Blackwater Conspiracy Theory Thrives in Pakistan

(Feb. 12) -- Pakistan's religious parties have pumped up their campaign to discredit U.S. strategy in Pakistan by accusing Washington of using the notorious mercenaries of Blackwater to secretly invade the country.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, or JUI, the leading Islamist political party, has accused the U.S. of hiring 9,000 "mercenaries" from the disgraced U.S.-based security firm, now renamed Xe Services, to run black ops, or covert operations, in Pakistan's volatile northwest frontier.

Xe representatives, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and Pakistani authorities have all denied the allegation, but Rehman's announcement plays to an increasingly mistrustful Pakistani population, which sees the U.S. presence in Pakistan as steadily shifting toward direct occupation.

To be sure, Blackwater has earned itself a certain status that draws suspicions. This week, Iraq ordered 250 former and current employees of the company out of that country within seven days. The Baghdad government is incensed at a U.S. court's dismissal of manslaughter charges against five former Blackwater security employees for the 2007 deaths of 11 civilians. The U.S. Justice Department is expected to appeal that judgment next week.

In addition, documents submitted in a lawsuit against the company this week in Virginia suggest it defrauded the government by requesting reimbursement for spa trips, gym memberships and a prostitute put on the Afghanistan payroll.

But those are not the only reasons Rehman's claims resonate in Pakistan, despite a lack of concrete evidence.

For years now, the country's population has generally been kept in the dark about security issues and government initiatives. The Pakistani military's strategy for fighting terrorism has been opaque and erratic at best. That makes Pakistan fertile ground for conspiracy theories like this one.

This latest salvo against the U.S. comes as Washington is in the midst of ratcheting up its campaign against the Taliban, with a recent announcement that it will fast-track the training of Pakistani security forces confronting militants in the country's northwest. That strategy will require more U.S. trainers on the ground inside Pakistan, further feeding the flames of anti-American sentiment.

The deaths of three U.S. military trainers on Feb. 3 in Lower Dir, where a Pakistani military operation over the past summer purportedly rid the region of Taliban militants, has fueled more suspicion.

"Pakistanis were never told American trainers were working with our security forces," says Iqbal Khattak, Peshawar bureau chief for Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper. "So the news of the U.S. deaths, in what is considered a very sensitive region of Pakistan, has ultimately caused more confusion and doubt."

The Pakistani Taliban, which took credit for the attack that also killed three schoolgirls, claimed the trainers were Blackwater personnel. The Pentagon has identified the three as Army Sgts. David J. Hartman, Matthew Sluss-Tiller and Mark Stets Jr.

The row over the role of private security firms operating in Pakistan is a clear example of how quickly public perception can devolve into paranoia and anger. "Western diplomats admit Blackwater is here," says Khattak. "They are only providing security to U.S. Embassy staff, they say. But the Pakistani government refuses to acknowledge this. That kind of secrecy creates uncertainty and mistrust."

Anti-American groups in Pakistan, like the JUI and the Taliban, have seized on that uncertainty, as have other opposition politicians in Pakistan, turning peoples' fears into political capital.

"It's a real problem here," says Aftab Hussein, a doctoral student at the Agricultural University in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province. "Educated people realize these guys are being hired by the U.S. government for their personal security, but uneducated people have a different perception. They see them as mercenaries. They hear about what they did in Iraq, and they fear them. To these people, Blackwater means murderers."

The December dismissal of the Iraq charges against Blackwater -- along with a general misunderstanding of the U.S. justice system's complexity -- has bolstered a belief that the U.S. is using mercenaries to carry out crimes and then protecting them against prosecution.

Battling those perceptions remains a challenge for the U.S., one that goes beyond canceling contracts with Blackwater and its successor. According to Khattak, what's needed most in Pakistan now is transparency in terms of how the war on terror is executed. Maintaining a cloud of secrecy over the role of private security companies only serves those elements that benefit from chaos and uncertainty, he adds.