Stratfor Emails: Pentagon-Hired Mercenaries Intervening in Syria Since December

Via Jeremy Scahill, this news from Alakhbar English (Lebanese paper) on the WikiLeaks Stratfor emails:

US government officials requested that an American private security firm contact Syrian opposition figures in Turkey to see “how they can help in regime change,” the CEO of one of these firms told Stratfor in a company email obtained by WikiLeaks and Al-Akhbar.

James F. Smith, former director of Blackwater, is currently the Chief Executive of SCG International, a private security firm with experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. In what appears to be his first email to Stratfor, Smith stated that his “background is CIA” and his company is comprised of “former DOD [Department of Defense], CIA and former law enforcement personnel.”

“We provide services for those same groups in the form of training, security and information collection,” he explained to Stratfor. (doc-id5441475)

In a 13 December 2011 email to Stratfor’s VP for counter-terrorism Fred Burton, which Burton shared with Stratfor’s briefers, Smith claimed that “[he] and Walid Phares were getting air cover from Congresswoman [Sue] Myrick to engage Syrian opposition in Turkey (non-MB and non-Qatari) on a fact finding mission for Congress.”

James Smith told Scahill “he’s been operating in both Syria & Libya the past year” but that “Stratfor’s internal description of his work was ‘inaccurate.'” The December date of the emails coincides with previous Stratfor revelations about covert operations inside Syria.

12 thoughts on “Stratfor Emails: Pentagon-Hired Mercenaries Intervening in Syria Since December”

  1. Golly, there's a surprise. US hiring mercs to "intervene" in Syria. Yup, surprise surprise…

  2. As long as the "freedom fighters" don't receive a W-2 directly from the US federal government, then the US is not "involved" in Syria militarily. I suppose a 1099 may be a "grey area", the same is true for direct payments or forms of compensation "under the table", however, if it's done under the table, at least there is no paper trail, so it's unclear whether it ever happened in the first place (memory is a funny thing), so I'm guessing it falls into the "no involvement" category. If the "freedom fighters" receive indirect compensation via a 3rd party (ie. a "security firm")–then the US has no involvement. Everyone knows this, and it somewhat goes with out saying at this point.

    This is like "rendition"… The US does not engage in "torture" (the actual definition of which seems somewhat elusive and ambiguous in and of itself when it's convenient)…at least not when it comes to domestic political rhetoric and/or demagoguery in a 'run up' to some sort of military (non)hostilities with another nation. The US is the shining City on a hill God has chosen to "lead" the world. Everyone knows the US is the one that shuts down "torture chambers"… The US does not/would not–ever-engage in "torture" as ' policy' (at least not 'on the record')… That would be silly… If, however, we detain an individual and turn them over to another nation–and this individual just so happens to be asked questions the US hands over to the "interviewers" of the other nation, and the individual is coincidentally "tortured" during the interview process, through no fault of our own, this maybe unfortunate and "barbaric", but the US has no "involvement"… It's sad not every culture and nation has evolved to our level of "civility"…but it is what it is… What can you do?

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  4. As if there was ever any doubt that the US, UK & behind the scenes Israel, were actively involved in funding, arming & organising attacks in Syria by proxy. Just as they were initially in Libya. Whether this is an attempt to remove a key ally of & further isolate Iran, or there's some other quid pro quo,?

    1. It's probably about the elections and whether we'll be caught doing something which will fail. Let's say Assad remains in power – normally, this could be shrugged off. There could be some pompous statement (a very empty one) about not interfering in another country's politics when we have enough on our plate, and are winding down our mideast involvement. Plausible deniability. But in the Wikileaks age, I guess that's over.

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