Defense official says Afghan program was authorized (Michael Furlong )

Source: WaPo

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 19, 2010

Michael D. Furlong, the senior Defense Department employee under investigation for allegedly running an unauthorized intelligence-gathering operation in Afghanistan, says his now-suspended program was fully authorized by top U.S. military commanders.

According to Furlong, the program, which began in late 2008, was requested by Army Gen. David D. McKiernan, the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and approved by the U.S. Central Command.

In an interview with the San Antonio Express News published Thursday, he said McKiernan asked him to provide information "that would enhance our . . . understanding of the environment" in the Afghanistan and Pakistan war zones. He denied misusing any U.S. contract funds.

The program was shut down and an investigation begun by the Defense Department's inspector general late last year after complaints by the CIA and a finding by senior officials under the new Afghanistan commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, that Furlong had stepped outside the boundaries of his contract and the law and "didn't want to operate within the constraints of how we do business," according to a U.S. military official familiar with the situation who was not authorized to discuss it on the record.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031805447.html

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more info in the San Antonio Express article:
Info-gathering office defended
http://www.mysanantonio.com/military/88321822.html

Sorry I've been snoozing....can you explain what the program was? Does it have a name or are there details? What am I missing here? I guess I can go read the articles.

The specifics of what Furlong is alleged to have done remain unclear. Although news accounts have portrayed his program as contributing to efforts to target and kill insurgent leaders, several military officials said it never got that far. "Never did he feed information that resulted in any sort of kinetic action," the official said.

Wonder if that's true.

Today is the seventh anniversary of the Iraq invasion. There's a temptation as we begin to end our combat presence in Iraq to search for a happy ending. But there has been no 'victory' in Iraq. We created this video as a reminder of the damage done to Iraq and to our country over the last seven years.
We also know that there will be no economic recovery here at home as long as we're spending $100 billion a year on another war that isn't making us any safer - the war in Afghanistan.

http://rethinkafghanistan.com/?utm_source=rtairaq