The headline in Sunday’s New York Times sent chills down my spine. Contractors Tied to Efforts to Track and Kill Militants. Sadly, the story that followed justified my reaction. In a nutshell, the New York Times reported that a US Defense Department official, Michael D. Furlong, established a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to gather intelligence on suspected insurgents — intelligence which may have been used to track and kill them.
As the New York Times pointed out, it is ‘generally considered illegal’ for the military to hire private contractors as spies. If it were up to me, it would be expressly outlawed. Continue reading ‘PMJs: Private Military Journalists?’
