Diplomatic Cables

Diplomatic Cables
Are U.S. Rogue Pentagon Agents Operating Illegally And With Impunity Abroad? Task Force 121 Under FBI Investigation

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/diplomatic/foreign.htm

By Wayne Madsen

Washington, DC -- Jun 26, 2005 -- There is increasing evidence that units of the Pentagon, operating under the authority of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen Cambone, and Deputy Undersecretary of Intelligence Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, are operating outside U.S. domestic law and routinely violating international treaties and laws ratified by the United States. The covert Pentagon units, operating under an "above top secret" carve out program called Task Force 121(TF 121) (at last report), and drawing from special operations personnel in the Army's Delta Force, Green Berets, the Navy SEALS, British Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS), and various ex-U.S. and foreign intelligence and Special Operations (including British SAS, Israeli Sayaret Mat'kal, and South African Recce Commandos) personnel hired from shadowy private contractors, are now being linked to illegal kidnapings, posing as U.S. law enforcement agents (including FBI agents) and journalists, and assassinations of foreign political leaders.

Informed sources report that FBI Special Agent M. Chris Briese of the FBI's Counter-Terrorism Division (CTD) and Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Pittburgh office is now investigating TF 121 on behalf of Director Robert Mueller. The investigation is focusing on whether TF 121 members, using false FBI credentials, have negotiated with informants and counter-terrorism targets on behalf of the bureau and have sexually accosted individuals, including American women in Florida bars, with the claim that they are FBI agents. In addition, some TF 121 personnel have used press credentials to masquerade as foreign corrspondents. In one case, a TF 121 member obtained credentials from a U.S. news wire service to conduct a special operations scouting mission inside Iran. The TF 121 member used the credentials to apply for a tourist visa from the Iranian Interests Section of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington. In other cases, press credentials were used by TF 121 members to visit Pakistan, Afghanistan, U.S.-occupied Iraq, and Sudan. The TF 121 personnel reportedly chiefly operate out of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Fort Bragg, North Carolina and Fort Drum, New York.

In an Iran-contra scandal redux, some TF 121 units operating in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, have been linked to the smuggling of cocaine to finance off-the-books operations being carried out by the covert Pentagon commandos. In April, five U.S. troops were arrested by Colombian authorities for attempting to smuggle cocaine on a military flight to Texas. A month later, two more U.S. troops were arrested in Colombia for attempting to smuggle 32,000 rounds of ammunition destined for the Colombian counter-narcotics units to the right-wing paramilitary terrorist and narcotics smuggling group, the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia. U.S. ambassador to Bogota William Wood refused to extradite the Army personnel back to Colombia invoking a U.S.-Colombian treaty that grants U.S. military personnel diplomatic immunity.

The CIA may be getting blamed for the early 2003 kidnaping in Italy of an Egyptian imam named Hasan Osama Nasr (also known as Abu Omar). Nasr was kidnaped off a Milan street and flown to Egypt on board a "rendition" flight and was subsequently tortured. There has been no news of Nasr since his kidnaping. Milan judge Chiara Nobili has issued an arrest warrant for 13 Americans he has identified as CIA agents for the kidnaping. But the kidnaping operation was sloppy and involved U.S. military personnel at the U.S. Aviano airbase, indicating the possible involvement of TF 121 and "Grey Fox" rendition flights operating out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia's Davison Army Airfield. (The "Grey Fox" code name was changed to "Capacity Gear" in the 1990s and reportedly is now known by another code name. "Grey Eyes" has been mentioned as one possibility.) According to the June 26 Los Angeles Times, the U.S. "covert" operators left a neon light trail of their activities, including checking into Milan's most expensive hotels, dining at the best restaurants, and renting cars and cellphones. In their high visibility transactions, the Americans used their frequent flier numbers, passports, U.S. driver's licenses, and VISA and Diner's Club cards, although some of their names and addresses used were aliases. The kidnapers also routinely checked in with Lt. Col. Joseph Romano, who was assigned to the Aviano base. Romano has since left Italy. Armando Spataro, the chief Italian prosecutor in the case involving the kidnapers, has issued EUROPOL and INTERPOL red notices for the arrest of the Americans, including a 51-year old Honduran-American said to have been the CIA station chief in Milan. However, some TF 121 agents may have misrepresented themselves as CIA agents in the same way they have falsely claimed to be FBI agents.

The FBI is also investigating TF 121 for making false promises to a Yemeni informant named Mohammed Alanssi who set himself on fire in front of the White House on November 15, 2004 while trying to present a letter to President Bush. The Yemeni man, who lived in Falls Church, Virginia, suffered severe burns over thirty percent of his body. Alanssi said he was promised $5 million and asylum in the United States for himself and his family if he agreed to become an informant against Islamic terrorists. Alanssi later testified under oath that the FBI made the promises but the FBI said it had no record of any such promises to Alanssi, although it did pay the Yemeni $100,000. However, it appears that agents of the shadowy TF 121, masquerading as FBI agents, made the bogus promises to Alanssi and then reneged on the deal. In Iraq, TF 121 was a lead element in a $25 million State Department reward program for the capture of Jordanian terrorist Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, so the $5 million amount claimed by Alanssi is not a great deal of money by TF 121 standards. After Alanssi became upset with the reneging on promises reportedly made by the TF 121 agents and the U.S. government's confiscation of his Yemeni passport, he began to back out of a deal with the government to be a key prosecution witness in an important case against Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hassan Moayad, a Yemeni cleric in Germany said to be tied to Al Qaeda, and his aide Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed. Moayad was charged with personally giving $20 million in cash to Osama bin Laden. Immediately, the Justice Department and FBI went into "no comment" mode on the Alanssi case. That is until recently, when leaks indicated that TF 121 had improperly involved itself with Alanssi and severely harmed the federal govenrnment's case against Moayad and Zayed.

TF 121 is also at the center of the scandals at the Abu Ghraib, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention centers. It has been accused of hiding Iraqi war prisoners at both centers under aliases, a violation of the Geneva Conventions, and commiting acts of torture against internees. TF 121 is credited with the capture of Saddam Hussein and is said to be the lead element in the search for Osama bin Laden.