There you have it folks. Anything you thought was a conspiracy theory has been proven to be fact.
The programme isnt a secret and continued till the OBL raid, btw and as its reported, was greatly expanded.
Note that the same FC is now out of control in Baluchistan. Not hard to figure out why, if you know a thing or two about SOTA and what "counter insurgency training" actually entails.
Note they were under direct command with zero PakMil oversight. Just goes to show how deep the ingress has gotten.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...d-US-backed-private-army-to-hunt-Taliban.html
Briton led US-backed private army to hunt Taliban
A former British special forces officer ran a[HI] US-backed private army to hunt down the Taliban in Pakistan in a secret war in 2003[/HI], a new book has revealed.
Lieutenant Commander Howard Leedham MBE
By Rob Crilly, Islamabad
6:00PM GMT 28 Nov 2012
[HI]Lieutenant Commander Howard Leedham, an ex-Royal Navy pilot, led a 25-strong force of specially-recruited Pakistani soldiers raiding Taliban camps,[/HI] hunting down kidnap victims and detaining suspected al-Qaeda militants.
Eight years after leaving the country, Lt Cdr Leeham has broken his silence to [HI]describe a programme he believes offers a model for securing Pakistan’s porous borders against the militant threat.[/HI]
While he was at work in the tribal badlands that border Afghanistan, the [HI]US State Department programme was a closely guarded secret — even from US and Pakistani officials[/HI]. Under a one-year contract, Leedham was granted use of an[HI] American fleet of seven helicopters and two fixed-wing planes to conduct anti-terrorist operations in support of local troops from a base in Quetta[/HI], capital of the restive province of Baluchistan.
[HI]
To do it he had to persuade a Pakistani general to allow him to recruit a handful of local Pathan soldiers.[/HI]
“For a moment in time there was a group of Pathans, there were some Pakistani military officers, there were American mechanics, there was me,” he said, referring to the tough mountain tribesmen of north-western Pakistan.
[HI]“Did we break a few rules on the way? Yes. But if we didn’t, the people who would have got the advantage were the bad guys.”[/HI]
The success of[HI] “the 25” as Lt Cdr Leedham’s force became known[/HI], meant it was first doubled in size and then [HI]scaled up into a multi-million dollar American and British training programme, which were halted only last year after the raid to kill Osama bin Laden.[/HI]
Lt Cdr Leedham tells his story in a new book, Ask Forgiveness Not Permission.
He had left the British military — after a career as a helicopter pilot for Royal Marine Commando and what he [HI]coyly describes as “special forces type operations” [/HI]— and was working with an executive air service in the US when [HI]he was approached to take over a failing State Department programme in Pakistan.[/HI]
With resources focused on the war in Iraq during 2003, equipping his force was a question of begging, stealing and borrowing what was needed. [HI]Ration packs were sourced from US troops in Kabul. Smoke grenades were bartered from a contact at the British High Commission in return for seats on flights to Quetta.[/HI]
The soldiers he worked with were recruited from the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary outfit with its roots in colonial India. But while the men knew the terrain they lacked commando training.
Lt Cdr Leedham taught the recruits the basics of desert warfare and gave an intense course in helicopter-borne assault techniques. The inspiration for his instructions came from [HI]the writings of Lawrence of Arabia.[/HI]
[HI]“These guys really did perform,” said Lt Cdr Leedham. “I used a lot of Lawrence doctrine. I know it sounds a bit hokey but I did.”[/HI]
At the time, local newspapers reported [HI]mysterious roadblocks on the main road from Pakistan to Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban. They would disappear as soon as word spread, only to reappear elsewhere.[/HI] Lt Cdr Leedham was briefed on an operation to move on a compound frequented by a “high-profile” suspect. He was never told the target and the plan was apparently vetoed by the US on legal grounds, but the book hints that it was a senior al-Qaeda figure, possibly even Osama bin Laden himself.
Lt Cdr Leedham returned to the US at the end of his one-year contract at the age of 46. Today he lives in London and works in the financial world.
[HI]The story will cause unease in Pakistan, where conspiracy theories circulate about secret Western forces running amok and where the US today uses a classified drone programme to hunt militants.[/HI]
Lt Cdr Leedham said the model he used — small teams of local fighters with tight security protocols that prevent tip-offs to militant leaders — could still be used to hunt terrorists even as Western forces pull out of the region.
Longer version of the report is on the blog of the Journalist Robert crilly blog.
Worth reading I am extracting some additional info only.
http://robcrilly.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/inside-americas-secret-war-in-pakistan/
Mr Leedham was involved in a corporate jet service in the US when he was approached by an [HI]obscure branch of the US government, the State Department’s Air Wing[/HI], more normally engaged in hunting down drug lords.
Officials had realised Pakistan’s poorly protected border was a problem. Operations in Afghanistan were undermined by militants’ crossing back and forth at will.
Their solution was to provide helicopters and advisers to the Pakistan military to help them better secure the frontier and chase down the bad guys.
But with resources and expertise focused on the war in Iraq, Mr Leedham arrived in Pakistan to find a programme on the brink of closure. The seven helicopters and two fixed-wing planes had been impounded by local officials in the latest spat between the two countries.
Nevertheless, he soldiered on, [HI]retrieving the aircraft before finding a suitable platoon of Frontier Corps recruits in Quetta[/HI], the capital of Baluchistan.
[HI]Their commanding officer, General Sadaqat Ali Shah, had assembled a rapid reaction force[/HI] and was soon won over by the persistent Brit who threatened to turn up at his lavatory door to secure a meeting.
Equipping them was a matter of begging, stealing and borrowing whatever was needed. [HI]Ration packs were sourced from US troops in Kabul.[/HI]Smoke grenades were bartered from a contact at the British High Commission in return for seats on flights to Quetta. [HI]And first aid kits came from the American Embassy nurse at the price of a bottle of Chateauneuf-de-Pape.
[/HI][HI]Dusty boxes of night vision goggles completed their kit[/HI], giving them a vital edge over the enemy.
A small team of mechanics from DynCorp, the US military contractor, kept the helicopters running.
Mr Leedham returned to the US at the end of his one-year contract at the age of 46. Today he lives in London and works in the financial world.
But his success became a blueprint for a massive injection of American and British cash and expertise designed to help stabilise Pakistan’s troubled border regions as international forces depart from Afghanistan.
In 2009 [HI]The New York Times reported that more than 70 US advisers were secretly training Pakistan troops in the north-western city of Peshawar, helping them kill or capture some 60 militants in seven months.[/HI][HI]
[/HI]And Britain has spent[HI] 15m building a training camp for Frontier Corps forces in Quetta.[/HI][HI]
[/HI]
Update: This was actually reported in detail at the time,but did not generate much of a reaction
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_22-9-2004_pg7_12
US training Pakistanis for terror hunt
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: [HI]Special Pakistani forces are being trained at an air force base in Florida and in Quetta by the Americans to conduct air assaults on terrorist cell[/HI]s, free hostages and search for Osama Bin Laden.
“We are training pilots, mechanics and ground forces into a rapid interdiction force. The unit (under training) is cutting edge. [HI]There is nothing like it in Pakistan,”[/HI] according to Paul O’Sullivan, director of Air Wing operations at the Florida base.
[HI]The 50th squadron of the Frontier Corps is one of the crack units being prepared for these special operations.[/HI] Frontier Corps operates under Pakistan’s Ministry of the Interior. A part of the corps is being trained in Quetta that O’Sullivan calls a “hotbed of drug lords and terrorists”. Working from a desolate 3,200-foot dirt runway, [HI]the unit has grown from five Huey helicopters and three Cessna Caravan turboprops in July 2002 to 10 helicopters.[/HI] [HI]US Congress appropriated $61 million for the corps.[/HI] The [HI]training programme is being managed by Howard Leedham,[/HI] the State Department’s senior aviation adviser, and several contractors.
[HI]According to an official publication, the corps is a highly manoeuvrable unit that thrives on stealth and “shock actions” with an emphasis on night operations.[/HI] According to Leedham, a former British Special Forces commander and a Royal Navy pilot, “We bring in the troops and get them out quickly”. He personally has trained the Pakistani helicopter assault force and integrated both the ground and air components into an [HI]“elite day and night strike team”.[/HI]
State Magazine, published by the Department of State, reports in its July-August issue, “To demonstrate the Corps’ deadly coordination and speed, Mr Leedham played a video recorded by a Department aircraft that captured an intense night hostage rescue training exercise. The dramatic footage, shot through the surreal green tint of night optics, shows a squad rushing to a structure where hostages are being held. Within seconds, rescuers overcome the sentries and burst into the building”.
[HI]Another tactic called “Spot Stops” along roads and highways keeps terrorists and other outlaws off balance by creating “instability”. “When rumours get out about our patrols just popping up, it provides the impression we’re everywhere,” said Leedham. [/HI]
Known mainly for spearheading the department’s drug eradication programme in Colombia, the Air Wing’s mission has expanded to Pakistan. “While still committed to drug addiction, the Wing now provides surveillance and a strike force committed to Pakistan’s Western border.[HI] Brig Shafiq-ur-Rehman Awan, Pakistan’s Air Wing director at the Interior Ministry, has called the programme “a great success”. [/HI]He claims that his helicopter pilots are the “best trained”. He said on an earlier occasion[HI] that Pakistan’s Western border is politically a “region of extremism” and difficult to manage[/HI]. “It’s not a border with checkpoints that can be sealed. It’s mountainous and the climate can be very hot or very cold.”
Howard Leedham self described Lawrence of Baluchistan after retirement.
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