Iran Nuclear Scientist Defects to U.S. In CIA 'Intelligence Coup'

By MATTHEW COLE

An award-winning Iranian nuclear scientist, who disappeared last year under mysterious circumstances, has defected to the CIA and been resettled in the United States, according to people briefed on the operation by intelligence officials.

The officials were said to have termed the defection of the scientist, Shahram Amiri, "an intelligence coup" in the continuing CIA operation to spy on and undermine Iran's nuclear program.

A spokesperson for the CIA declined to comment. In its declassified annual report to Congress, the CIA said, "Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons though we do not know whether Tehran eventually will decide to produce nuclear weapons."

Amiri, a nuclear physicist in his early 30s, went missing last June three days after arriving in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage, according to the Iranian government. He worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, which is closely connected to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, according to the Associated Press.

"The significance of the coup will depend on how much the scientist knew in the compartmentalized Iranian nuclear program," said former White House counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant. "Just taking one scientist out of the program will not really disrupt it."

Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, and other Iranian officials last year blamed the U.S. for "kidnapping" Amiri, but his whereabouts had remained a mystery until now.

According to the people briefed on the intelligence operation, Amiri's disappearance was part of a long-planned CIA operation to get him to defect. The CIA reportedly approached the scientist in Iran through an intermediary who made an offer of resettlement on behalf of the United States.

Since the late 1990s, the CIA has attempted to recruit Iranian scientists and officials through contacts made with relatives living in the United States, according to former U.S. intelligence officials. Case officers have been assigned to conduct hundreds of interviews with Iranian-Americans in the Los Angeles area in particular, the former officials said.

Amiri has been extensively debriefed since his defection by the CIA, according to the people briefed on the situation. They say Amiri helped to confirm U.S. intelligence assessments about the Iranian nuclear program.

In September, President Barack Obama announced the U.S., the United Kingdom and France had evidence that Iran "has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years."

One Iranian web site reported that Amiri had worked at the Qom facility prior to his defection.

The New York Times reported Saturday that international inspectors and Western intelligence agencies suspect "Tehran is preparing to build more sites in defiance of United Nations demands."

Officials at Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

"The Americans are definitely letting the Iranians know that they are active in going after Iran's nuclear program," said Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American journalist.

A colleague of Amiri's at Tehran University called the disappearance "a disturbing sign" and blamed the Saudis for helping the U.S., according government-approved English-language web site Press TV.

"The Saudi regime has effectively discredited itself and will be seen by those who know what has gone on in the region as being confined to American demands and effectively abiding by American wishes," said Mohammad Marandi, a Tehran University professor, according to the Iranian web site.

How Suicide Bomber Lured CIA Agents to Their Deaths

By Matthew Cole

Humam al-Balawi, the Jordanian double agent who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan last December, lured the agents to their deaths by convincing them that as a doctor he might have access to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to current and former intelligence officials. The death toll was especially high, say the officials, because the agents had gathered to give Balawi a present – a birthday cake.

"They have to take risks, but this was a complete breakdown of traditional tradecraft,"" said a former senior intelligence official familiar with the case. "You don't send that many officers to greet an unknown agent with a party and a birthday cake."

Details from the CIA's internal investigation of the Balawi bombing have begun to emerge as the CIA briefs members of Congress on what went wrong.

Balawi, a 32-year-old Kuwait-born Jordanian doctor, had been arrested by Jordanian officials in 2008 because he was a leading online jihadist who often wrote that he wanted to die as a martyr in Afghanistan fighting U.S. forces.

After Balawi had spent three months in prison, Jordanian intelligence officials believed they had flipped him and turned him into a double agent.

The Jordanians sent him to Pakistan in late 2008, and directed him to infiltrate al Qaeda and help the Americans track senior leaders.

To the CIA agents in Afghanistan engaged in the hunt for al-Qaeda leaders . Balawi seemed like a prize asset. The agents had previously had little luck in getting a fix on bin Laden and Zawahiri or other al-Qaeda bigs, but Balawi gave signs that he was gaining access to the elusive jihadists. Through his Jordanian handler, Balawi sent the CIA a video of himself with several senior al Qaeda leaders, as well as damage assessment from a recent CIA drone attack in Pakistan.

In December, Balawi sent a coded message to his handlers that suggested he was getting close to a key CIA target: al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The message said that Zawahiri needed a change in the dosage of his medication, and that Balawi would be providing Zawahiri with the medicine through a courier. Officials briefed on the case said Balawi did not specify which illness Zawahiri was allegedly suffering, or what medication he was providing. The message made the agents think that Balawi might soon lead them to Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant. The CIA agents wanted to meet their supposed mole in person for the first time.

Prior to the meeting, said the current and former intelligence officials, the Jordanian intelligence agent who was "running" Balawi told the CIA agents that the day of the proposed meeting was Balawi's birthday and that they should have a cake ready.

Balawi passed through three rings of security into a CIA's base near Khost, Afghanistan without being checked. A group of as many as a dozen Americans waited with the birthday cake for Balawi to exit his car. Survivors of the blast, including the CIA's second-highest ranking officer in Afghanistan, have told CIA officials that Balawi kept one hand in his pocket as he got out of the vehicle and began to recite a martyrdom prayer just before he triggered his suicide belt.

In addition to Balawi and seven CIA employees, Balawi's Jordanian intelligence handler and the Afghan driver who escorted Balawi to the CIA base were also killed. Six other CIA officers were severely wounded.

On discovering that Balawi was a double agent, the CIA retracted all intelligence reports that had been sourced to him. The agency now believes al Qaeda was actively feeding its agents false leads to create the illusion that Balawi was working against al Qaeda.

After the bombing, Jordanian intelligence agents tried to assert that Balawi had initially been working for them in good faith, but had switched sides during his year in Pakistan.

The CIA, however, quickly came to the conclusion that Balawi never intended to work for Jordan or the US, according to a senior counterterrorism official. An al-Qaeda video released in late February, two months after the Dec. 30 bombing, indicated that the Americans were probably right.

In the al-Qaeda video, which he recorded shortly before he detonated his bomb, Balawi described how the operation was put together.

Shortly after arriving in Pakistan, Balawi said in the Arabic-language video, he cut off contact with his Jordanian handler.

"I cut off ties for four months in order for Jordanian intelligence to stew in its own juices thinking that this guy had abandoned it, so that if he came back to them and told them that conditions were difficult, they would buy his story quickly," said Balawi. "And that's what happened." "Then [I] came back to them with some videos taken with leaders of the Mujahideen, so that they would think that I was leaking videos and betraying the Mujahideen," said Balawi. Balawi was referring to the video that was forwarded to the CIA, and that convinced agents Balawi was making progress in gaining access to al-Qaeda.

A spokesman for the CIA, Paul Gimigliano, told ABC News that the bombing and the mistakes that led to it continue to be under review.

"The agency continues to take a close, exacting look at the Khost attack," Gimigliano said. "This organization learns both from its successes and its setbacks. Here are two more enduring facts: The officers involved were very familiar with the dangers of operating against al-Qaeda and its allies. And what happened on December 30th in no way lessened the pace, scope, precision, or effectiveness of the CIA's counter-terrorism programs. We continue to hit the enemy hard, exactly as the American people expect."

Russians Give Message to U.S. Generals in Afghanistan: Bribe the Taliban

By Matthew Cole

Two Russian veterans of the Soviet Afghan war privately warned Gen. Stanley McChrystal last summer that the key to winning the war would be to pay off the Taliban. The official who wrote up a summary of two meetings between the Russians and U.S. military commanders also wrote that one of the "key take-aways" from the meetings was that extra troops were not the key to victory.

ABCNews.com has obtained a document summarizing the discussions between two veterans of the Soviet Union's failed Afghan war and McChrystal, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, during an August 2009 video teleconference. The document also summarizes a private in-person meeting in Moscow between the two Russians and American Brig. Gen. Henry Nowak.

The video teleconference was intended to give McChrystal the Russian perspective on how they fought the war against the Afghan mujahideen, and provide advice on how the Americans could fight a better war against the Taliban. One of the two Russians was Vladimir Shabanov, a former Soviet official who was stationed in Afghanistan for ten years, while the other was Soviet war hero Lt. Gen Ruslan Sultanovich Aushev, a Muslim from the Ingush ethnic group.

Chief among the Russians' advice to McChrystal was "money talks." The Russians suggested that the Americans build mosques for Afghans and pay mullahs to preach a Western-friendly form of Islam. "Tribal leaders and regular folks can be bought off," the Russians told their American counterparts.

The written summary of the meetings also says that one of the five "Key Take-Aways" was that "[m]ore troops won't make a difference."

"The Russians entered with 3 X divisions," said the summary, "and as 'thing escalated' would up with 120,000 in country, plus at least equal that number in the neighboring Soviet Republics."

Another "take-away" was that the international coalition was better positioned to win because it has international support and the Soviets did not.

The video teleconference came as Gen. McChrystal, who became commander of the international forces in Afghanistan in June 2009, was assessing the war and how to move forward. Just days after the video teleconference meeting, McChrystal submitted a classified report to Defense Secretary Robert Gates giving three options for the American presence in Afghanistan, two of which involved adding American troops. President Obama announced on Dec. 1 during a speech at West Point that the U.S. would be adding 30,000 more troops.

Lt. Col. Edward Sholtis, a spokesman for McChrystal, told ABCNEWS.com that McChrystal was nearing his decision on the assessment by the time of the meeting, but added that McChrystal "is an open-minded and voracious student of history."

Sholtis also asserted that the summary of the two meetings was not written by McChrystal or his staff, but seemed to be written by a Defense Intelligence Agency official, Bruce Fitton. Sholtis said that the "opinions and conclusions in the document appear to be those of Mr. Fitton and (to the degree that they're accurately represented) those of Lt. Gen. Aushev and Mr. Shabanov."

Fitton could not be reached for comment, but a Pentagon spokesperson asserted that Fitton was not the author of the summary, despite the heading, which states, "Summarized by Bruce Fitton." The spokesperson did not reveal who authored the document, but also did not dispute its authenticity.

Feds: Blackwater Saves Taxpayers Money

By Matthew Cole

The government's use of private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan has been blasted as costly to the image of the U.S., and to the country's bottom line, because a company like Blackwater can charge as much as $1222 a day for a hired gun.

But a new government report says they may actually have saved U.S. taxpayers money. The State Department saves roughly $900 million a year using private firms to protect American diplomats in Iraq rather than relying on U.S. government employees, according to a recently published review by the non partisan Government Accounting Office.

The review found a number of reasons for the difference in price.

The state department did not have to pay overtime or provide benefits or vacation time to the contractors. They were not saddled with extensive travel and housing costs. And they did not have to outfit them with weapons and gear.

In several of the cases reviewed by the government accountants, the private contractors were employing foreign nationals, a key factor in holding down costs. Of the nearly 2000 contractors providing security at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, for instance, 89 percent are foreign nationals. Eight percent are US citizens. The report noted that the State Department would have been "reluctant to hire third country nationals to provide security in Iraq because the department does not want to be perceived as hiring mercenaries."

Still, the State Department saved $785 million in 2008 alone by hiring contractors to provide for embassy security, according to the report. If the State Department had hired and trained its own guards, the cost would have exceeded $858 million. Instead, private security cost roughly $78 million.

The report analyzed five different contracts the government has put out in Iraq to protect State Department employees and facilities. Of the five, four showed savings with contractors. The only outlier dealt with bodyguards for State Department employees in Baghdad. Hiring contractors for that cost $140 million more than had they used their own people.

Prior government reports have indicated that it is this type of high intensity work – the work that companies such as Blackwater provide – that comes with the heaviest cost burden. By one 2008 estimate, those guards cost as much as $1,222 per day.

However, the report notes, " the State Department does not currently have a sufficient number of trained personnel to provide security in Iraq, the department would need to recruit, hire, and train additional employees at an additional cost of $162 million."

The State Department also said they would have to hire double the 3,165 people as are currently employed for the Iraq security contracts because State Department employees are only required to serve one year rotations in warzones before returning to the U.S.

There were limitations to the study, the report acknowledges. Costs for awarding security contracts and oversight of contractors could not be determined by the State Department, for example.

Despite the apparent savings, several deadly incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan involving Xe Services, the company formerly known as Blackwater, have drawn protests in and out of government about whether or not private security contractors are an incendiary element of the US presence in those two warzones.

The list of contractor incidents has become extensive since the deadly Nisour Square shooting incident in 2007, when Blackwater personal security guards allegedly killed 17 Iraqi civilians. Last year, Armor Group lost its contract to provide embassy security in Kabul, Afghanistan, after a series of lewd photos of their employees surfaced. And two Blackwater security trainers were indicted for allegedly killing two Afghan civilians after spending the evening drinking.

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), who has sponsored a bill to outlaw government contracts to private security companies, defended her bill against the report, told ABC News that money was not the biggest factor in assessing the value of contractors in war zones.

"You can outsource the work, but you also outsource the oversight," Schakowsky said. "We have been willing to hire less trained foreign nationals to do the work then we can get the job done by sweeping problems under the rug."

At a recent Senate hearing, the contradictions were apparent when Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who was in the midst of lambasting both DoD officials and contractors from Raytheon and Blackwater, acknowledged that Blackwater had provided her security on a trip to Afghanistan.

"And let me acknowledge how many veterans are working for these companies that are doing great service, that are putting themselves in harm's way, and that are helping us achieve a mission that frankly we could not achieve with the number of boots on the ground we can get there in a very quick time period."

Carole Coffey, one of the report's authors, noted that the U.S. government has no precedent for needing such a large security footprint in a foreign country. "The US has never build and fight at the same time," she said. "These are unique situations."

Senate Committee Says Blackwater Is Still Armed and Dangerous

By Matthew Cole

A Senate committee Wednesday lambasted the private military company formerly known as Blackwater, accusing the firm of engaging in "reckless use of weapons," hiding its identity to score government contracts, and harming America's war effort in Afghanistan.

Investigators for the Senate Armed Services Committee say they also found that Blackwater contractors in Afghanistan secured more than 500 weapons from the U.S. military, even though company employees were not authorized to carry weapons there, and that the military signed over some of the weapons to a contractor who used a fake name borrowed from a character in the TV cartoon "South Park."

The hearing was part of an on-going investigation by the Armed Services Committee into the role of contractors in Afghanistan, and focused on a shooting incident involving two Blackwater security trainers. The trainers, Justin Cannon and Scott Drotleff, who were working for Paravant, a subsidiary of Blackwater's successor company, Xe Services, are accused of killing two Afghan civilians in May 2009. Both face federal charges of murder, but maintain their innocence.

Both Paravant and Xe are owned by Erik Prince, the owner and founder of Blackwater. Blackwater changed its name to Xe in early 2009 after the company was involved in a series of deadly incidents in Iraq.

In Afghanistan, Xe offshoot Paravant was operating as a subcontractor to Raytheon, providing weapons training to the Afghan National Army.

During Wednesday's hearing, committee chairman Carl Levin, D.-Mich., reported that a Paravant executive who acted as point man with Raytheon after the May 2009 shooting incident had told Senate investigators that Paravant routinely disregarded policies and rules in Afghanistan.

"Paravant had no regard for policies, rules, or adherence to regulations in country," said Sen. Levin, quoting James Sierawski of Paravant and Xe. Sierawski, who was interviewed by investigators after his name turned up on internal emails connected to the shooting, is apparently still employed by Paravant and Xe.

'Eric Cartman' Signs for Weapons

In the months before the deadly incident, Paravant employees in Afghanistan obtained more than 500 AK-47s and other weapons from the U.S. military, despite knowing that they have been denied permission to carry weapons on several occasions. Investigators released documents showing that the military handed out hundreds of rifles and handguns, even allowing a Paravant employee to sign for some using the name "Eric Cartman." Cartman is a character on the cable series "South Park," known for its crude humor. The weapons had been intended for the Afghan National Army.

In an internal email released by the committee, a Paravant manager who supervised the two accused shooters in Afghanistan told a colleague that he "got sidearms for everyone." "We have not yet received formal permission from the Army to carry weapons," read the email from Brian McCracken, "but I will take my chances."

McCracken was called as a witness at the hearing, where he asserted that Blackwater had been given verbal permission by the military to carry the weapons.

Two days after Paravant diverted several hundred weapons away from the Afghan National Army, one of its contractors was shot in the head by a second Paravant contractor, after his AK-47 accidentally discharged. Paravant fired the contractor who discharged the weapon, and the victim survived, but a military official today acknowledged that the incident was not investigated. The committee faulted the Pentagon with exercising little oversight over contractors operating in Afghanistan.

Sen. Levin pointed out that both men accused in the civilian shooting incident, Drotleff and Cannon, had unsatisfactory military records that should have disqualified them from employment with Paravant. Paravant, Levin said, was arming contractors who never should have had weapons in the first place.

Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Mark Begich of Alaska both accused Blackwater of hiding its identity by setting up new companies when securing government contracts. Begich called Paravant a "scam company," and a "shell" for Blackwater.

In a statement to ABC News, Sen. Levin echoed the charge that Paravant was a "shell," "set up to avoid the 'baggage' that the name Blackwater carried." Levin said the name change had fooled an Army contracting officer who approved Paravant's subcontract with Raytheon. "The deception here is deeply troubling," said Levin, "because the Department of State said in 2008 that it had lost 'confidence in (Blackwater's) credibility and management ability.'" Blackwater lost a security contract with the State Department after a 2007 shooting incident that cost the lives of 17 Iraqi civilians.

At the hearing, Blackwater executive vice president Fred Roitz testified that it was Raytheon that asked Blackwater to change names.

"Raytheon requested that a company name be other than Blackwater. It was at Raytheon's request," Roitz told the committee.

Roitz also acknowledged that Blackwater intentionally used the name Paravant to deceive Pentagon's contracting office, in an effort to secure the contract.

In a sharp exchange, Sen. Levin asked Mr. Roitz if he was bothered that he had "made statements that weren't accurate, in order to cover-up the fact it was a Blackwater operation instead of Paravant?"

"I'm troubled today," Mr. Roitz replied.

CIA'S Influence Wanes in Afghanistan War, Say Intelligence Officials

By Matthew Cole

For some intelligence officials, proof that the CIA's influence on the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan is waning, and the power of the Pentagon is growing, came last summer when the CIA named its new station chief in Kabul.

As a rule, the CIA always gets to pick its chief of station in foreign countries, but in Afghanistan it lost a political battle to the military and the State Department. According to several former and current intelligence officials, that loss is symbolic of the declining influence of the CIA, which once shaped the strategy for the U.S. war effort.

Last summer, when the CIA tapped a veteran office to become the new chief of station in Kabul, the State Department's special envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, objected. According to current and former officials, Holbrooke had served with the officer in Croatia during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s, when the officer was station chief there and Holbrooke was the Clinton administration's special envoy to the region.

By the time Holbrooke weighed in privately to agency officials, the officer had already been told that he would be assigned to Afghanistan.

"Holbrooke had a problem with [the agency's choice]," said a current senior intelligence official. "And he told the Agency he wasn't going to work with [the CIA officer]."

A spokesperson for Ambassador Holbrooke denied Holbrooke's involvement in the CIA's decision.

In the past, say officials, the CIA wouldn't have backed down. Less than 10 years ago, the U.S. ambassador in France objected to the agency's choice of station chief. He said he didn't want to work with the agency's choice, and asked that he not be sent. The agency made its preferred candidate station chief anyway.

This time, though Kabul is one of the CIA's most important bases of operations, the agency acceded to State Department wishes and withdrew its candidate. Then Gen. Stanley McChrystal intervened.

According to the current and former intelligence officials, McChrystal, commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, had his own preferred candidate for the job, a good friend and decorated CIA paramilitary officer. McChrystal started lobbying for his friend.

'McChrystal Can Have Anyone He Wants'

The officer McChrystal preferred has extensive experience in war zones, including two previous tours in Afghanistan, as well as time in the Balkans, Baghdad and Yemen. The officer also served as the CIA's liaison to the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), then led by McChrystal. JSOC is the Pentagon's command structure for special forces from all military branches, including the Navy SEALs and the Army's Delta Force.

The officer had already served as Kabul's chief four years ago, and it is unusual, though not unprecedented, these intelligence officials say, for CIA officers to serve as chief of station twice in the same country. In interviews with a dozen current and former officials, the current chief of station was uniformly well-liked and admired. A career paramilitary officer, the station chief came to the CIA after several years in an elite Marine unit.

During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan more than eight years ago, the CIA officer worked closely with McChrystal, who was then a commander of elite military commandos. The CIA official is well known in CIA lore as the man who saved Hamid Karzai's life when the CIA led the effort to oust the Taliban from power in October 2001. Karzai is said to be greatly indebted to the CIA officer, and was pleased when the officer was named chief of station three years later.

In the end, however, the officials say, it was the CIA officer's long relationship with General McChrystal that was the deciding factor. Rather than find another candidate, the agency gave McChrystal's friend the job.

That McChrystal, an Army general, was able to install a friend as station chief, said a former official, was indicative of both McChrystal's pull and the reality of the Afghan war zone, where the military now has a greater presence than it did just a year ago. "McChrystal can have anyone he wants running the CIA station," said a former senior intelligence official who now consults for the Pentagon on Afghan issues.

Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman said, "As far as I know, just as the Defense Secretary picks his top commanders, the CIA Director picks his station chiefs."

According to two current and former intelligence officials, the official who was the agency's first choice told colleagues he was frustrated by the decision. Instead of going to Kabul, he kept his job as the chief official in the CIA's European operations division.

At the request of the CIA, ABC News is withholding the names of both the CIA's original choice for the job and the official who got the job because both are still undercover.

CIA spokesman George Little denied that Holbrooke or McChrystal had any involvement in the agency's decision.

"The CIA makes its own personnel decisions. Period. That's all there is to it." The intelligence officials, who requested anonymity when discussing sensitive personnel matters, have no problem with the officer who was eventually chosen by the agency. But they said the agency clearly preferred someone else, and they fear the CIA has become subordinate to the military, after many years dominating U.S .efforts in Afghanistan after the September 11th attacks.

'This Is a Sign of Things to Come'

"We were in the lead after the invasion, but clearly the CIA has taken more of a support role," said a former senior official who served in Afghanistan.

The current and former intelligence officials say that putting a paramilitary officer in charge on the Afghan base highlights the CIA's evolving role. The CIA's historic wartime role was collecting information in order to shape overall strategy. Now the agency has been relegated to a supporting role, supplying tactical intelligence to help the military. The military determines the strategy.

"The CIA is supposed to be a check on the military and their intelligence, not their hand maiden," said Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer. "This is a sign of things to come, where the military dominates intelligence."

The problem with this shift, the officials say, is that both the military and the CIA are focusing on short-term, tactical intelligence, and ignoring the long view. The shortfall in intelligence collection was highlighted last month in a public report by the military's top intelligence officer that was prepared for a thinktank. In the report, Major General Michael T. Flynn concluded that intelligence collection in Afghanistan was "only marginally relevant to the overall strategy."

Flynn's report was as critical of the CIA as of military intelligence. But it is the military that is now shaping intelligence collection in Afghanistan, in part through sheer numeric dominance. Military forces far outnumber the CIA, and the disproportion is growing. According to a current intelligence official, the CIA has roughly 800 personnel in Afghanistan scattered among 14 bases. By next summer, the military expects that it will have nearly 100,000 troops, roughly double its strength in early 2009.

Flynn concluded that the "vast intelligence apparatus is unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which the US and allied forces operate and the people they seek to persuade."

Same Blackwater, Different Names

By MATTHEW COLE

After Blackwater contractors were accused of shooting 17 civilians in Iraq, the State Department announced it would stop doing business with the company, but ABC News has found that several other agencies, including the CIA and the Pentagon, continue to employ the controversial company, under a myriad of names, often via secret, classified contracts.

Blackwater, which changed the name of its parent company to Xe Services last year because of bad publicity, is also operating subdivisions under a variety of altered handles intended to lower its public profile. In some instances the flagship company has tried to distance itself from these offshoots, insisting they are merely "affiliates."

Public records and a source familiar with their ownership suggest, however, that the companies are nothing more than new names on the same old Blackwater. All are owned by Blackwater founder Erik Prince.

According to several military and government sources familiar with Xe's contracts, Xe also operates under the names Paravant and XPG. Both "affiliates" are based at the same Moyock, North Carolina address as Xe. Other Prince-owned companies that have received government contracts include Greystone, Raven, Constellation, US Training Center, GSD Manufacturing, and Presidential Airlines. The companies are among a total of 20 different limited liability corporations owned by Prince and registered to the same address as Blackwater-Xe.

In September 2007, Blackwater guards escorting a State Department convoy through Baghdad shot and killed 17 civilians in Nissour Square, resulting in international outrage, the loss of Blackwater's State Department security contract and criminal charges against the guards. Late last month Vice President Biden announced that the U.S. government would appeal a recent federal court decision to throw out charges against the guards involved in the shooting.

Damage control after the Nissour Square incident is what inspired Blackwater executives to scrap the iconic brand name of the parent company. According to several government and military officials, the incident lead to a company shakeup and name change intended to clean up Blackwater's image and limit legal liabilities.

Blackwater dropped the crosshairs from its company logo, and some executives were forced out. Then, after a lengthy internal name search, Blackwater decided to become Xe Services. "Blackwater" had referred to the water of the North Carolina swamp where the company was headquartered, but Xe, according to a company spokeswoman, had no connotations.

The change from Blackwater to Xe was announced in February 2009. Less known is that a variety of affiliated companies were also renamed. In the wake of the Nissour Square shooting Xe was barred from Iraq, and the corporate relaunch was supposed to include a de-emphasis on security contracts and a new focus on providing training. However, Xe and its rebranded affiliates still work in Afghanistan, and continue to provide security and training, though they often operate as security subcontractors to other contractors.

A recent review by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, known as SIGAR, has found that Xe Services has operated under different names. It often acts as a subcontractor, fulfilling training contracts originally won by other companies such as Raytheon, according to a person who has reviewed the SIGAR materials. According to several sources apprised of the contract, in Afghanistan Raytheon worked with the Blackwater entity called Paravant, LLC.

"Raytheon is supposed to train Afghan soldiers, but Raytheon subcontracted to Blackwater," said a source who has reviewed the contracts between the two companies.

Paravant came under scrutiny after a 2009 shooting incident in Afghanistan. Three Americans and an Afghan contractor were working for Paravant last May when they became involved in the shooting of Afghan civilians in Kabul. Americans Justin Cannon and Chris Drotleff were arrested in the U.S. earlier this month and face federal charges of second-degree murder. In a statement, Xe Services said it had "immediately and fully cooperated with the government's investigation." Both Cannon and Drotleff maintain their innocence.

According to people familiar with the Raytheon-Paravant relationship, Raytheon terminated the contract in August of last year as a result of the shooting. The May shooting also led to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee. ABC News has confirmed that the Paravant employees connected to the shooting were subcontracted to Raytheon.

Jon Kasle, a Raytheon company spokesman, would not comment on the contract with Paravant, except to say that the company "currently has no contracts with any Blackwater company or subsidiary."

A second Xe offshoot, XPG, does classified work for the military's Joint Special Operations Command, JSOC, which handles special forces and special operations in Afghanistan, according to a government source who has seen the contract. XPG was once known as Select PTC.

In an exclusive report, ABC News revealed that contractors working for Select PTC had carried out a covert raid into Pakistan in 2006. A dozen Select PTC "tactical action operatives" were recruited by JSOC for a raid on a suspected al Qaeda training camp, according to a military intelligence planner. The planner said he did not know the outcome of the mission, which was codenamed "Vibrant Fury."

Select PTC was Blackwater's equivalent of the CIA's paramilitary or the military's Special Forces, and was used for classified operations with the CIA and JSOC. Select PTC was involved in classified clandestine activities in countries around the world, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and the Philippines, according to a former military intelligence officer briefed on Select PTC's operations for the U.S. government. The same unit was awarded a contract to assassinate al Qaeda leaders around the world.

In August 2009, the New York Times reported that personnel from a Blackwater offshoot that it called "Blackwater Select" were allegedly responsible for loading missiles and bombs on CIA-operated Predator drones, which are used on suspected al Qaeda operatives and Pakistani militants in Pakistan's Tribal Areas.

The story was actually referring to Select PTC, but by then the name had been changed to XPG, LLC. As Select PTC was to Blackwater, so is XPG now to XE – the company's equivalent of Special Forces. XPG continues to hold classified contracts with the Pentagon's JSOC. One official who has seen XPG's contract with the Pentagon told ABC News that XPG currently has a classified contract providing security at seven Special Forces facilities in Afghanistan along the Pakistan border. The contract stipulates that the company receives $17,000 per day, earning XPG more than $6 million annually, according to a source who has reviewed the contract.

A Xe company spokesperson declined to describe the nature of the contracts that either Paravant or XPG hold with the government. A source familiar with Paravant and XPG's relationship to Xe told ABC News that neither was a "subsidiary" of Xe. Paravant, the source said, was "affiliated" with Xe Services, but not owned by the company. A review of Paravant's web site shows that its facilities and services are at the North Carolina address as Xe, and also share another address associated with Xe in Illinois.

Xe Services continues to look for work in Afghanistan. Earlier this month it placed a bid for a roughly $1 billion training and security contract. The bid has been contested by competing contractors and has not yet been awarded by the Pentagon.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D.-Ill., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, has questioned why Blackwater, under any name, still wins contracts from defense and intelligence agencies.

"After everything that has gone wrong ... with Blackwater, I cannot understand why the U.S. Government has anything to do with them," said Rep. Schakowsky. "I have yet to hear a convincing reason for their continued work for the government."

U.S. Mulls Legality of Killing American al Qaeda "Turncoat"

By Matthew Cole, Richard Esposito and Brian Ross

White House lawyers are mulling the legality of proposed attempts to kill an American citizen, Anwar al Awlaki, who is believed to be part of the leadership of the al Qaeda group in Yemen behind a series of terror strikes, according to two people briefed by U.S. intelligence officials.

One of the people briefed said opportunities to "take out" Awlaki "may have been missed" because of the legal questions surrounding a lethal attack which would specifically target an American citizen.

A spokesperson said the White House declined to comment.

While Awlaki has not been charged with any crimes under U.S. law, intelligence officials say recent intelligence reports and electronic intercepts show he played an important role in recruiting the accused "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Awlaki also carried on extensive e-mail communication with the accused Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, prior to the attack that killed 12 soldiers and one civilian.

According to the people who were briefed on the issue, American officials fear the possibility of criminal prosecution without approval in advance from the White House for a targeted strike against Awlaki.

An American citizen with suspected al Qaeda ties was killed in Nov. 2002 in Yemen in a CIA predator strike that was aimed at non-American leaders of al Qaeda. The death of the American citizen, Ahmed Hijazi of Lackawanna, NY, was justified as "collateral damage" at the time because he "was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," said a former U.S. official familiar with the case.

In the case of Awlaki, born in New Mexico and a college student in Colorado and California, a strike aimed to kill him would stretch current Presidential authority given to the CIA and the Pentagon to pursue terrorists anywhere in the world.

Where Anwar al Awlaki Might Be Hiding

Awlaki's father told reporters in Yemen last week that his son had gone into hiding in the mountains of Yemen and was being protected by al Qaeda, even though, the father claimed, his son was not part of al Qaeda.

He told reporters he was pleading with the United States, "Please don't kill my son."

The question of what limits apply to an American with suspected operational ties to al Qaeda comes as the U.S. steps up efforts to track any American with ties to Yemen.

Hundreds of FBI and other federal agents will fan out this week as part of a secret operation to pursue leads about Americans with connections to Yemen that were previously dismissed as not significant, according to law enforcement officials.

Suicide Bomber Was Invited Onto CIA Base, Wasn't Searched

By Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole and Nick Schifrin

The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan was invited onto the heavily guarded base as a possible informant and, in a breach of security procedure, wasn't searched, according to three current and former CIA officers.

The bomber was escorted to the gym on the fortified complex known as Forward Operating Base Chapman for a meeting with a senior CIA debriefer, according to intelligence sources familiar with the incident.

When the bomber, who was dressed in an Afghan military uniform, arrived in the gym, he blew himself up, killing seven and seriously injuring an additional six officers who had gathered there to wait for him.

The attack targeted some of the CIA's most important assets in the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda, officers who collected intelligence and conducted paramilitary operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. While it's unlikely the officers spent much time in Pakistan, they almost certainly contributed to the targeting of the drone program that has targeted al Qaeda's senior leadership living in the Pakistani tribal areas.

"This is a tremendous loss for the agency. The agency is a relatively small organization, and its expertise in al Qaeda is even a smaller subset of that overall group," says Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA unit that searched for Osama bin Laden. "We collect information that enables the military to go after our primary targets or to better defend itself. So to the extent we lose the ability to do that -- the experienced personnel to do that -- it harms not only the agency, but it harms the ability of the military to operate effectively in the area."

It was the single worst attack on the CIA since 1983, when eight officers died in the Beirut embassy attack.

In a letter sent to CIA employees today, President Obama praised the "decades of service" from the men and women of the CIA.

"These brave Americans were part of a long line of patriots," Obama wrote. "The United States would not be able to maintain the freedom and security that we cherish without decades of service from the dedicated men and women of the CIA."

CIA Director Leon Panetta said in a message to employees, "Those who fell yesterday were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism. We pledge to them and their families that we will never cease fighting for the cause to which they dedicated their lives, a safer America."

"Yesterday's tragedy reminds us that the men and women of the CIA put their lives at risk every day to protect this nation," Panetta said. "Throughout our history, the reality is that those who make a real difference often face real danger."

To pay tribute to those who lost their lives, Panetta requested that the flags at CIA headquarters be flown at half-staff.

It was the worst day for the CIA in terms of loss of life since the war in Afghanistan began eight years ago. The attack appears to have been the result of a lapse in security, and perhaps the only time when a suicide bomber actually blew himself up inside a U.S. facility.

Deadly Week in Afghanistan

The area of the attack is near a Taliban stronghold where insurgents who use Pakistan as a base flow easily back and forth across the border. Militants in the area are led by the family of Jalaluddin Haqqani who U.S. officials say is responsible more than any other insurgent leader for attacks on U.S. soldiers.

Khost Province has suffered from multiple attacks, including suicide bombings near the main U.S. military camp called Solerno. In May and June, attacks in Khost City and outside Solerno killed at least 21 civilians, most of them Afghan day laborers.

But the terror attack was directed at a non-military camp and appears to be the deadliest against U.S. civilians since the start of the war. In August, 16 civilians died in a helicopter crash in Kandahar, but that was the result of mechanical failure.

ABC News' Kirit Radia contributed to this report.

Eight Americans Killed by Suicide Bomber Were CIA

By Matthew Cole, Nick Schifrin and Kirit Radia

At least eight Americans were killed and six others injured when a suicide bomber penetrated the heart of a heavily fortified complex in eastern Afghanistan, according to multiple U.S. officials in both Afghanistan and Washington, and and a Congressional source told ABC News they were all connected to the CIA.

The Congressional source could not confirm how many of the dead were CIA staff and how many were contractors, but said the facility was a CIA base. It was the worst day for the CIA in terms of loss of life since the war in Afghanistan began eight years ago.

The suicide bomber blew himself up in either the gym or the dining facility on Camp Chapman near the Pakistani border in Khost province, according to one U.S. official in Kabul. The same official says all those killed were civilians, and a separate official in Washington said the base is not used by State Department employees -- suggesting the victims may be intelligence officials.

The attack appears to have been the result of an extraordinary lapse in security, one of the few times that any militant has managed to elude guards and attack inside a U.S. facility.

The area of the attack is near a Taliban stronghold where insurgents who use Pakistan as a base flow easily back and forth across the border. Militants in the area are led by the Haqqani family, whom U.S. officials say is responsible more than any other insurgent leader for attacks on U.S. soldiers.

Khost has suffered from multiple attacks, including suicide bombings near the main U.S. military camp called Solerno. In May and June, attacks in Khost City or outside Solerno killed at least 21 civilians, most of them Afghan day laborers.

But today's attack was directed at a non-military camp and appears to be the deadliest against American civilians since the start of the war. In August, 16 civilians died in a helicopter crash in Kandahar, but that was due to mechanical failure.

U.S. officials declined to provide any more specifics about the people who were killed today, saying the next of kin were still being notified.

The attack comes on the same day the U.S. military defended itself after hundreds of Afghans protested a weekend raid that Afghan government officials say killed 10 Afghan civilians.

The incident, which took place in the Narang district of Kunar Province, occurred on Saturday night when a group of U.S. and Afghan soldiers entered a small village called Ghazi Khan.

According to the U.S. military, the troops came under fire "from several buildings" and killed nine insurgents. But an Afghan commission led by an advisor to President Hamid Karzai concluded the troops "descended from a plane... took 10 people from three homes, eight of them school students in grades six, nine and ten, one of them a guest, the rest from the same family, and shot them dead."

U.S. Military Denies Latest Accusation of Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan

The NATO-led military forces in Afghanistan denied that, saying in a statement released today that "there is no direct evidence to substantiate these claims." But the statement went on to welcome a joint investigation by both Afghan and military officials, and said if any operation kills civilians, "we will always look within to improve our capacity to avert unintended consequences in the future."

That tone is an acknowledgement that civilian casualties is probably the single most sensitive issue in Afghanistan. It has helped sour relations between Karzai and the United States, and U.S. officials admit high profile civilian casualty incidents have pushed some Afghans -- often family members of victims – toward the Taliban.

Many Afghans acknowledge that the U.S. has reduced the number of civilian casualties in 2009, and Afghan politicians praised U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal for the positive change during a meeting last month.

According to U.S. statistics, 225 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured in military actions in 2009, not including an air strike in northern Afghanistan in September that Afghan officials say killed as many as 100 civilians. In 2008, 407 Afghan civilians were killed or injured in military actions.

But that progress did not stop hundreds of people from protesting the Kunar raid.

"We have no more patience. It has happened repeatedly. If it occurs again, we will drop our pens and take arms," one group of protestors chanted in the eastern city of Jalalabad, according to Reuters. "Death to Obama. Down with Karzai."

In Kabul, young men carried a sign that said "Obama! Take your soldiers out of Afghanistan!" One group of protestors displayed pictures of young children they said had been killed by foreign troops. "Death to the enemy of Islam!" screamed a protester with a bullhorn.

Report: Two CIA Black Site Prisons in Lithuania

By Matthew Cole

The Lithuanian government has concluded that the CIA operated a secret "black site" in Lithuania for high-level Al Qaeda detainees, and that a second secret CIA facility was established in the heart of the capital city of Vilnius. The government began an investigation after an exclusive ABC News report that the CIA operated a secret black site prison for terror suspects in the Baltic country in 2004 and 2005.

In a report released Tuesday, the National Security Committee of the Lithuanian parliament recommended that intelligence officials be criminally investigated for their role in establishing the prisons. In addition to the prison outside Vilnius that was located and revealed by ABC News, the report says that Lithuanian intelligence made a guesthouse in downtown Vilnius available for CIA use as early as 2002, though they could not prove that it had been used.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius criticized the U.S. government for establishing the prisons, saying it had manipulated Lithuanian officials with "essentially Soviet methods" into breaking the law. However, he suggested that the second prison, which could only hold one prisoner in a single cell, had never been used.

Arvydas Anusauskas, head of the parliamentary investigating committee, said he did not have enough evidence to prove that the guesthouse had been used, but could not rule out the possibility.

In November, an exclusive ABC News report revealed that the CIA had built one of its secret "black site" prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania. Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists at a time.

"The activities in that prison were illegal," said human rights researcher John Sifton. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions."

Lithuanian officials provided ABC News with the documents of what they called a CIA front company, Elite, LLC, which purchased the property and built the "black site" in 2004.

Lithuania agreed to allow the CIA prison after President George W. Bush visited the country in 2002 and pledged support for Lithuania's efforts to join NATO. Lithuania was one of three eastern European countries, along with Poland and Romania, where the CIA secretly interrogated suspected high-value al-Qaeda terrorists.

"The new members of NATO were so grateful for the U.S. role in getting them into that organization that they would do anything the U.S. asked for during that period," said former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. "They were eager to please and eager to be cooperative on security and on intelligence matters."

Until March 2004, the site was a riding academy and café owned by a local family. The facility is in the town of Antaviliai, in the forest 20 kilometers northeast of the city center of Vilnius, near an exclusive suburb where many government officials live.

Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Yemen Terrorists

By Brian Ross, Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole, Luis Martinez and Kirit Radia  

On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said "an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned."

The Yemen attacks by the U.S. military represent a major escalation of the Obama administration's campaign against al Qaeda.

In his speech about added troops for Afghanistan earlier this month, President Obama made a brief reference to Yemen, saying, "Where al Qaeda and its allies attempt to establish a foothold -- whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere -- they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships."

Until tonight, American officials had hedged about any U.S. role in the strikes against Yemen and news reports from Yemen attributed the attacks to the Yemen Air Force.

President Obama placed a call after the strikes to "congratulate" the President of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Salih, on his efforts against al Qaeda, according to White House officials.

A Yemeni official at the country's embassy in Washington insisted to ABC News Friday that the Thursday attacks were "planned and executed" by the Yemen government and police.

Along with the two U.S. cruise missile attacks, Yemen security forces carried out raids in three separate locations. As many as 120 people were killed in the three raids, according to reports from Yemen, and opposition leaders said many of the dead were innocent civilians.

American officials said the missile strikes were intended to disrupt a growing threat from the al Qaeda branch in Yemen, which claims to coordinate terror attacks against neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The al Qaeda presence in Yemen has been steadily growing in the last two years. "Al Qaeda generally has been pushed into these ungoverned areas, whether it is the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area [or Yemen]," said Richard Barrett, coordinator of the U.N.'s Taliban al-Qaeda Sancitions Monitoring Committee. "I think many of the key people have moved to Yemen."

The U.S. embassy was attacked by suspected al Qaeda gunmen last year.

And the presumed leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Qaaim al-Raymi, has frequently appeared on internet videos, offering an alternative to the training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"If they can go to Yemen just as easily or easier and get training there and come out again," said Barrett, "all your efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan are a waste of time."

Qaaim al-Raymi was considered a prime target of the attack Thursday but was reported to have escaped the attack. However, U.S. officials believe one of his top deputies may have been killed.

After ABC News Report of Secret CIA Prison, Head Spy Resigns

By Matthew Cole and Mark Schone

The head of Lithuanian intelligence resigned Monday in the wake of ABC News' exclusive report that the CIA operated a secret prison for al-Qaeda detainees in 2004 and 2005.

Povilas Malakauskas, head of Lithuania's State Security department, left without prior public notice after two years in the position. Lithuanian media quoted Arydas Anusauskas, head of a parliamentary committee investigating the prison, as saying that the intelligence chief stepped down "in part" because of the government's effort to investigate the details surrounding the CIA facility.

Anusauskas told LNK TV that much of the government's investigation could have been avoided if the intel chief had told the truth about his department's involvement in the CIA program. Anusauskas told ABC News that the resignation was first discussed in September, when Malakauskas refused to provide information to investigators.

On Nov. 18, ABC News revealed the location of the secret prison, where harsh interrogation techniques were allegedly used on accused al-Qaeda terrorists, in a converted horseback riding facility 20 kilometers northeast of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at an attached café, the CIA installed a hidden concrete structure where it could hold up to eight "high value detainees" at a time, a current Lithuanian government official and a former CIA official told ABC News.

For many of the residents of this former Soviet state, it is reminiscent of the KGB's secret prisons. "As a Lithuanian," a local woman told ABC News, "I am not very proud of this."

"The activities in that prison were illegal," said John Sifton, a New York attorney whose firm One World Research investigates human rights abuses. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions."

After ABC News revealed the location of the prison, a top Lithuanian official said that the report was damaging to his country's reputation.

"Obviously, this is not helping Lithuania's image," Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas told the Baltic News Service. "Therefore it is vital that we conduct an investigation and clear any doubts." Usackas also warned Lithuanians not to believe "rumors or wild tales."

Within weeks, however, the Lithuanian government investigation had confirmed that the CIA operated a secret black site prison in the country.

According to Lithuania's LNK TV, sources told investigators that State Security was involved in coordinating the construction of the prison, and also provided the code name of the operation to transport terror detainees to the prison.

A "Building Within A Building"

It is not known which suspected al-Qaeda figures were in Lithuania, but 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad was moved out of the CIA's secret prison in Poland just before the Lithuanian facility was opened. According to sources who say they saw the facility, the riding academy originally consisted of an indoor riding area with a red metallic roof, a stable and a cafe. The CIA built a thick concrete wall inside the riding area. Behind the wall, it built what one Lithuanian source called a "building within a building."

On a series of thick concrete pads, it installed what a source called "prefabricated pods" to house prisoners, each separated from the other by five or six feet. Each pod included a shower, a bed and a toilet. Separate cells were constructed for interrogations. The CIA converted much of the rest of the building into garage space. Intelligence officers working at the prison were housed next door in the converted stable.

A woman who lives near the complex, and who refused to give her name for fear of retribution reports that when she often saw cars with black-tinted windows drive up to the buildings. When a garage door opened, all the lights in the complex would go off until the car had entered the building and the door had closed.

Electrical power for both structures was provided by a 2003 Caterpillar autonomous generator. All the electrical outlets in the renovated structure were 110 volts, meaning they were designed for American appliances. European outlets and appliances typically use 220 volts.

Locals report that English-speaking guards worked at the complex, and often swam in a nearby lake. The guards were rotated every 90 days.

Lithuanian officials provided ABC News with the documents of what they called a CIA front company, Elite, LLC, which purchased the property and built the "black site" in 2004. ABC News first reported that Lithuania was one of three eastern European countries, along with Poland and Romania, where the CIA secretly interrogated suspected high-value al-Qaeda terrorists.

The CIA purchased the riding academy property in March 2004, the same month Lithuania marked its formal admission to NATO. Poland joined NATO in 1999, and Romania joined in 2004.

The CIA opened the prison in Sept. 2004, and closed it in Nov. 2005, former CIA officials told ABC News.

The CIA declined to talk about the prison. "The CIA's terrorist interrogation program is over," said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. "This agency does not discuss publicly where detention facilities may or may not have been."

Mercenaries? CIA Says Expanded Role for Contractors Legitimate

By Matthew Cole, Richard Esposito and Brian Ross

The CIA and the military special forces have quietly expanded the role of private contractors, including Blackwater, to include their involvement in raids and secret paramilitary operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, four current and former U.S. military and intelligence officers tell ABC News.

American law specifically prohibits the use of private soldiers or mercenaries in combat, according to Jonathan Turley, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University.

"The United States Congress has never approved the use of private contractors for combat operations," Turley told ABC News in an interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

CIA officials acknowledge that two private contractors were killed in Afghanistan in 2003 when they and other members of a CIA paramilitary team were in a firefight with Taliban fighters on a remote road.

In another case, in 2006, 12 Blackwater "tactical action operatives" were recruited for a secret raid into Pakistan by the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command, according to a military intelligence planner. The target of the planned raid, code-named Vibrant Fury, was a suspected al Qaeda training camp, according to the planner, who said he did not know the outcome of the mission.

In Iraq, a high-ranking U.S. Army officer told ABC News, Blackwater personnel have been used in military operations that "are supposed to include U.S. soldiers but often end up with the Blackwater people on their own."

The New York Times reported Friday that such raids against Iraqi insurgents were conducted "almost nightly" between 2004 and 2006, and it quoted several Blackwater guards as saying "the operations became so routine that the lines supposedly dividing the Central Intelligence Agency, the military and Blackwater became blurred."

"A Very Serious Offense to Our Constitution"

The Washington Post today quoted former government officials as saying Blackwater's actions included "active participation in raids overseen by CIA or special forces personnel."

American officials reject the term "mercenary," but others say the term applies if the role of private American contractors has been so significantly expanded beyond their previously known assignments in security and logistics.

"If contractors have been sent on true combat missions, missions where they are supposed to kill and engage the enemy, then they are by every definition of the term mercenaries," said Professor Turley.

"To have such a force without allowing Congress to approve it would be considered a very serious offense to our Constitution," said Turley.

A CIA spokesperson, George Little, acknowledged the use of contractors "in roles that complement and enhance the skills of our workforce, just as American law permits."

Little said "it's the way things actually work in the real world," and he stressed that CIA officials always retained "decision-making authority and bear responsibility for results."

"CIA does not use Blackwater to perform our core missions of collecting intelligence, performing analysis or conducting covert operations," said Little.

A U.S. government official told ABC News the private contractors "don't kick down doors" but only fulfill a "security role" on certain CIA missions.

The new CIA director under the Obama administration, Leon Panetta, has continued a "rigorous look" at the use of contractors and a "thorough review" of Blackwater's contracts.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the allegation that private contractors were used in combat situations by the American military was "bogus, nothing more than a wild and unsubstantiated allegation." He said there was no evidence that the military had ever contracted with Blackwater for such missions.

Morrell did not respond to specific questions about the top-secret Vibrant Fury operation in 2006 that allegedly recruited Blackwater operatives.

"If you have a team of private contractors who are going into Pakistan with the approval of the United States government to engage in combat, then you have very serious international and domestic problems," said Professor Turley.

Blackwater, now re-named Xe, has a "select" program within its operation that helped to staff some of the expanded and more difficult roles in the two war zones, according to U.S. military officials, former U.S. intelligence officers and a person with knowledge of Blackwater operations.

A 2007 on-line recruitment advertisement for the Blackwater USA select program described the openings as positions in a "Mobile Security Contract in support of a U.S. government agency."

Candidates were required to be able to maintain a Top Secret clearance and have "one year of experience in Iraq, Afghanistan or other High Threat Environment."

A U.S. Army officer who ran human intelligence collections activities in Afghanistan in 2003, Tony Shaffer, says he never worked directly with Blackwater personnel but frequently encountered them in secret operations run by the military and the CIA.

"I actually met with the CIA and Blackwater operatives who were working together, totally hand in glove, to conduct operational planning and support of their objectives, which are paramilitary operations along the border," said Shaffer, then a Major but now a Lieutenant Colonel who teaches at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies.

"The idea was to bring to bear additional resources for specific special operations missions," he said. "The purpose for that, in my judgment, may have been to avoid some level of oversight."

In the case of Operation Vibrant Fury, military personnel say the decision to request Blackwater personnel came after a request for military "tier one" operatives was denied.

A spokesperson for Blackwater said the company was unaware of any operation with the code name Vibrant Fury.

The mission was to raid, destroy and kill al Qaeda members at a camp in Pakistan where guards for Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri were believed to be training, according to the military planner.

A second person briefed on the operation confirmed Blackwater agreed to provide operatives for the military special forces.

The commanders of the elite special forces, then called Task Force 373, decided to solicit help from Blackwater, said the planner, after military superiors said the men could not be spared from Iraq.

The request to Blackwater was met on Oct. 31, 2006, according to the planner.

Investigation Confirms ABC News Report on Secret CIA Prison

By Matthew Cole and Mark Schone

A Lithuanian government investigation has confirmed an exclusive ABC News report that the CIA operated a secret black site prison in the country, according to a report on Lithuanian television.

According to Lithuania's LNK TV, sources have told investigators that state security was involved in coordinating the construction of the prison, and have also provided the code name of the operation to transport terror detainees to the prison.

Arydas Anusauskas, head of the parliamentary committee investigating the prison, told ABC News he would not comment on the investigation until it is completed. He has previously said the results of the probe will be made public Dec. 22.

On Nov. 18, ABC News revealed the location of a secret prison, where harsh interrogation techniques were allegedly used on accused al-Qaeda terrorists, in a converted horseback riding facility 20 kilometers northeast of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at an attached café, the CIA installed a hidden concrete structure where it could hold up to eight "high value detainees" at a time, a current Lithuanian government official and a former CIA official told ABC News.

For many of the residents of this former Soviet state, it is reminiscent of the KGB's secret prisons. "As a Lithuanian," a local woman told ABC News, "I am not very proud of this."

"The activities in that prison were illegal," said John Sifton, a New York attorney whose firm One World Research investigates human rights abuses. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions."

After ABC News revealed the location of the prison, a top Lithuanian official said that the report was damaging to his country's reputation.

"Obviously, this is not helping Lithuania's image," Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas told the Baltic News Service. "Therefore it is vital that we conduct an investigation and clear any doubts." Usackas also warned Lithuanians not to believe "rumors or wild tales."

A "Building Within A Building"

It is not known which suspected al-Qaeda figures were in Lithuania, but 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad was moved out of the CIA's secret prison in Poland just before the Lithuanian facility was opened. According to sources who say they saw the facility, the riding academy originally consisted of an indoor riding area with a red metallic roof, a stable and a cafe. The CIA built a thick concrete wall inside the riding area. Behind the wall, it built what one Lithuanian source called a "building within a building."

On a series of thick concrete pads, it installed what a source called "prefabricated pods" to house prisoners, each separated from the other by five or six feet. Each pod included a shower, a bed and a toilet. Separate cells were constructed for interrogations. The CIA converted much of the rest of the building into garage space. Intelligence officers working at the prison were housed next door in the converted stable.

A local woman who lives near the complex, and who refused to give her name for fear of retribution reports that when she often saw cars with black-tinted windows drive up to the buildings. When a garage door opened, all the lights in the complex would go off until the car had entered the building and the door had closed.

Electrical power for both structures was provided by a 2003 Caterpillar autonomous generator. All the electrical outlets in the renovated structure were 110 volts, meaning they were designed for American appliances. European outlets and appliances typically use 220 volts.

Locals report that English-speaking guards worked at the complex, and often swam in a nearby lake. The guards were rotated every 90 days. Lithuanian officials provided ABC News with the documents of what they called a CIA front company, Elite, LLC, which purchased the property and built the "black site" in 2004. ABC News first reported that Lithuania was one of three eastern European countries, along with Poland and Romania, where the CIA secretly interrogated suspected high-value al-Qaeda terrorists, but until now the precise site had not been confirmed. Read that report here. The CIA purchased the property in March 2004, the same month Lithuania marked its formal admission to NATO. Poland joined NATO in 1999, and Romania joined in 2004.

"The older members, the original 15 members of NATO, would never have said 'yes' to something like this," said former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. "But the new members were easy to please."

The CIA opened the prison in Sept. 2004, and closed it in Nov. 2005, former CIA officials told ABC News.

The CIA declined to talk about the prison. "The CIA's terrorist interrogation program is over," said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. "This agency does not discuss publicly where detention facilities may or may not have been."

Lithuania: ABC News Report 'Not Helping' Our Image

By Matthew Cole and Brian Ross

A top Lithuanian official said that a report by ABC News that it had discovered a secret CIA prison in a former riding academy near Vilnius was damaging to his country's reputation.

"Obviously, this is not helping Lithuania's image," Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas told the Baltic News Service Thursday. "Therefore it is vital that we conduct an investigation and clear any doubts." Usackas also warned Lithuanians not to believe "rumors or wild tales."

On Wednesday, ABC News revealed the location of one of the CIA's secret "black site" prisons, where harsh interrogation techniques were allegedly used on accused al-Qaeda terrorists, in a converted horseback riding facility 20 kilometers northeast of the Lithuanian capital. Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at an attached café, the CIA installed a hidden concrete structure where it could hold up to eight "high value detainees" at a time, a current Lithuanian government official and a former CIA official told ABC News.

For many of the residents of this former Soviet state, it is reminiscent of the KGB's secret prisons. "As a Lithuanian," a local woman told ABC News, "I am not very proud of this."

"The activities in that prison were illegal," said John Sifton, a New York attorney whose firm One World Research investigates human rights abuses. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions."

It is not known which suspected al-Qaeda figures were in Lithuania, but 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad was moved out of the CIA's secret prison in Poland just before the Lithuanian facility was opened.

According to sources who say they saw the facility, the riding academy originally consisted of an indoor riding area with a red metallic roof, a stable and a cafe. The CIA built a thick concrete wall inside the riding area. Behind the wall, it built what one Lithuanian source called a "building within a building."

Inside the Secret Prison

On a series of thick concrete pads, it installed what a source called "prefabricated pods" to house prisoners, each separated from the other by five or six feet. Each pod included a shower, a bed and a toilet. Separate cells were constructed for interrogations. The CIA converted much of the rest of the building into garage space. Intelligence officers working at the prison were housed next door in the converted stable.

A local woman who lives near the complex, and who refused to give her name for fear of retribution reports that when she often saw cars with black-tinted windows drive up to the buildings. When a garage door opened, all the lights in the complex would go off until the car had entered the building and the door had closed.

Electrical power for both structures was provided by a 2003 Caterpillar autonomous generator. All the electrical outlets in the renovated structure were 110 volts, meaning they were designed for American appliances. European outlets and appliances typically use 220 volts.

Locals report that English-speaking guards worked at the complex, and often swam in a nearby lake. The guards were rotated every 90 days.

Lithuanian officials provided ABC News with the documents of what they called a CIA front company, Elite, LLC, which purchased the property and built the "black site" in 2004.

ABC News first reported that Lithuania was one of three eastern European countries, along with Poland and Romania, where the CIA secretly interrogated suspected high-value al-Qaeda terrorists, but until now the precise site had not been confirmed. Read that report here.

The CIA purchased the property in March 2004, the same month Lithuania marked its formal admission to NATO. Poland joined NATO in 1999, and Romania joined in 2004.

"The older members, the original 15 members of NATO, would never have said yes to something like this," said former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. "But the new members were easy to please."

CIA Declines Comment

The CIA opened the prison in September 2004, and closed it in November 2005, former CIA officials told CIA News.

The CIA declined to talk about the prison. "The CIA's terrorist interrogation program is over," said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. "This agency does not discuss publicly where detention facilities may or may not have been."

The building is now owned by Lithuanian intelligence, which refused to let ABC News past its gates.

CIA Secret 'Torture' Prison Found at Fancy Horseback Riding Academy

By MATTHEW COLE and BRIAN ROSS

The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week.

Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists at a time.

"The activities in that prison were illegal," said human rights researcher John Sifton. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions."

Lithuanian officials provided ABC News with the documents of what they called a CIA front company, Elite, LLC, which purchased the property and built the "black site" in 2004.

Lithuania agreed to allow the CIA prison after President George W. Bush visited the country in 2002 and pledged support for Lithuania's efforts to join NATO.

"The new members of NATO were so grateful for the U.S. role in getting them into that organization that they would do anything the U.S. asked for during that period," said former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. "They were eager to please and eager to be cooperative on security and on intelligence matters."

Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite declined ABC's request for an interview.

ABC News first reported that Lithuania was one of three eastern European countries, along with Poland and Romania, where the CIA secretly interrogated suspected high-value al-Qaeda terrorists, but until now the precise site had not been confirmed. Read that report here.

Until March 2004, the site was a riding academy and café owned by a local family. The facility is in the town of Antaviliai, in the forest 20 kilometers northeast of the city center of Vilnius, near an exclusive suburb where many government officials live.

A "Building Within A Building"

In March 2004, the family sold the property to Elite, LLC, a now-defunct company registered in Delaware and Panama and Washington, D.C. That same month, Lithuania marked its formal admission to NATO.

The CIA constructed the prison over the next several months, apparently flying in prefabricated elements from outside Lithuania. The prison opened in Sept. 2004.

According to sources who saw the facility, the riding academy originally consisted of an indoor riding area with a red metallic roof, a stable and a cafe. The CIA built a thick concrete wall inside the riding area. Behind the wall, it built what one Lithuanian source called a "building within a building."

On a series of thick concrete pads, it installed what a source called "prefabricated pods" to house prisoners, each separated from the other by five or six feet. Each pod included a shower, a bed and a toilet. Separate cells were constructed for interrogations. The CIA converted much of the rest of the building into garage space.

Intelligence officers working at the prison were housed next door in the converted stable, raising the roof to add space. Electrical power for both structures was provided by a 2003 Caterpillar autonomous generator. All the electrical outlets in the renovated structure were 110 volts, meaning they were designed for American appliances. European outlets and appliances typically use 220 volts.

The prison pods inside the barn were not visible to locals. They describe seeing large amounts of earth being excavated during the summer of 2004. Locals who saw the activity at the prison and approached to ask for work were turned away by English-speaking guards. The guards were replaced by new guards every 90 days.

Former CIA officials directly involved or briefed on the highly classified secret prison program tell ABC News that as many as eight suspects were held for more than a year in the Vilnius prison. Flight logs viewed by ABC News confirm that CIA planes made repeated flights into Lithuania during that period. In November 2005, after public disclosures about the program, the prison was closed, as was another "black site" in Romania.

Lithuanian Prison One of Many Around Europe, Officials Said

The CIA moved the so-called High Value Detainees (HVD) out of Europe to "war zone" facilities, according to one of the former CIA officials, meaning they were moved to the Middle East. Within nine months, President Bush announced the existence of the program and ordered the transfer of 14 of the detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Ramzi bin al Shihb and Abu Zubaydah, to Guantanamo.

In August 2009, after ABC News reported the existence of the secret prison outside Vilnius, Lithuanian president Grybauskaite called for an investigation. "If this is true," Grybauskaite said, "Lithuania has to clean up, accept responsibility, apologize, and promise it will never happen again."

At the time, a Lithuanian government official denied that his country had hosted a secret CIA facility. The CIA told ABC News that reporting the existence of the Lithuanian prison was "irresponsible" and declined to discuss the location of the prison.

On Tuesday, the CIA again declined to talk about the prison. "The CIA's terrorist interrogation program is over," said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. "This agency does not discuss publicly where detention facilities may or may not have been."

Former CIA officials told ABC News that the prison in Lithuania was one of eight facilities the CIA set-up after 9/11 to detain and interrogate top al-Qaeda operatives captured around the world. Thailand, Romania, Poland, Morocco, and Afghanistan have also been identified as countries that housed secret prisons for the CIA. President Barack Obama ordered all the sites closed shortly after taking office in January.

The Lithuanian prison was the last "black" site opened in Europe, after the CIA's secret prison in Poland was closed down in late 2003 or early 2004.

"It obviously took a lot of effort to keep [the prison] secret," said John Sifton, whose firm One World Research investigates human rights abuses. "There's a reason this stuff gets kept secret."

"It's an embarrassment, and a crime."

Officials: U.S. Army Told of Hasan's Contacts with al Qaeda

By Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole and Brian Ross

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with an individual associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

According to the officials, the Army was informed of Hasan's contact, but it is unclear what, if anything, the Army did in response.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.

In response, Hoekstra issued a document preservation request to four intelligence agencies. The letter, dated November 7th, was sent to directors Dennis Blair (DNI), Robert Mueller (FBI), Lt. Gen Keith Alexander (NSA) and Leon Panetta (CIA).

Hoekstra said he is "absolutely furious" that the house intel committee has been refused an intelligence briefing by the DNI or CIA on Hasan's attempt to reach out to al Qaeda, as first reported by ABC News.

"This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies—not the CIA—have the lead," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a response to ABC News. " Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is incorrect."

Investigators want to know if Hasan maintained contact with a radical mosque leader from Virginia, Anwar al Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen and runs a web site that promotes jihad around the world against the U.S.

In a blog posting early Monday titled "Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing," Awlaki calls Hasan a "hero" and a "man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people."

According to his site, Awlaki served as an imam in Denver, San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia.

The Associated Press reported Sunday that Major Hasan attended the Falls Church mosque when Awlaki was there.

The Telegraph of London reported that Awlaki had made contact with two of the 9/11 hijackers when he was in San Diego.

He denied any knowledge of the hijacking plot and was never charged with any crime. After an intensive investigation by the FBI , Awlaki moved to Yemen.

People who knew or worked with Hasan say he seemed to have gradually become more radical in his disapproval of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) called for an investigation into whether the Army missed signs as to whether Hasan was an Islamic extremist.

"If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have a zero tolerance," Lieberman told Fox News Sunday.

Army Chief of Staff

A fellow Army doctor who studied with Hasan, Val Finell, told ABC News, "He would frequently say he was a Muslim first and an American second. And that came out in just about everything he did at the University."

Finell said he and other Army doctors complained to superiors about Hasan's statements.

"And we questioned how somebody could take an oath of office…be an officer in the military and swear allegiance to the constitution and to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic and have that type of conflict," Finell told ABC News.

The Army Chief of Staff, General George Casey, raised concerns over the weekend that innocent Muslim soldiers could suffer as a result of the shooting at Fort Hood.

"I think the speculation (on Hasan's Islamic roots) could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers," he said on ABC's "This Week."