Pentagon investigating report: US official set private spy network: New York Times

A US official identified as Michael Furlong organised a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the purpose of finding and killing suspected Islamic militants, The New York Times reported on Monday. Citing unnamed military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.
The newspaper said Furlong, who works for the Defence Department, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former CIA and Special Forces members. These people gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected Islamic militants and the location of insurgent camps, the report said. After that, the information was sent to military units and intelligence officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan for use in possible strikes, the paper said.
Some US officials said they were concerned that Furlong could be running an unofficial spy operation, adding they were not sure who condoned and supervised his work, The Times said. The paper noted that it was generally considered illegal for the military to hire contractors to act as covert spies. It was also possible that Furlong's network might have been improperly financed by diverting money from a program designed to gather information about the region, The Times said.
A US official says a Defence Department official is under investigation for allegedly hiring private contractors to gather intelligence on suspected insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case, told The Associated Press Michael D. Furlong directed a defence contractor to gather information about the region that could be shared with military units.
The official said after military officials suspected he was using Defence Department money for an off-the-books spy operation, defence officials shut down that part of the contract. The story was first reported by The New York Times in Monday's editions, quoting unnamed military and business sources saying Furlong hired subcontractors who had former US intelligence and special forces operatives on their payrolls.