Adviser linked to Afghan deaths, St. Pete firm ran Socom unit

When Mike Furlong was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base, he headed up a unit charged with breaking the will of enemies, not by dropping bombs or firing missiles but by messing with their minds.

Now he is the center of a controversy about misusing information gathered for educational purposes. The New York Times reported Monday that Furlong set up a network of private contractors to hunt down and kill militants.

Between August 2005 and February 2008, Furlong was deputy director of the Joint Military Information Support Command at MacDill. As head of the unit, which used to be known as the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element, Furlong was responsible for "military and civilian personnel whose mission is to plan, coordinate, integrate and execute transregional psychological operations to promote U.S. goals and objectives for overseas operations," according to Maj. Wes Ticer, spokesman for the U.S. Special Operations Command headquartered at MacDill.

At the time, Furlong was a much-lauded military veteran. He served as an arms control negotiator at the Pentagon. He served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He was an operations officer with the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He commanded the 6th Psyops Battalion and Joint Psyop Task Force in Bosnia. He won a Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star, a Defense Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters and a number of other medals and commendations.

After retiring from the military, Furlong became a vice president and director of the Strategic Communications and Information Operations Division of Science Applications International Corp., a key government and military contractor. He served in a similar capacity at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Then he came to MacDill, where Furlong's command served "as a key contributor" in the Defense Department's "ongoing efforts to erode adversary power, will and influence," according to the U.S. Special Operations Command fact book.

What happened after Furlong left MacDill, particularly in the areas of power, will and influence, was the subject of a front-page story Monday in the New York Times.

In February 2008, Furlong became a strategic planner and technology integration adviser at the Joint Information Operations Warfare Command at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

The Times wrote that in mid-2008, "the military put Mr. Furlong in charge of a program to use private companies to gather information about the political and tribal culture of Afghanistan."

The paper said that under this "benign government information-gathering program" Furlong hired contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill militants. Those activities "seemed to accelerate" in the summer of 2009. According to one contractor the Times interviewed, Furlong referred to his contractors as "my Jason Bournes," a reference to the fictional American assassin created by novelist Robert Ludlum and played in the movies by Matt Damon.

Furlong did not return an e-mail seeking comment.

His network ultimately ran afoul of military brass. It was dismantled, and he is under investigation, the Times reported.

But not before paying a part of $22 million he received for those efforts to a St. Petersburg media information company, according to the Times.

Robert Pack, the president of International Media Ventures, said his company is an information firm that does not perform military duties.

"IMV employees conduct all activities within prescribed legal and ethical constraints and do not perform governmental, specifically military, tasks," Pack said in a statement on the firm's Web site.

The New York Times said IMV received money to conduct "intelligence gathering" in Afghanistan and that the information from such operations may have been used to track and kill militants there.

IMV, Pack's statement said, is a strategic communication and media company with competencies in strategic effects and information planning and synchronization, media analysis and information technology.

The company is providing "information and media atmospherics, research and analysis for good governance and development in Afghanistan, civil society demographics and dynamics, key audience and influence group analysis, and media channel utilization," Pack's statement said.

Michael Legg, who was named to the IMV board of directors six months ago, said he was "taken aback" when he read the newspaper's story.

"Because of the people there, I have full trust and confidence they are doing the right thing, and time will show that," said Legg, whose responsibility is overseeing the management of classified information the company uses. "They are just a communications company."

Legg said he plans on continuing his relationship with IMV.

Pack has more than two decades of experience with the military, including many stints as a commander or operations officer, according to the company's Web site. He was the ground planner for "Operation Rice Bowl," the failed attempt to rescue hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1980. The company also boats a former Socom brigadier general in its management ranks.

Pack did not answer any questions about whether IMV is under investigation or the company's relationship with Furlong. Legg said that he has not been contacted by any investigators.

Charles Faddis, a former CIA operations officer who until May 2008 was the head of the CIA's weapons of mass destruction terrorism unit, said rogue operations can cost the lives of U.S. intelligence agents and their assets and create severe negative geopolitical backlash.

"If these guys are running around unsupervised, the potential of crossing wires with other operations is huge," Faddis said. "The problem is not just these guys getting killed, but if the CIA has an op going and these guys are freelancing in the area without any coordination, agency officers and sources and other people could get killed."