Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.
From left: Michael D. Furlong, the official who was said to have hired private contractors to track militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan; Robert Young Pelton, a contractor; Duane Clarridge, a former CIA official; and Eason Jordan, a former television news executive. (photos: USAF/Robert Young Pelton/Mike Wintroath/AP/Adam Berry/Bloomberg News)
