Former Spy With Agenda Operates a Private C.I.A.

Former Spy With Agenda Operates a Private C.I.A.

www.nytimes.com

Duane R. Clarridge parted company with the Central Intelligence Agency more than two decades ago, but from poolside at his home near San Diego, he still runs a network of spies.

Over the past two years, he has fielded operatives in the mountains of Pakistan and the desert badlands of Afghanistan. Since the United States military cut off his funding in May, he has relied on like-minded private donors to pay his agents...

(visit the link for the full news article)

Clarridge, "driven by the conviction that Washington is bloated with bureaucrats and lawyers who impede American troops in fighting adversaries and that leaders are overly reliant on mercurial allies," believes in rifle diplomacy. In his words, “We’ll intervene whenever we decide it’s in our national security interests to intervene.” “Get used to it, world,” he said. “We’re not going to put up with nonsense.”

The day after Clarridge's merc contract was terminated, he set up a password-protected Web site, afpakfp.com, to communicate with his Merc Army officers, and continue operations without the US government's sanction.

It's scary how private citizens can exploit combat zones' chaos - and manipulate rivalries inside the American government to serve their own interests.

ALSO NOTE: The "outsourcing" of military and intelligence operations has "spawned legally murky clandestine operations."

Bad enough that trillions of dollars of tax payer money went for "outsourcing" to the private Mercenary Military Industry, and set up companies like Clarridge's, but now these guys are rogue, funded by other private citizens. Often at cross-purposes to the national government's agenda.

Surely no one expected a different outcome? Mercenaries are mercenaries. They work for whomever pays them.





www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by soficrow


Sounds to me like he should be running the CIA

Washington is the definition of frustration
... look it up in the dictionary

reply to post by radarloveguy


I dunno rlg. ...A mercenary is a mercenary, and subject to market forces.

What happens when business is slow, the company's future is on the line and the only available work is from the "bad guys"?

Should the merc turn down the job and close his business? Or bite the bullet and take the cash? ...What would a real businessman do? ...What do they do?

Hint: Corporate law is clear: profit must come before all other considerations.

Niice, i didnt think we still had these types of mercanaries for hire and private intel co-ops....

Interesting though that this information was able to be leaked, i am sure just as their government counterparts they would want a certain degree of privacy and anonymity...

Even the government itself may feel threatened by such an organisation or act offensively towards it. Although that is just an observation and opinion but...makes sense to..me at least.

Although i hope this is not the case. The government and / or a or potential civilian agency intent on security, peace-keeping and progress would have the opportunity to work together.. in co-operation.

reply to post by soficrow


Interesting. Thanks for posting.!
I can't wait for the movie to be released....

Interesting.

But not a very good spy network or organization if people have found out what they do, is it?

I would think this publicity would both somehow neutralize their effectiveness and make clients wary of dealing with them out as they might be exposed too.

reply to post by ~Lucidity

...not a very good spy network or organization if people have found out what they do, is it?

Post 9/11, a HUGE for-profit military industry was created with US tax dollars. The businesses are public, but the individual frontline workers are "unknown."

Clarridge was not "outed" - he's the frontman, the CEO. His network remains intact and secret.

Google "private military" for a quick overview. Global Security provides some general, but outdated information:

The demand for private military services is likely to increase. The cases that attract most attention are those where a government employs a private military company to help it in a conflict – as the governments of Sierra Leone and Angola have done. Such cases are in practice rare and are likely to remain so; but we may well see an increase in private contracts for training or logistics. Some of this demand may come from states which cannot afford to keep large military establishments themselves. But demand may also come from developed countries. It is notable for example that the United States has employed private military companies to recruit and manage monitors in the Balkans.

A further source of demand for private military services could be international organisations. The private sector is already active and effective in areas that would once have been seen as the preserve of the military – demining for example. And both the UN and international NGOs employ private companies to provide them with security and logistics support. A strong and reputable private military sector might have a role in enabling the UN to respond more rapidly and more effectively in crises. The cost of employing private military companies for certain functions in UN operations could be much lower than that of national armed forces. Clearly there are many pitfalls in this which need to be considered carefully. There are, for example, important concerns about human rights, sovereignty and accountability which we examine in this paper.

Today’s world is a far cry from the 1960s when private military activity usually meant mercenaries of the rather unsavoury kind involved in post-colonial or neo-colonial conflicts. Such people still exist; and some of them may be present at the lower end of the spectrum of private military companies. One of the reasons for considering the option of a licensing regime is that it may be desirable to distinguish between reputable and disreputable private sector operators, to encourage and support the former while, as far as possible, eliminating the latter.

MPRI was purchased by L3, DynCorp was purchased by CSC, and Vinnell was purchased by Northrup Grumman.

I would think this publicity would both somehow neutralize their effectiveness and make clients wary of dealing with them out as they might be exposed too.

Not at all. In business, any publicity is good publicity. The more people who know about you, the bigger your potential client base.

And again, the criteria for accepting clients is profit, NOT ideology or political or national loyalty.

reply to post by soficrow


Another parasite who has dipped his hand into the proverbial honey pot of security services would be one George Wackenhut. They have sold out, but they still own most private prisons in the US. It gets scary once imprisonment becomes a for profit industry. He was merely a senior FBI agent. Imagine what ex-CIA or ex-NSA spooks could do.

reply to post by soficrow

Sounds almost like the movie Swordfish that starred John Travolta. Damn, that was a good movie. Of course there have been many movies with mercenaries but they are usually portrayed as foreigners. I don't know if it's good or bad because I still have to say I'm a fan of Jack Bauer. If there are truly people out there doing these behind the scenes things that are keeping Americans safe I cheer them on. If they're doing false flag type things than I no longer am cheering. I like to think they're doing good just to ease my own mind.

One simple obvious error in the article.

A spy is always a spy, full stop, no if's or buts and if you think otherwise then i suggest therapy.






edit :

Your in luck.

A Caribbean cruise with former CIA chiefs

There's no such thing as an ex-spy. There are only spies who pretend they have retired. Or so they tell you. But I have yet to meet a retired spy who walked the dog and pruned the roses all day.

Take Bart Bechtel for instance - an ex-CIA operations officer, a specialist in domestic and international terrorism matters and a US Navy veteran with 31 years of espionage and counter-intelligence experience - a spy to his fingertips.

It was Bart Bechtel who decided to organise a seminar for spooks - past, present and future - and their wives, girlfriends and interested parties.

www.bbc.co.uk...

From original source article:

Mr. Clarridge, 78, who was indicted on charges of lying to Congress in the Iran-contra scandal and later pardoned, is described by those who have worked with him as driven by the conviction that Washington is bloated with bureaucrats and lawyers who impede American troops in fighting adversaries and that leaders are overly reliant on mercurial allies.

His dispatches — an amalgam of fact, rumor, analysis and uncorroborated reports — have been sent to military officials who, until last spring at least, found some credible enough to be used in planning strikes against militants in Afghanistan. They are also fed to conservative commentators, including Oliver L. North, a compatriot from the Iran-contra days and now a Fox News analyst, and Brad Thor, an author of military thrillers and a frequent guest of Glenn Beck.

Ah ha! The plot thickens...

I suppose Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Blackwater (Xe) are also included in that nice little circle of neocons.

This is why we are in Afghanistan, The opium production is paying for things like this and the many many trillions of money that got jacked from the pentagon and so on..

Interesting how things seem real clear anymore.. I bet our government is glad our people are a bunch of idiots and dont like to play connect the dots..

And we wonder why everyone hates us...

reply to post by soficrow


And to add another level of conspiracy....

www.abovetopsecret.com...

There is much more to these wars than meets the eye.

reply to post by tristar


Great link, article! Thanks.

...thanks whaaa for your link too.

...and thanks to everyone for paying attention, posting. Will be back.

So, Mr. Clarridge's involvement in the 1980s Iran-Contra foul play. His reputation precedes him. Another case of far right lunacy. Using the "devil's" (Iran) $ for pet projects, like shipping arms southward and drugs northward, to Mexico and the USA. And the "former" CIA VP George Bush's phone number in a pilot's personal phonebook.

Of course what he does is in a gray area, as is stated in the article! People like him root out gray areas like a hog roots for food. Like a corporation carves out loopholes. Like crooked politicians search for donation loopholes. Like shady religious/"non-profit charity" figures fleece their flocks.

Your average good citizen tries to understand, make sense of people like Clarridge and his world, but such good citizens do not see the world through an amoral lens. They truly are shocked that gambling is going on, unlike Mr. Renault.

Originally posted by ThichHeaded
This is why we are in Afghanistan, The opium production is paying for things like this and the many many trillions of money that got jacked from the pentagon and so on..

Interesting how things seem real clear anymore.. I bet our government is glad our people are a bunch of idiots and dont like to play connect the dots..

And we wonder why everyone hates us...

Also the Trans-Afghanistan natural gas pipeline?

Like for the 1980s Central America USA-backed wars, many of the populace follow the dot crumbs thrown out to them by political leaders. "Alien Hordes Massing on [Mexico's] Border" screamed one headline, with great donations thrown back to the Republican party to help keep America safe from the Commies. I personally knew a few far-right thinking GOP members back then who did give their political donations in this fashion. Promote fear and paranoia and the money flows in.

How does one translate the 1950s cry of "Yanqui go home!" into various other languages around the world today?

reply to post by soficrow


The Under Government and NGOs? Thanks for this information. It's a never-ending fascinating passtime to watch these people operate, isn't it?

reply to post by soficrowThats a really interesting article that brings up several issues. An important 1 is how is it possible for Clarridge to have been indicted for lying to Congress over the Iran-Contra scandal & needing to be pardoned by Bush Snr to get him off, but having to resign from the CIA, to be privately contracted to work for the US Govt in the same field?

I wonder if he's being fed to the wolves b/c he's so incompetant that he's a liability to US interests. He did something blatantly illegal in his South American days & was stupid enough to get caught. He was supposed to be helping find a Times reporter captured by the Taliban: 7months later he hadn't & the bloke escaped on his own. He then tried to find an American soldier similarly & has failed. Now he has his sights set on the Karzais. Lets look @that...

Many people seem to assume that only trained intel ops/military can do certain things. I suggest that there are many private individuals that can plan logistics ahead, co-ordinate the activities of trained specialists, organise the timing, prepare for set-backs, think on their feet to respond to changing circumstances @/or goals & still bring the project in on time & budget. For eg, charities working in disaster zones, a long tour of huge rock concerts, big budget action films, etc. The skillset is the same as covert/overt military action/intel ops, its just that the specialists need different skills & equipment.
Having got to the top in Afghanistan, the Karzais have demonstrated this requisit skillset. If its true they're involved in heroin trafficking, they also have plenty of money. What, this dopey bastard Clarridge is going to take them on & somehow not embarrass the USA?

In the meantime, he has a track record of giving info to political pundits that may not be true, but if it is would be highly sensitive.

78yrs old? I'd say a heart attack is entirely plausible...

This situation played out similarly in the War of 1812. "Unofficial" and "non-sanctioned" piracy which is built upon an underground spy network.

I wish this guy all the best! If he needs another agent, I'm always for hire....and very, VERY good at what I do.

Originally posted by radarloveguy
reply to post by soficrow

 

Sounds to me like he should be running the CIA

Washington is the definition of frustration
... look it up in the dictionary

Thats right! A man caught lying to Congress should be in charge of the CIA. Lets face it, everyone hates the US Govt, so the CIA should be making its foreign policy, not the elected members who are at least held somewhat accountable for their actions come election time.

Its obvious. Look at his track record. Fomenting terrorism in South America, garnering the undying love of a whole continent right on your doorstep. Yep, those Latinos sure do love El Gringo dont they? See how helpfully they provide coc aine & heroin for y'all. They only sell oil in Euros to devalue the US$ so that US corps will be more likely to provide jobs for gringos. They only go to Shanghai to negotiate the development of infrastructure b/c they dont want to be a burden to the cash strapped USA, right?
Yep, put him in control. Maybe he'll have enough dirt on the worlds wealthy to propel him into the White House... its happened before. Then there'd be some real change. From where I'm sitting it'd be the change I want.