Alleged spymaster has StratCom ties: Omaha

By Matthew Hansen
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

A military official who allegedly ran a secret spying network in Afghanistan and Pakistan has ties to the Bellevue-based U.S. Strategic Command.

Michael Furlong works as a civilian employee for the Joint Operations Warfare Center, a San Antonio-based center that reports to StratCom.

Furlong is now being criminally investigated by the Pentagon after he reportedly organized a group of private contractors who helped hunt for suspected militants on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

It’s unclear who, if anyone, coordinated or supervised Furlong’s work, which allegedly involved hiring ex-CIA agents and former Special Forces officers to gather intelligence on suspected militants.

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Furlong directed a defense contract to gather information about the region that could be shared with military units. After military officials suspected that he was using Defense Department money for an off-the-books spy operation, defense officials shut down that part of the contract, the official said.

The story was first reported by the New York Times, which quoted unidentified military and business sources as saying that Furlong hired subcontractors who had former U.S. intelligence and special forces operatives on their payrolls. The newspaper said some of the information collected by the contractors was used to track down and attack militants.

“The story makes some serious allegations and raises numerous unanswered questions that warrant further review by the department,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Monday.

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