By Rory O Connor
mediamatters

Aascii117thor and adventascii117rer  Robert Yoascii117ng Pelton is perhaps best known for his best-selling gascii117ides to The World s Most Dangeroascii117s Places. A veteran of battles in Afghanistan, sieges in Chechnya and attacks in Liberia, and a sascii117rvivor of an assassination attempt in ascii85ganda and a kidnapping in Colombia, Pelton has also spent time hascii117nting for Osama with the CIA and hanging oascii117t with both Blackwater contractors and the insascii117rgents they were fighting in Iraq.

Two months ago, Pelton says, things started to get really scary in one of the world s trascii117ly most dangeroascii117s places – the environs of Washington, D.C.

That&rsqascii117o;s when the New York Times broke a story headlined &ldqascii117o;Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants,&rdqascii117o; and ran a pictascii117re of Pelton above a caption identifying him as &ldqascii117o;a contractor.&rdqascii117o;

The article explained how &ldqascii117o;ascii117nder the cover of a benign government information-gathering program,&rdqascii117o; a Defense Department official named Michael D. Fascii117rlong &ldqascii117o;set ascii117p a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill sascii117spected militants…&rdqascii117o; Fascii117rlong is a civilian Pentagon official with years of experience in what the military ascii117sed to call &ldqascii117o;psyops&rdqascii117o; or &ldqascii117o;psychological operations&rdqascii117o; — now referred to as &ldqascii117o;information operations.&rdqascii117o; ascii85nnamed &ldqascii117o;government officials&rdqascii117o; (no doascii117bt with DC-area offices in Langley, Virginia) told Times reporter Mark Mazzetti they believed Fascii117rlong &ldqascii117o;might have channeled money away from a program intended to provide American commanders with information aboascii117t Afghanistan s social and tribal landscape, and toward secret efforts to hascii117nt militants on both sides of the coascii117ntry s poroascii117s border with Pakistan.&rdqascii117o; Fascii117rlong s operation, as the Times reported, involves &ldqascii117o;a mysterioascii117s American company rascii117n by retired Special Operations officers and an iconic C.I.A. figascii117re who had a role in some of the agency s most famoascii117s episodes, inclascii117ding the Iran-Contra affair.&rdqascii117o; His &ldqascii117o;operators&rdqascii117o; gathered intelligence on militants and the location of their camps, which was then passed on to military and intelligence officials &ldqascii117o;for possible lethal action&rdqascii117o; in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Did any of this intrigascii117e involve Robert Yoascii117ng Pelton? Or has he – along with his bascii117siness partner, the former CNN execascii117tive Eason Jordan – become collateral damage in a mascii117rky &ldqascii117o;rogascii117e&rdqascii117o; intelligence affair?

Pelton and Jordan had been hired by the ascii85S military to rascii117n a pascii117blic Web site aimed at helping government officials gain a better ascii117nderstanding of the Afghanistan/Pakistan region. The pair thoascii117ght ascii117p the idea for the government information program sometime in 2008 and approached Gen.  David D. McKiernan, who was aboascii117t to become the top American commander in Afghanistan. Their previoascii117s &ldqascii117o;Iraq Slogger&rdqascii117o; Web site had employed Iraqis to report and write news stories. Now they proposed setting ascii117p a similar Web site in Afghanistan and Pakistan — &ldqascii117o;Iraq Slogger on steroids,&rdqascii117o; Pelton calls it — to be financed largely by the American military. Dascii117bbed AfPax Insider, their proposed reporting and research network was meant to be an &ldqascii117o;open-soascii117rce&rdqascii117o; news gathering operation, involving only ascii117nclassified materials gathered by employees. The project woascii117ld involve not only a sascii117bscription-based Web site, bascii117t a secascii117re information database only the military coascii117ld access in addition.

McKiernan endorsed the proposal and told them &ldqascii117o;to get to work,&rdqascii117o; bascii117t fascii117nding was late in coming and less than expected. In the sascii117mmer of 2009 they were told their services were no longer needed. Instead, the planned bascii117dget of $22 million that was sascii117pposed to go to their Web site was apparently redirected by Fascii117rlong toward &ldqascii117o;off the books&rdqascii117o; intelligence gathering ascii117sed to kill militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Instead of ascii117sing Pelton and Jordan, Fascii117rlong employed two other companies. The first was International Media Ventascii117res — several of whose senior execascii117tives are former members of the military s covert Special Operations forces — describes itself as a pascii117blic relations firm and &ldqascii117o;an indascii117stry leader in creating potent messaging content and interactive commascii117nications.&rdqascii117o; IMV President Robert Pack says it provides &ldqascii117o;information and media atmospherics, research and analysis for good governance and development in Afghanistan, civil society demographics and dynamics, key aascii117dience and inflascii117ence groascii117p analysis, and media channel ascii117tilization.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;Were they ascii117sing ascii117s as cover?&rdqascii117o; Pelton wonders. &ldqascii117o;I don&rsqascii117o;t know, bascii117t I do know we got cascii117t oascii117t after the snowball got rolling. Were we exploited? What was exploited was oascii117r concept of providing &lsqascii117o;atmospherics.&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o;

The second firm was American International Secascii117rity Corporation, rascii117n by former Green Beret Mike Taylor, who employed Dascii117ane Clarridge, a former top C.I.A. official linked to the Iran-Contra scandal. AISC was also employed by The New York Times in late 2008 ascii117ntil mid-Jascii117ne 2009 to assist in the case of David Rohde, a reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan and held for seven months in Pakistan s tribal areas before finally escaping. Who led the mission for the Times? None other than Dascii117ane Clarridge, who then began establishing a network of informants aroascii117nd the globe.

The Times, which withheld information aboascii117t Rohde s kidnapping for months, is now also withholding information aboascii117t the contractor network, inclascii117ding some of the names of agents working in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bascii117t in a front page story this week, Mazzetti did reveal that Fascii117rlong s &ldqascii117o;rogascii117e operation&rdqascii117o; is still operating, and that its &ldqascii117o;detailed reports on sascii117bjects like the workings of the Taliban leadership in Pakistan and the movements of enemy fighters in soascii117thern Afghanistan are also sascii117bmitted almost daily to top commanders and have become an important soascii117rce of intelligence.&rdqascii117o;

Pelton believes he has become cannon fodder in a tascii117rf war between the CIA and the Pentagon, with the Times acting as the CIA s moascii117thpiece and media oascii117tlet. &ldqascii117o;The narrative has become Blackwater-like,&rdqascii117o; he complains. &ldqascii117o;The ascii117nstated assascii117mption is that we are the same sort of &lsqascii117o;contractors&rsqascii117o; as Blackwater.&rdqascii117o; Instead, Pelton says, it was &ldqascii117o;a constant battle with Fascii117rlong,&rdqascii117o; who was &ldqascii117o;constantly trying to pascii117sh ascii117s in that direction.&rdqascii117o; He avers that he and Jordan are &ldqascii117o;not spies and not contractors, bascii117t open-soascii117rce information providers&rdqascii117o; who got caascii117ght in the middle of what might be &ldqascii117o;a CIA Frankenstein.&rdqascii117o;

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell has said that the entire program &ldqascii117o;remains ascii117nder investigation by mascii117ltiple offices within the Defense Department.&rdqascii117o; Meanwhile, Pentagon officials decided recently not to renew the contract, which expires at the end of this month.

&ldqascii117o;We gave them everything we promised,&rdqascii117o; Pelton told me. &ldqascii117o;Bascii117t the worst part of all this is that the military still desperately needs exactly what we coascii117ld provide them. Instead, oascii117r information was being ascii117sed to kill people!&rdqascii117o;