PRETENDING TO BE JAMES BOND

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Monday it was looking into "serious allegations" about a U.S. Defense Department official accused of setting up a unit of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants.

The U.S. military acknowledged Furlong was a civilian employee at U.S. Strategic Command's Texas-based Joint Information Operations Warfare Center.

The Times reported Furlong hired contractors from private security companies that employed former CIA and Special Forces operatives.

Some U.S. officials interviewed by the Times said they became troubled that Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation.

"While no legitimate intelligence operations got screwed up, it's generally a bad idea to have freelancers running around a war zone pretending to be James Bond," one U.S. government official told the paper.

Officials told the Times they were not sure who condoned Furlong's project.

whole story http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031502561.html