GOING ROGUE: Complete with Psy-Ops

What follows is the distillation of a compulsive, Tree-Of-Smoke of a story in which one imprudent official from the Department of Defense is cover-blown after having siphoned government money earmarked for intelligence into his own, more secret fund, which he then used to establish a spy network of private contractors in the -stans whose prime objective--and this still may be the case--was to track and kill alleged area militants, as filed by the Times on March 15. Alright then:

1. The assassination squad was assembled from former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives. It's creator, Michael D. Furlong, was at the time operating under a euphemism: that is, "a benign government information-gathering program..."

2. "It is generally considered illegal for the military to hire contractors to act as covert spies;"

3. "The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised the project..."

4. but it may have been an attempt to "get around" the Pakistani habit of prohibiting American military personnel from operating in their country;

5. Officials say Mr. Furlong's operations "seem to have been shut down," that it is "still murky" as to whether he obtained any approvals or handshakes from central command...

6. And that it's "generally a bad idea to have freelancers running around a war zone pretending to be James Bond."

7. Finally, it is reported that "Mr. Furlong has extensive experience in 'psychological operations.'"

For more, read the on-record investigation, or the novel Tree of Smoke-- both of relative length.