan-the one who fell into the pool-is named after Wild Bill.) Two sources familiar with the arrangement say that Prince's handlers obtained provisional operational approval from senior management to recruit Prince and later generated a “201 file,” which would have put him on the agency's books as a vetted asset. It's not at all clear who was running whom, since Prince says that, unlike many other assets, he did much of his work on spec, claiming to have used personal funds to road-test the viability of certain operations. “I grew up around the auto industry,” Prince explains. “Customers would say to my dad, 'We have this need.' He would then use his own money to create prototypes to fulfill those needs. He took the 'If you build it, they will come' approach.”

According to two sources familiar with his work, Prince was developing unconventional means of penetrating “hard target” countries-where the C.I.A. has great difficulty working either because there are no stations from which to operate or because local intelligence services have the wherewithal to frustrate the agency's designs. “I made no money whatsoever off this work,” Prince contends. He is unwilling to specify the exact nature of his forays. “I'm painted as this war profiteer by Congress. Meanwhile I'm paying for all sorts of intelligence activities to support American national security, out of my own pocket.” (His pocket is deep: according to The Wall Street Journal, Blackwater had revenues of more than $600 million in 2008.)

Clutch Cargo

The Afghan countryside, from a speeding perch at 200 knots, whizzes by in a khaki haze. The terrain is rendered all the more nondescript by the fact that Erik Prince is riding less than 200 feet above it. The back of the airplane, a small, Spanish-built eads casa C-212, is open, revealing Prince in silhouette against a blue sky. Wearing Oakleys, tactical pants, and a white polo shirt, he looks strikingly boyish.

As the crew chief initiates a countdown sequence, Prince adjusts his harness and moves into position. When the “go” order comes, a young G.I. beside him cuts a tether, and Prince pushes a pallet out the tail chute. Black parachutes deploy and the aircraft lunges forward from the sudden weight differential. The cargo-provisions and munitions-drops inside the perimeter of a forward operating base ( fob ) belonging to an elite Special Forces squad.

A Blackwater aircraft en route to drop supplies to U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan in September. Photograph by Adam Ferguson.

Five days a week, Blackwater's aviation arm-with its unabashedly 60s-spook name, Presidential Airways-flies low-altitude sorties to some of the most remote outposts in Afghanistan. Since 2006, Prince's company has been conscripted to offer this “turnkey” service for U.S. troops, flying thousands of delivery runs. Blackwater also provides security for U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry and his staff, and trains narcotics and Afghan special police units.

Once back on terra firma, Prince, a BlackBerry on one hip and a 9-mm. on the other, does a sweep around one of Blackwater's bases in northeast Afghanistan, pointing out buildings recently hit by mortar fire. As a drone circles overhead, its camera presumably trained on the surroundings, Prince climbs a guard tower and peers down at a spot where two of his contractors were nearly killed last July by an improvised explosive device. “Not counting civilian checkpoints,” he says, “this is the closest base to the border.” His voice takes on a melodramatic solemnity. “Who else has built a fob along the main infiltration route for the Taliban and the last known location for Osama bin Laden?” It doesn't quite have the ring of Lawrence of Arabia's “To Aqaba!,” but you get the picture.

Going “Low-Pro”

Blackwater has been in Afghanistan since 2002. At the time, the C.I.A.'s executive director, A. B. “Buzzy” Krongard, responding to his operatives' complaints of being “worried sick about the Afghans' coming over the fence or opening the doors,” enlisted the company to offer protection for the agency's Kabul station. Going “low-pro,” or low-profile, paid off: not a single C.I.A. employee, according to sources close to the company, died in Afghanistan while under Blackwater's protection. (Talk about a tight-knit bunch. Krongard would later serve as an unpaid adviser to Blackwater's board, until 2007. And his brother Howard “Cookie” Krongard-the State Department's inspector general-had to recuse himself from Blackwater-related oversight matters after his brother's involvement with the company surfaced. Buzzy, in response, stepped down.)

As the agency's confidence in Blackwater grew, so did the company's responsibilities, expanding from static protection to mobile security-shadowing agency personnel, ever wary of suicide bombers, ambushes, and roadside devices, as they moved about the country. By 2005, Blackwater, accustomed to guarding C.I.A. personnel, was starting to look a little bit like the C.I.A. itself. Enrique “Ric” Prado joined Blackwater after serving as chief of operations for the agency's Counterterrorism Center (CTC). A short time later, Prado's boss, J. Cofer Black, the head of the CTC, moved over to Blackwater, too. He was followed, in turn, by his superior, Rob Richer, second-in-command of the C.I.A.'s clandestine service. Of the three, Cofer Black had the outsize reputation. As Bob Woodward recounted in his book Bush at War, on September 13, 2001, Black had promised President Bush that when the C.I.A. was through with al-Qaeda “they will have flies walking across their eyeballs.” According to Woodward, “Black became known in Bush's inner circle as the 'flies-on-the-eyeballs guy.'” Richer and Black soon helped start a new company, Total Intelligence Solutions (which collects data to help businesses assess risks overseas), but in 2008 both men left Blackwater, as did company president Gary Jackson this year.

Off and on, Black and Richer's onetime partner Ric Prado, first with the C.I.A., then as a Blackwater employee, worked quietly with Prince as his vice president of “special programs” to provide the agency with what every intelligence service wants: plausible deniability. Shortly after 9/11, President Bush had issued a “lethal finding,” giving the C.I.A. the go-ahead to kill or capture al-Qaeda members. (Under an executive order issued by President Gerald Ford, it had been illegal since 1976 for U.S. intelligence operatives to conduct assassinations.) As a seasoned case officer, Prado helped implement the order by putting together a small team of “blue-badgers,” as government agents are known. Their job was threefold: find, fix, and finish. Find the designated target, fix the person's routine, and, if necessary, finish him off. When the time came to train the hit squad, the agency, insiders say, turned to Prince. Wary of attracting undue attention, the team practiced not at the company's North Carolina compound but at Prince's own domain, an hour outside Washington, D.C. The property looks like an outpost of the landed gentry, with pastures and horses, but also features less traditional accents, such as an indoor firing range. Once again, Prince has Wild Bill on his mind, observing that “the O.S.S. trained during World War II on a country estate.”

Among the team's targets, according to a source familiar with the program, was Mamoun Darkazanli, an al-Qaeda financier living in Hamburg who had been on the agency's radar for years because of his ties to three of the 9/11 hijackers and to operatives convicted of the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in East Africa. The C.I.A. team supposedly went in “dark,” meaning they did not notify their own station-much less the German government-of their presence; they then followed Darkazanli for weeks and worked through the logistics of how and where they would take him down. Another target, the source says, was A. Q. Khan, the rogue Pakistani scientist who shared nuclear know-how with Iran, Libya, and North Korea. The C.I.A. team supposedly tracked him in Dubai. In both cases, the source insists, the authorities in Washington chose not to pull the trigger. Khan's inclusion on the target list, however, would suggest that the assassination effort was broader than has previously been acknowledged. (Says agency spokesman Gimigliano, ” C.I.A. hasn't discussed-despite some mischaracterizations that have appeared in the public domain-the substance of this effort or earlier ones.”)

The source familiar with the Darkazanli and Khan missions bristles at public comments that current and former C.I.A. officials have made: “They say the program didn't move forward because didn't have the right skill set or because of inadequate cover. That's untrue. [The operation continued] for a very long time in some places without ever being discovered. This program died because of a lack of political will.”

W hen Prado left the C.I.A., in 2004, he effectively took the program with him, after a short hiatus. By that point, according to sources familiar with the plan, Prince was already an agency asset, and the pair had begun working to privatize matters by changing the team's composition from blue-badgers to a combination of “green-badgers” (C.I.A. contractors) and third-country nationals (unaware of the C.I.A. connection). Blackwater officials insist that company resources and manpower were never directly utilized-these were supposedly off-the-books initiatives done on Prince's own dime, for which he was later reimbursed-and that despite their close ties to the C.I.A. neither Cofer Black nor Rob Richer took part. As Prince puts it, “We were building a unilateral, unattributable capability. If it went bad, we weren't expecting the chief of station, the ambassador, or anyone to bail us out.” He insists that, had the team deployed, the agency would have had full operational control. Instead, due to what he calls “institutional osteoporosis,” the second iteration of the assassination program lost steam.

Sometime after 2006, the C.I.A. would take another shot at the program, according to an insider who was familiar with the plan. “Everyone found some reason not to participate,” says the insider. “There was a sick-out. People would say to management, 'I have a family, I have other obligations.' This is the fucking C.I.A. They were supposed to lead the charge after al-Qaeda and they couldn't find the people to do it.” Others with knowledge of the program are far more charitable and question why any right-thinking officer would sign up for an assassination program at a time when their colleagues-who had thought they had legal cover to engage in another sensitive effort, the “enhanced interrogations” program at secret C.I.A. sites in foreign countries-were finding themselves in legal limbo.

America and Erik Prince, it seems, have been slow to extract themselves from the assassination business. Beyond the killer drones flown with Blackwater's help along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border (President Obama has reportedly authorized more than three dozen such hits), Prince claims he and a team of foreign nationals helped find and fix a target in October 2008, then left the finishing to others. “In Syria,” he says, “we did the signals intelligence to geo-locate the bad guys in a very denied area.” Subsequently, a U.S. Special Forces team launched a helicopter-borne assault to hunt down al-Qaeda middleman Abu Ghadiyah. Ghadiyah, whose real name is Badran Turki Hishan Al-Mazidih, was said to have been killed along with six others-though doubts have emerged about whether Ghadiyah was even there that day, as detailed in a recent Vanity Fair Web story by Reese Ehrlich and Peter Coyote.

And up until two months ago-when Prince says the Obama administration pulled the plug-he was still deeply engaged in the dark arts. According to insiders, he was running intelligence-gathering operations from a secret location in the United States, remotely coordinating the movements of spies working undercover in one of the so-called Axis of Evil countries. Their mission: non-disclosable.

Exit Strategy

Flying out of Kabul, Prince does a slow burn, returning to the topic of how exposed he has felt since press accounts revealed his role in the assassination program. The firestorm that began in August has continued to smolder and may indeed have his handlers wondering whether Prince himself is more of a liability than an asset. He says he can't understand why they would shut down certain high-risk, high-payoff collection efforts against some of America's most implacable enemies for fear that his involvement could, given the political climate, result in their compromise.

He is incredulous that U.S. officials seem willing, in effect, to cut off their nose to spite their face. “I've been overtly and covertly serving America since I started in the armed services,” Prince observes. After 12 years building the company, he says he intends to turn it over to its employees and a board, and exit defense contracting altogether. An internal power struggle is said to be under way among those seeking to define the direction and underlying mission of a post-Prince Blackwater.

He insists, simply, “I'm through.”

In the past, Prince has entertained the idea of building a pre-positioning ship-complete with security personnel, doctors, helicopters, medicine, food, and fuel-and stationing it off the coast of Africa to provide “relief with teeth” to the continent's trouble spots or to curb piracy off Somalia. At one point, he considered creating a rapidly deployable brigade that could be farmed out, for a fee, to a foreign government.

For the time being, however, Prince contends that his plans are far more modest. “I'm going to teach high school,” he says, straight-faced. “History and economics. I may even coach wrestling. Hey, Indiana Jones taught school, too.”

On December 7, 2009 four blasts rocked Peshawar, Lahore and Quetta. In the morning at 10 am a suicide bomber came on a rickshaw, killed at least ten people in Peshawar

when he blew himself up near the courthouse located on Jail Road. Then, in the noon explosive laden taxi blasted near government officer residence and caused injuries to the individuals. In Moon Market, Lahore at about 0845 pm 44 individuals killed and 100 injured in blasts. One explosion was in front of a bank and other one was in front of a police station. It is feared the toll may rise further as the site of the market was on fire. The fire engulfed a building and shops. In today’s blasts almost 52 individuals killed and more than 130 inured. It is also notable here that more than 400 people have been killed during a string of attacks mounted by foreign sponsored terrorists and so called Taliban. In recent weeks these militants have targeted Muslims offering their Jumma prayers, children, women, Pakistani troops, girls’ schools and vital installations.

PAKISTAN ACCUSES THE CIA

On 20 November 2009, CIA chief Leon E. Panetta was in Pakistan meeting Pakistan’s spy boss (ISI boss) Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

Reportedly, Pasha told Panetta that CIA officials were assisting the terrorists who were carrying out the terror attacks in Pakistan. (Evidence of CIA involvement in Pakistan.)
“Pakistan on Friday (20 November) expressed its serious concerns over the US Central Intelligence Agency’s interference in the country’s internal matters, including its covert support to some terrorists and the terrorist activities they carried out over the past few weeks or months and presented to the visiting CIA chief some proof in this regard.
“Sources said that during the meeting of CIA chief Leon E. Panetta, who is on an unannounced visit to Pakistan, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha said that CIA officials were assisting the terrorist elements who were carrying out terror attacks on Pakistan and asked him to shun such practices.
“Sources said that ISI chief told him that Pakistani intelligence agencies had incriminating evidence about the CIA officials’ involvement in providing assistance to perpetrators of some terrorist activities within Pakistan, which had negative impact on Pakistan’s efforts towards war on terror.” (Your men helping terrorists, Shuja tells CIA chief)
“In one story, Kayani (Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani) presented Clinton with ‘evidence’ of a conspiracy involving the CIA, Israel’s Mossad and India’s intelligence agency, RAW. According to the story, the three agencies had been responsible for some of the terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds in Pakistani cities.
“In the other, Kayani supposedly told Clinton that Pakistan was aware the U.S. has been talking to the Taliban through the good offices of Saudi King Abdullah and didn’t appreciate it. Indeed, Kayani did dispatch his ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha, to Riyadh to meet the king.” (Power struggle threatens Pakistan’s leader )

GLADIO IN PAKISTAN?
In April 2009, Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said Pakistan was a greater threat to his country than Iran

There seems to be a Gladio-style operation going on in Pakistan.

On 4 December 2009, in Rawalpindi in Pakistan, forty two people were killed, including 17 children, in a terror attack at a mosque.

The attack took place during Friday prayers.

Six to seven gunmen entered the mosque.

They threw hand grenades and then began indiscriminate firing.

(Rawalpindi mosque suicide attack toll mounts to 40 …)

This looks like a CIA-NATO operation.

(aangirfan: Gladio-style terror in Istanbul, New York, Jakarta … / aangirfan: TOP US OFFICIALS REPORTEDLY INVOLVED IN GANGSTERISM …)

More than 400 Pakistanis have died since early October 2009.

“You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game,” stated Gladio operative Vincezo Vinciguerra. (Vincenzo Vinciguerra – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia / NATO’s secret armies linked to terrorism?)

On 4 December, at Online Journal, Jerry Mazza wrote an article entitled “Instead of disengaging from Afghanistan, Obama escalates war“

The Pakistan Taliban will be blamed for the terror attacks.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI together created the Taliban.
“The ISI and CIA created them together,” Zardari told the NBC news channel in an interview.
(informationliberation – CIA and ISI together created Taliban, says …)
“For years the US mysteriously refused to kill former Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud via remote drone despite being offered his precise location by Pakistani intelligence authorities.” (Pakistan’s conspiracy cottage industry)

Novus Ordo Seclorum Watch, Trend Alerts, Breaking News, Investigations, Global Crises, Project 2012, Greatest Depression, Global Wars and Nuclear War Preparations

Operation Gladio-style War Against Pakistan 2009 December 8

“Sources said that ISI chief told him that Pakistani intelligence agencies had incriminating evidence about the CIA officials’ involvement in providing assistance to perpetrators of some terrorist activities within Pakistan, which had negative impact on Pakistan’s efforts towards war on terror.” (Your men helping terrorists, Shuja tells CIA chief)
“In one story, Kayani (Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani) presented Clinton with ‘evidence’ of a conspiracy involving the CIA, Israel’s Mossad and India’s intelligence agency, RAW. According to the story, the three agencies had been responsible for some of the terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds in Pakistani cities.
“In the other, Kayani supposedly told Clinton that Pakistan was aware the U.S. has been talking to the Taliban through the good offices of Saudi King Abdullah and didn’t appreciate it. Indeed, Kayani did dispatch his ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha, to Riyadh to meet the king.” (Power struggle threatens Pakistan’s leader )

The attack took place during Friday prayers.

Six to seven gunmen entered the mosque.

They threw hand grenades and then began indiscriminate firing.

(Rawalpindi mosque suicide attack toll mounts to 40 …)

This looks like a CIA-NATO operation.

(aangirfan: Gladio-style terror in Istanbul, New York, Jakarta … / aangirfan: TOP US OFFICIALS REPORTEDLY INVOLVED IN GANGSTERISM …)

More than 400 Pakistanis have died since early October 2009.

On 4 December, at Online Journal, Jerry Mazza wrote an article entitled “Instead of disengaging from Afghanistan, Obama escalates war“

Mazza writes:

“Our soldiers are not there, the Afghans and Pakistanis should know, as occupiers but as helpers, and to help ourselves to the dope, the oil, the pipelines and the money, not to mention keeping a path through Pakistan to China for the black gold to flow.”

Apparently the Pakistan Taliban are armed with US weapons.
(aangirfan: PAKISTAN TALIBAN ARMED WITH WEAPONS FROM USA, GERMANY …)
Apparently the US owns a lot of top Pakistanis.
US Security Firm Bribes Pakistani Officials, Top Interior Ministry Officer Arrested

US officials have said that the CIA had routinely brought ISI operatives to a secret training facility in North Carolina. (‘No smoking gun linking command to militants’ )
Some of the bombers “have acknowledged that they have been trained by Israeli and Indian intelligences agencies in the camps located in Afghanistan.” (:. Terrorism against Islam – Rawalpindi Blast)
On 5 November 2009, The Nation (Pakistan) referred to Journalists as spies in FATA (part of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan)?.
Agents of notorious spy agencies are using journalistic cover to engage themselves in intelligence activities in NWFP and FATA (parts of Pakistan), sources informed TheNation….

Matthew Rosenberg, South Asian correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, has been spotted travelling frequently between Washington, Islamabad, Peshawar and New Delhi during the last couple of months….

The sources alleged that … Matthew (had been given) secret documents regarding the Pak Army and sensitive information regarding ongoing operation against militants…

According to an official of a law enforcement agency, who requested anonymity, Matthew was working as chief operative of the CIA and Blackwater in Peshawar. The law enforcement agencies, he said, had also traced Matthew’s links with Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad as well.

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Operation Gladio-style War Against Pakistan
2009 December 8
tags: 9/11, Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, America, Barack Obama, China, CIA, Gladio, India, Iraq, ISI, Israel, Karzai, Lahore, Moon Market, Mossad, NATO, Operation Gladio, Pakistan, Peshawar, Project 2012, Quetta, RAW, Taliban, terrorism, United States, USA, war on terror, Zardari, Zionist

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Lahore blasts 42 killed, 135 injured in Moon Market twin blastsOn December 7, 2009 four blasts rocked Peshawar, Lahore and Quetta. In the morning at 10 am a suicide bomber came on a rickshaw, killed at least ten people in Peshawar when he blew himself up near the courthouse located on Jail Road. Then, in the noon explosive laden taxi blasted near government officer residence and caused injuries to the individuals. In Moon Market, Lahore at about 0845 pm 44 individuals killed and 100 injured in blasts. One explosion was in front of a bank and other one was in front of a police station. It is feared the toll may rise further as the site of the market was on fire. The fire engulfed a building and shops. In today’s blasts almost 52 individuals killed and more than 130 inured. It is also notable here that more than 400 people have been killed during a string of attacks mounted by foreign sponsored terrorists and so called Taliban. In recent weeks these militants have targeted Muslims offering their Jumma prayers, children, women, Pakistani troops, girls’ schools and vital installations.

According to the BBC, “on Christmas Day 2007, the Afghan government said it was expelling two high level diplomats, one a British UN political affairs expert, the other, an Irishman and the acting head of the European Union mission.” (BBC NEWS ‘Great Game’ or just misunderstanding?)

According to the Independent: “Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan.” (Revealed: British plan to build training camp for Taliban fighters …)

A post at this site Cached tells us of the British government link to the terror in Pakistan.

In 2007 Pakistani Intelligence traced the source of much of terror in Pakistan to a ‘terrorist’ camp in Helmand province in Afghanistan.

The camp was run by Michael Semple and Mervyn Patterson.

Both of these British spooks were ostensibly working with humanitarian organizations.

Following extraordinary intelligence work by ISI, Karzai of Afghanistan and high officials in the Musharraf government exchanged visits which eventually resulted in the arrest and expulsion of Patterson and Semple from Afghanistan.

In December of 2007 Guardian and Independent published stories that were clearly designed to muddle the facts and divert attention away from the real story.

The real story was that these training camps were to create the Pakistan Taliban or Tehreek-e Taliban-e Pakistan (TMP); but why?

If the Taliban were to take over some areas in Pakistan and a part of the capital, then this would provide a sufficient basis for the US to bomb Pakistani nuclear installations and cease their nuclear weapons.

There were serious war plans and military exercises conducted by US forces for this scenario.

British India (www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/india/haxbrindia.html)

On 19 October 2009, it was treported that the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) leaders were being evacuated by mysterious airlifts

“Mysterious airlifting of some Taliban elements from areas of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border linking Waziristan have been reported by several sources and fears are growing that anti-Pakistan TTP terrorists are also being rescued by their “foreign allies” from across the border.

“The unexplained movements of “un-marked” helicopters and aircraft have been reported since the last few days along the Pak-Afghan border and one source claimed that they were being transported to the Eastern Afghanistan.

“Some experts believe that secret allies of the friendly-Talibans took the action in order to secure the militants from an assault in South Waziristan by Pakistani Armed Forces while others believe the secret evacuation was part of a larger deal between some Western States and “good Taliban.”

“The airlifting and evacuation of TTP leaders from South Waziristan coincided with a report by foreign news media or a similar mysterious evacuation of “militants” from South Afghanistan to North Afghanistan.

“An Iranian news site on October 18 reported that the “British Army has been relocating Taliban insurgents from southern Afghanistan to the north by providing transportation means.”

“Quoting diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Iranian site claimed that insurgents are being airlifted from the southern province of Helmand to the north amid increasing violence in the northern parts of the country.

“The PressTV.com also claimed that “the aircraft used for the transfer have been identified as British Chinook helicopters.”

“The report suggested that the secret operation was being launched under the supervision of Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, who “was still operating under the British guidance.”

“Last week Afghanistan’s Pajhwok news agency reported that “US ambassador scotched speculation that his country was helping terrorists in the north, saying America had nothing to do with the air-dropping of armed men from helicopters in Samangan, Baghlan and Kunduz provinces.”

“At an October 11 news conference in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai had himself claimed that “some unidentified helicopters dropped armed men in the northern provinces at night.”

“According to a Pajhowk news report President Karzai revealed “the government had been receiving evidence of the air-dropping of gunmen from mysterious helicopters in the provinces over the last five months.”

“A comprehensive investigation is underway to determine which country the helicopters belong to; why armed men are being infiltrated into the region; and whether increasing insecurity in the north is linked to it.” http://www.pakobserver.net/200910/19/news/topstories16.asp

Mehsud, used by the CIA to get US troops into Pakistan?
Baithullah Mehsud, a ‘deceased’ tribal leader in Pakistan, may have links to the CIA. (Winter Patriot: Is Pakistan’s “Public Enemy Number One” A CIA Asset ?. )

Des militants pakistanais repoussé bénévoles US officiel dit-Qaida groupe lié à Al Méfiez-vous de l'absence des Américains de références NBC Nouvelles et nouvelles servicesupdated 12h01 HE, jeu., Dec. 10, 2009fonction UpdateTimeStamp (PDT)var n = document.getElementById ( "udtD");if (pdt! =''& & & & n window.DateTime)var dt = new DateTime ();PDT = dt.T2D (PDT);if (dt.GetTZ (PDT)) = n.innerHTML dt.D2S (PDT, (( 'false'. toLowerCase ()==' false ')? false: true));UpdateTimeStamp ('633960612600600000 '); Sargodha, Pakistan – Cinq musulmans américains ont arrêté au Pakistan avait demandé à deux organisations extrémistes de formation pour combattre les troupes américaines, mais ont été rejetées parce qu'elles ne se réfère pas des militants de confiance, un responsable pakistanais a déclaré jeudi. Des responsables américains au Pakistan avait visité les hommes en détention, après leur disparition fin du mois dernier a incité à la recherche frénétique par les amis et la famille et une enquête par des fonctionnaires contre le terrorisme inquiète.

Pakistani militants rebuffed U.S. volunteers

Official says al-Qaida-linked group wary of Americans' lack of references

NBC News and news services

updated 12:01 p.m. ET, Thurs., Dec . 10, 2009

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SARGODHA, Pakistan – Five American Muslims arrested in Pakistan had asked two extremist organizations for training to fight U.S. troops, but were rebuffed because they lacked references from trusted militants, a Pakistani official said Thursday.

U.S. officials in Pakistan had visited the men in custody, after their disappearance late last month prompted a frantic search by friends and family and an investigation by worried counterterrorism officials.

Regional police chief Javed Islam said the men wanted to join militants in Pakistan's tribal area before crossing into Afghanistan and said they met with a banned military organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed in Hyderabad, and with representatives of a related group, Jamat-ud-Dawa, in Lahore.

Another law enforcement official, Usman Anwar, the local police chief in the eastern city of Sargodha, told The Associated Press that the five are “directly connected” to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

“They are proudly saying they are here for jihad” or holy war, Anwar said.

But extremists turned down the Americans because they did not speak Urdu, the national language, and were deemed too Western in demeanor, a Pakistani police official told The New York Times.

The men, who are described as close friends from the Washington suburbs, had contacted a Pakistani militant through YouTube before landing in Pakistan on Nov. 30, The New York Times reported.

A key break in the case came not from federal agents or spies, but parents worried their sons may have made a terrible decision.

Farewell video
The families, based in the Washington area, were particularly concerned after watching what is described as a disturbing farewell video from the young men, showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

“One person appeared in that video and they made references to the ongoing conflict in the world and that young Muslims have to do something,” said Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The video has not been made public.

After the disappearance of the five men in late November, their families, members of the local Muslim community, sought help from CAIR, which put them in touch with the FBI and got them a lawyer.

The missing men range in age from 19 to 25. One, Ramy Zamzam, is a dental student at Washington's Howard University. Pakistani police officer Tahir Gujjar identified the other four as Eman Yasir, Waqar Hasan, Umer Farooq and Khalid Farooq.

The detained U.S. nationals admitted that Khalid Farooq brought them to Pakistan with a promise to help them hold meetings with Pakistani militant leaders, a U.S. intelligence official told NBC News.

The officer said the group traveled to Haiderabad district in Sindh province, and Faisalabad in Punjab.

‘Jihadi training’ effort
In Faisalabad, the Americans held a meeting with local leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammad at which they expressed their desire to visit the tribal areas along the Afghan border and get some militant training.

According to the Pakistani intelligence officer, leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammad were suspicious about their activities and reportedly refused to help the American nationals.

“Their aim was to visit the tribal areas and get jihadi training,” explained the intelligence officer.

He said they were trying to ascertain from the detainees who had brought them to Pakistan and what their plan was after getting militant training in the tribal areas.

“Most probably they wanted to cross into Afghanistan and fight against the U.S.-led occupying forces,” the intelligence officer told NBC News.

The men have not been charged. It was not clear if they had been appointed local lawyers.

The local police chief, Anwar, said officers seized a laptop, jihadi literature and maps of Pakistani cities from the men.

They were arrested Wednesday at a four-bedroom house in Sargodha linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed, Pakistani officers said. Islam said investigators are sharing their findings with FBI officials now in Sargodha.

However, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelshire told NBC News that the FBI delegation was in Islamabad to hold talks with regard to alleged terror plotter Chicagoan David Headley and had nothing “to do with the issue of Sargodha arrests.”

He said “once the identity of those who have been arrested in Sargodha is confirmed, then we will seek consular access from Pakistan government.”

Internet recruitment
On the heels of charges against the Chicago man accused of plotting international terrorism, the case is another worrisome sign that Americans can be recruited within the United States to enlist in terrorist networks.

President Barack Obama declined to talk specifically about the case Thursday, but said, “We have to constantly be mindful that some of these twisted ideologies are available over the Internet.”

Obama, in Oslo, Norway, to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, also praised “the extraordinary contributions of the Muslim-American community, and how they have been woven into the fabric of our nation in a seamless fashion.”

A Muslim leader in the state of Virginia said the five men did not seem to have become militant before they left the U.S.

“From all of our interviews, there was no sign they were outwardly radicalized,” said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik.

Pakistan has many militant groups based in its territory and the U.S. has been pressing the government to crack down on extremism. Al-Qaida and Taliban militants are believed to be hiding in lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

In Washington, a spokeswoman for the FBI's local office said agents have been trying to help find the men.

“We are working with Pakistan authorities to determine their identities and the nature of their business there if indeed these are the students who had gone missing,” said the spokeswoman, Katherine Schweit.

According to officials at CAIR, the five left the country at the end of November without telling their families.

NBC News' Mushtaq Yousafzai and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34358278/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

“It’s very good….Well, it’s not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy (for Israel)”.

Response of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when asked on September 11, 2001 what the attacks meant for U.S.-Israeli relations.

Game theory war-planners rely on mathematical models to anticipate and shape outcomes with staged provocations. For the agent provocateur, the reactions to a provocation—as well as the reactions to those reactions—thereby become predictable within an acceptable range of probabilities.

With ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan poised to expand to Iran and Pakistan, it is time to take a closer look at how conflicts are catalyzed-by way of deception.

When Israeli game theorist Robert J. Aumann received the 2005 Nobel Prize in economic science, he conceded from Jerusalem, “the entire school of thought that we have developed here in Israel” has turned “Israel into the leading authority in this field.” A professor at the Center for the Study of Rationality at Hebrew University, Aumann's Nobel lecture, titled “War and Peace,” expounded on the rationality of war.

With a well-modeled provocation, a target's anticipated reaction can even become a weapon in the aggressor's arsenal. In response to the provocation of 9-11, how difficult was it to foresee that the U.S. would deploy its military to avenge that attack? With U.S. intelligence “fixed” by well-placed insiders around a predetermined goal, how difficult was it to anticipate that the reaction to 9-11 could be redirected to wage war in Iraq?

The emotional component of a provocation plays a key role in game theory warfare. With the nationally televised mass murder of 3,000 people, a state of shock, grief and outrage made it easier for Americans to believe that a known Evil Doer in Iraq was responsible-regardless of the facts.

For false beliefs to displace real facts requires mental preconditioning so that a targeted population can be persuaded to put their faith in fictions. That conditioning enhances the probability of a successful deception. Those who deceived the U.S. to invade Iraq in March 2003 began a decade beforehand to lay the “mental threads” and make the requisite mental associations to advance that agenda.

Notable among those threads was the 1993 publication in Foreign Affairs of a theme-setting article by Harvard University professor Samuel Huntington. By the time his analysis appeared in book-length form in 1996 as The Clash of Civilizations, more than 100 think tanks were prepared to promote it. The result created a widely touted narrative-a thematic storyline-supporting a “clash consensus” five years before 9-11 provided a plausible rationale for war.

Also published in 1996 under the guidance of Richard Perle was A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm (i.e., Israel). A member since 1987 of the U.S. Defense Policy Board, this self-professed Zionist became its chairman in 2001.

As an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Perle's Pentagon advisory post provided a powerful insider position to shape the national security mindset around the removal of Saddam Hussein, a key theme of A Clean Break-released five years before 9-11. That same year Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress at the invitation of Newt Gingrich, the Christian Zionist Speaker of the House.

Murders, books, articles, think tanks and well-placed insiders are common components in a “probabilistic” model deployed by war-planning game theorists. Lawmakers are also a customary ingredient. They provide credibility and a facade of legitimacy-a critical element when inducing a nation to war with phony intelligence fixed around a preset agenda.

That role was eagerly filled by Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, a Jewish Zionist from Connecticut, and Jon Kyl, a Christian Zionist from Arizona, when they co-sponsored the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. By promoting Israel's 1996 agenda for Securing the Realm, their legislation laid yet another mental thread in the public mindset by calling for the ouster of Saddam Hussein-three years before 9-11.

The legislation also appropriated $97 million to promote their agenda. Distracted by mid-term Congressional elections and impeachment proceedings catalyzed by a well-timed presidential affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton signed that Zionist agenda into law in October 1998-4-1/2 years before a U.S.-led invasion removed the Iraqi leader.

After 9-11, McCain and Lieberman became inseparable travel companions and irrepressible advocates for the invasion of Iraq. Striking a presidential pose aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in January 2002, McCain-a son and grandson of admirals-laid another mental thread when he waved an admiral's cap and proclaimed, alongside Lieberman, “On to Baghdad.”

By Way of Deception

The confidence with which this game theory strategy progressed in plain sight could be seen in the behavior of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, another Zionist insider. Four days after 9-11 while in a principals' meeting at Camp David, he proposed that the U.S. invade Iraq. At that time, the intelligence did not point to Iraqi involvement and Osama bin Laden was thought to be hiding in a remote region of Afghanistan.

On that same day, San Diego FBI Special Agent Stephen Butler interrogated Iraqi Munther Ghazal at his home near San Diego to determine if he was funding Mel Rockefeller, an American with whom Ghazal traveled to Baghdad in early 1997. After meeting for several days with a top nuclear physicist with oversight of Iraq's mothballed nuclear weapons program, Rockefeller returned to the U.S. with a practical proposal for removing Saddam Hussein without this war and without triggering an insurgency.

When regional specialists at the U.S. Department of State would not meet with him, he traveled to Ottawa in April 1997 where he met with Middle East specialists in the Canadian government to ensure a written record was made to confirm there was an alternative to war in Iraq-six years before the invasion. Instead of debriefing him, FBI agents sought to discredit him. Though FBI agents interviewed Ghazal many times, they have yet to meet with Mel Rockefeller.

Agent Butler cashed checks and paid rent for the two San Diego-based hijackers who piloted planes into the World Trade Center towers. The same Iman counseling Major Nidal Hassan (with FBI knowledge) before he was transferred to Fort Hood also counseled the San Diego-based hijackers-with FBI knowledge. As of December 1, 2009, no one from the FBI or national security had debriefed Mel Rockefeller-eight years after 9-11.

See: Ft. Hood: “Death By Political Correctness”?

http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9501 and For Hood Tragedy: The Real Story of the Terrorist “Mad Doctor Hasan”

http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9379

When President George H.W. Bush declined to invade Baghdad and remove Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War, Pentagon Under Secretary for Policy Paul Wolfowitz imposed a No-Fly Zone in northern Iraq. By the invasion of March 2003, the Israeli Mossad had agents deployed for a decade in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Intelligence reports of Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda were also traced to Mosul-reports that proved false. Mosul again emerged in November 2004 as a center of the insurgency that destabilized Iraq. That reaction precluded the speedy exit of coalition forces promised in Congressional testimony by senior war-planner Wolfowitz in the lead-up to the invasion.

An Inside Job?

The common pro-Israeli source of the phony intelligence that induced war in Iraq has yet to be acknowledged even though intelligence experts agree that deception on such a scale required a decade to plan, staff, pre-stage, orchestrate and-until now-cover up. The leaders of the 9-11 Commission conceded they were thwarted by Commission members adamantly opposed to hearing testimony on the hijackers' motivation for 9-11: the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

The fictions reported as facts by mainstream media included Iraqi WMD, Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda, Iraqi meetings with Al Qaeda in Prague, Iraqi mobile biological weapons laboratories and Iraqi purchases of “yellowcake” uranium from Niger. Only the last claim was conceded as bogus prior to the invasion.

Only after the war began were the balance of the claims disclosed as false, flawed or outright fabricated. An attempt to punish former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Joe Wilson for his exposure of the phony yellowcake account led to a federal conviction of vice-presidential chief of staff Lewis Libby, another well-placed Zionist insider.

The multi-decade consistency of agent-provocateur fact patterns suggests that this game theory-modeled warfare includes the Israeli provocation that catalyzed the Second Intifada. An intifada is an uprising or, literally, a “shaking off” of an oppressor. The Second Intifada dates from September 2000 when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led an armed march to Jerusalem's Temple Mount-one year before 9-11.

After a year of calm during which Palestinians believed that Israel was sincere about peace, suicide bombings recommenced. As Sharon conceded, his march was meant to demonstrate Israeli control over a site considered holy by Muslims worldwide. In response to this second failed attempt at “shaking off” Israeli domination, Sharon and Netanyahu observed that only when Americans “feel our pain” would they understand the plight of the victimized Israelis.

These Likud Party leaders commented that the requisite empathy (“feel our pain”) would require a weighted body count of 4,500 to 5,000 Americans lost to terrorism-the initial estimate of those who died in the twin towers of the World Trade Center-one year later.

In other words, only with pain could we identify with the Israelis. Does that mean that only with a mass murder could we be induced to respond with our military to advance their agenda? Was the U.S. response mathematically modeled at the Center for the Study of Rationality? Seven months after 9-11, Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech in a U.S. Senate office building where he was introduced by Senators Jon Kyl and Joe Liebermn

American Valkyrie?

When successful, game theory warfare strengthens the agent provocateur while leaving the target discredited and depleted by the anticipated reaction. By game theory standards, 9-11 was a strategic success because the U.S.-by its response-was widely criticized for waging war on false pretenses. Only in hindsight did a deceived public realize that Iraq had nothing to do with that mass murder. However, that invasion had everything to do with “securing the realm.”

Our response (predictably) triggered a deadly insurgency with devastating consequences for Iraqis, the U.S. and a “coalition of the willing” led to war by a successfully duped U.S. From a game theory perspective, that insurgency was a predictable reaction in a nation populated by three long-feuding sects: Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. A violent invasion led by a nation closely allied with Jewish nationalists only further fueled the flames of violence and extremism-another foreseeable outcome.

Until the U.S.-led invasion, peace was maintained by an unsavory dictator and former U.S. ally who was rebranded an Evil Doer in the lead-up to war. As the cost in blood and treasure from our “liberation” of Iraq expanded, the U.S. became overextended militarily, financially and diplomatically.

The sectarian violence unleashed in Iraq is precisely what Messrs. Rockefeller and Ghazal were cautioned against in early 1997 should Saddam Hussein be removed suddenly and violently. The 1.3 million Iraqi deaths from war-related causes exceeds the worst of Saddam Hussein's atrocities. As any competent game theory war-planner knew, the strategic winner in this war was certain to be Tehran as the U.S. neutralized its key foe-and is now urged by Israel to wage war on Iran.

As the U.S.-the primary target of this deception-emerged in the foreground, the agent provocateur faded into the background. But only after catalyzing dynamics that steadily drained the U.S. of credibility, resources and resolve. This “probabilistic” Israeli victory also ensured widespread cynicism, insecurity, distrust and disillusionment along with a steadily declining capacity to defend our real interests.

Meanwhile the American public came under a system of oversight and surveillance packaged and sold as “homeland security.” This ominously titled operation includes rhetorical echoes of a WWII-era “fatherland” featuring a domestic security force completely alien to U.S. traditions. It is not yet clear whether this new agency was established to protect Americans. Or whether it is meant to shield from Americans those responsible for deceiving us to wage their wars.

In January 2003, Secret Service Agent Richard Sierze interrogated Mel Rockefeller at his home in Fresno, California after he sent an email to Florida Governor Jeb Bush. The email said, in effect, that if the governor's brother (President George Bush) did not interview him on a public record prior to invading Iraq, he would do his best to ensure that lawful means were deployed to see the president executed for treason by a firing squad.

When questioned by Sierze, Rockefeller offered to have the agent speak with Dr. Glenn Olds, an adviser to four presidents, his senior adviser since 1994 and a former U.N. Ambassador who assisted him in entering Iraq through Jordon at a time when Americans were prohibited from traveling there. Sierze declined.

He also repeated his intent to see the president executed for treason and insisted that he be charged and taken before a federal magistrate to present evidence that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and that an alternative to war had been available since early 1997. Agent Sierze declined his demand to be arraigned in a U.S. Federal District Court-seven weeks before the invasion.

Agent Sierze should be interviewed to see if, in retrospect, he agrees that-had this advice been followed-the war in Iraq may well have been prevented. To date, no one with line responsibility has interviewed Mel Rockefeller on a public record. Why? The answer to that question would reveal those responsible for this ongoing deception.

The victims of these serial deceptions, including the families of those murdered in November at Fort Hood, may have a wrongful death cause of action against those with line responsibility who aided these operations by failing to engage the Rockefeller record in a timely fashion.

Foreseeable Futures

By manipulating the shared mindset, skilled game theory war-planners can wage wars on multiple fronts with minimal resources. One proven strategy: Pose as an ally of a well-armed nation predisposed to deploy its military in response to a mass murder.

In this case, the result destabilized Iraq while creating (predictable) crises that could be exploited to greater strategic advantage by expanding the conflict to Iran, another Israeli goal announced in A Clean Break-seven years before the invasion of Iraq.

Today's mathematically model-able outcomes undermined U.S. national security by discrediting our leadership, degrading our financial condition and disabling our political will. In game theory terms, this devastation was perfectly predictable-within an acceptable range of probabilities.

Pakistan is primed to emerge as the next battleground for game theory war-planners. When India, an ally of Israel, became the nation honored by the Obama administration's first state dinner, that occasion gave reason for concern due to the dynamics already at work in the background.

See “What Is Israel's Role in the Destabilization of Pakistan?”

http://criminalstate.com/2009/11/what-is-israel's-role-in-the-destabilization-of-pakistan/

In the asymmetry that typifies modern warfare, those who are few in number have no alternative when pursuing an expansionist agenda but to wage their wars by way of deception. To maintain its perceived status as a perennial victim, Israeli aggression must proceed non-transparently. Its only option is to operate with duplicitous means, including leveraging the power of its insider influence to advance an agenda from the shadows.

Thus the strategic necessity that this extremist enclave befriend the U.S.-with the intent to betray that friendship to advance its geopolitical goals. Thus the strategic need to create a relationship of trust with a post-WWII super power-in order to defraud us. How else could Colonial Zionists wage their wars except with our military? How else could Jewish nationalists induce our aggression absent the widely shared belief that Israel is not an aggressor but a victim?

Winning Wars from the Inside Out

Game theory war-planners manipulate the shared mental environment by shaping the perceptions and impressions that become consensus opinions. With a combination of well-timed crises, fixed intelligence and a complicit media, policy-makers can be induced to support a predetermined agenda-not because lawmakers are Evil Doers but because the public mindset has been pre-conditioned to respond to manipulated thoughts, emotions and beliefs.

Without the mass murder of 9-11, would America's credibility be in tatters and its creditworthiness in jeopardy? By steadily displacing facts with false beliefs, those duplicitous few-within-the-few amplify the impact of their deceit. By their steady focus on the mental environment, game theory war-planners can defeat an opponent with vastly superior resources.

Today's intelligence wars are waged in plain sight and under the cover of shared beliefs. By manipulating consensus opinion, psy-ops wars can be won from the inside out by inducing a targeted populace to freely choose the very forces that imperil their freedom.

Thus in the Information Age the disproportionate power wielded by those with outsized influence in media, popular culture, think tanks, academia and politics-domains where Zionist influence is pervasive not only in the U.S. but also in other nations induced to war on false pretenses.

Germany offers a case study in manipulation of the public mindset in plain sight and under the banner of a free press. In 2003, Zionist media mogul Haim Saban acquired the second largest media conglomerate in Germany. Why? As Saban investment banker Steve Rattner explained his client's motivation: “Because Germany is important to Israel.” Or, as Saban concedes: “I have only one issue and that issue is Israel.”

By 2005, Saban had succeeded in electing Angela Merkel as German Chancellor. She quickly became the European Union's most reliable and forceful advocate for Israel. By November 2009, she was prepared to sponsor in Berlin an unprecedented joint session of the German and Israeli governments. Following his political success in Germany, Saban acquired in 2007 a controlling interest in Univision, a Latino-focused network serving the fastest-growing voting bloc in the U.S.

Media manipulation serves as an essential force-multiplier to wage intelligence wars from the periphery or, as with Haim Saban, in plain sight. At the operational core of such psy-ops are game theory war-planners skilled at personality profiling and masterful at anticipating responses to staged provocations and then incorporating those responses into their arsenal.

In the case of Iraq, our (mathematically) foreseeable response to 9-11 led, in practical effect, to Israel's deployment of our military to invade Iraq. For aggressors adept at psy-ops warfare, facts are only an inconvenience to be overcome when waging war by way of deception. Thus the key role played by consensus-shapers featured in mainstream media outlets who focus not on informing the public but on mental conditioning.

For targeted populations dependent on facts and informed consent to protect their freedom and preserve the rule of law, such treachery poses the greatest possible threat. Yet even now many Americans believe that Israel is not an aggressor but a victim and even an ally despite facts confirming a multi-decade pattern of expansionist nationalism and geopolitical deception.

Adhering to an Enemy

The U.S. is far less secure than before 9-11. Tel Aviv clearly intends to continue its serial provocations as evidenced by its ongoing expansion of settlements and its continuing blockade of Gaza. Israel has shown no willingness to negotiate in good faith. With few exceptions, Barack Obama has named as senior advisers either Zionists are those known to be strongly pro-Israeli.

The greatest threat to world peace is not Islam. The most fundamental threat that underlies all others is our “special relationship” with a skilled agent provocateur. Without U.S. support for an enclave of nuclear-armed religious extremists, the common source of this threat could long ago have been identified and steps taken to ensure its containment.

In the same way that lengthy pre-staging was required to induce the U.S. to invade Iraq, a similar strategy is now underway to persuade the U.S. to invade Iran or support an attack by Israel. Pakistan is also now on the agenda of those marketing The Clash narrative with its vision of a perpetual war against “militant Islam.” Similar mental conditioning is again at work, including the high profile branding of the requisite Evil Doer: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinajad.

From its outset, the Zionist enterprise sought supremacy in the Middle East. To date, its alliance with the U.S. has enabled the deployment of American military might in pursuit of goals set by Jewish nationalists more than a half-century before a Christian Zionist U.S. president was induced to extend nation-state recognition. Harry Truman made that fateful decision despite his fears that Israel would become what Zionist lobbyists assured him it would not become-and what it immediately became: a racist and theocratic state.

Only one nation had the means, motive, opportunity and stable nation state intelligence required to take the U.S. to war in the Middle East while making it appear that Islam-not Israel-is the problem. When a long-deceived American public-especially the U.S. military-grasps the common source of this devastating duplicity, the response will shift the geopolitical landscape. The facts suggest that “sympathy for Israel” is not among the probable reactions.

If Barack Obama continues to cater to these extremists, this Nobel peace laureate can rightly be blamed when the next attack features the usual orgy of evidence pointing to a pre-staged Evil Doer. Should another mass murder occur, that incident may well be traceable to the U.S.-Israeli relationship and to the failure of our policy-makers to protect America-and world peace-from this enemy within.

Schneier on Security

A blog covering security and security technology.

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November 23, 2009

Decertifying “Terrorist” Pilots

This article reads like something written by the company's PR team.

When it comes to sleuthing these days, knowing your way within a database is as valued a skill as the classic, Sherlock Holmes-styled powers of detection.

Safe Banking Systems Software proved this very point in a demonstration of its algorithm acumen — one that resulted in a disclosure that convicted terrorists actually maintained working licenses with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

The algorithm seems to be little more than matching up names and other basic info:

It used its algorithm-detection software to sift out uncommon names such as Abdelbaset Ali Elmegrahi, aka the Lockerbie bomber. It found that a number of licensed airmen all had the same P.O. box as their listed address — one that happened to be in Tripoli, Libya. These men all had working FAA certificates. And while the FAA database information investigated didn't contain date-of-birth information, Safe Banking was able to use content on the FAA Website to determine these key details as well, to further gain a positive and clear identification of the men in question.

In any case, they found these three people with pilot's licenses:

Elmegrahi, who had been posted on the FBI Most Wanted list for a decade and was convicted of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103, killing 259 people in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Elmegrahi was an FAA-certified aircraft dispatcher.

Re Tabib, a California resident who was convicted in 2007 for illegally exporting U.S. military aircraft parts — specifically export maintenance kits for F-14 fighter jets — to Iran. Tabib received three FAA licenses after his conviction, qualifying to be a flight instructor, ground instructor and transport pilot.

Myron Tereshchuk, who pleaded guilty to possession of a biological weapon after the FBI caught him with a brew of ricin, explosive powder and other essentials in Maryland in 2004. Tereshchuk was a licensed mechanic and student pilot.

And the article concludes with:

Suffice to say, after the FAA was made aware of these criminal histories, all three men have since been decertified.

Although I'm all for annoying international arms dealers, does anyone know the procedures for FAA decertification? Did the FAA have the legal right to do this, after being “made aware” of some information by a third party?

Of course, they don't talk about all the false positives their system also found. How many innocents were also decertified? And they don't mention the fact that, in the 9/11 attacks, FAA certification wasn't really an issue. “Excuse me, young man. You can't hijack and fly this aircraft. It says right here that the FAA decertified you.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 and is filed under World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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