Holbrooke: Americans killed in Pakistan not Blackwater
The three Americans killed by an improvised explosive device in Pakistan were American military trainers and not contractors working for Xe Services, the firm formerly known as Blackwater USA, Special Representative Richard Holbrooke said Wednesday. Two more American military personnel were injured in the roadside blast near Peshawar and are being evacuated to Islamabad, Holbrooke ...
The three Americans killed by an improvised explosive device in Pakistan were American military trainers and not contractors working for Xe Services, the firm formerly known as Blackwater USA, Special Representative Richard Holbrooke said Wednesday.
The three Americans killed by an improvised explosive device in Pakistan were American military trainers and not contractors working for Xe Services, the firm formerly known as Blackwater USA, Special Representative Richard Holbrooke said Wednesday.
Two more American military personnel were injured in the roadside blast near Peshawar and are being evacuated to Islamabad, Holbrooke said, adding they are both expected to survive. All five were part of a convoy on the way to the inauguration of a girls’ school in the western area of Pakistan, Holbrooke said.
And all five were regular military engaged in a training mission, not secret offensive paramilitary forces, as alleged by the Taliban, which has claimed credit for the attack.
"They’re certain to say that. That’s what they do. They’re adept at propaganda and disinformation," Holbrooke said, "But the facts are the facts and when — and in the appropriate moment, after notification of next of kin and appropriate things, I’m sure their names and their exact rank will be publicly disclosed, as we always do. There’s nothing secret about their presence there."
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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