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Hardin Official: Unnamed But 'Highly Qualified' APPF Director Of Ops In Afghanistan Right Now

Justin Elliott | October 5, 2009, 6:08PM

Al Peterson, American Police Force, Hardin, Hardin Montana, International SOS, Richard Culver

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American Private Police Force has hired a director of operations for the Hardin jail project who will not be publicly named until next week but who is a "highly qualified" retired U.S. military person doing training in Afghanistan, a Hardin official tells TPMmuckraker.

"I've got his resume and it looks pretty nice," says Al Peterson of the Hardin economic development agency, which brokered the jail deal with APPF.

Peterson wouldn't say who the director of operations is, but confirmed it was not a Hardin local.

APPF official "Captain" Michael Hilton has said that his boss is a retired U.S. Army colonel named Richard Culver who is currently overseas, the AP reported last month. But the AP was not able to verify Culver's role in the firm. And no colonel of that name has a footprint on Lexis-Nexis.

There's been some chatter online that a former official of medical and security services firm International SOS -- who is named Richard Culver -- could be linked to APPF. But a member of the company's security firm told us today that Culver, who left the company about a year ago, was not a U.S. citizen and had no affiliation with the Army.

We've put in a call with the Army about a Col. Culver, and we'll let you know what we find out.

Late Update:: International SOS spokeswoman Erin Giordano tells TPMmuckraker the company has "no affiliation" with American Private Police Force. "It's not the same Rich Culver," she says.

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12 comments

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San Fernando Curt

October 5, 2009 6:34 PM

I yam happy to be tellink you I am to be warden of jailer's prison in your Big Sky. Did I tell to you I yam Serbian prince? Eez true! Call me sheriff. I am your cowboy. Smell! Where am I? Uh... Afghanistan. Where to be be in Afghanistan? Uh... Peru!

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tctundra

October 5, 2009 7:54 PM

The bigger story here is this - right wing, small time, small town, numbnuts officials like those running Hardin and thinking they are getting a deal from APF are the same people who are uninsured but want Government to stay out of their healthcare, whos house burns down but don't want a paid fire department, who want small government and efficiency but enter into absurd contracts to pay private firms to provide public services with no clue what they're doing.

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The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker

October 5, 2009 9:35 PM

http://www.linkedin.com/in/richculver

Retired Air Force. Here's his company:

http://www.appsig.com/ Location: California EST 1984!!!!!!

What his company does: In 1984, Applied Signal Technology, Inc. (AST) (NASDAQ: APSG) initiated business operations in Sunnyvale, California, with four founders and a vision of providing advanced digital signal processing technologies that protect and enhance national security. Today, we remain true to that vision. AST has grown into a full-service intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) provider, serving national priorities in defense, intelligence, and homeland security with over $185 million in annual revenues.

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Badtux

October 5, 2009 10:15 PM

I know Applied Signal Technology. They do deep black NSA stuff. They hire NSA spooks and USAF monitoring and signals intelligence people, not special ops spooks. The closest any of their guys would have ever been to special ops would be a black bag job to insert a keylogger into the computer of someone they want to monitor, and that would be done by their NSA hires, not their USAF hires (though this Rich Culver *could* be a NSA hire -- many NSA employees are "officially" carried on the military payroll as their cover story). And if you manage to land an AST job you hang on to it, because the salaries are ginormous and the benefits package is incredible. The notion that this particular Rich Culver would leave AST to go work for a special ops outfit seems like a non-starter to me, and if this RIch Culver is actually in Afghanistan right now it's to manage installation of NSA gear (AST has that contract), not special ops.

In short, I think we still have the wrong Rich Culver here. I can't see AST working with any company as sketchy as this "American Police Force", and unless Rich Culver was fired (unlikely, he was a colonel and knows enough people in the AF to get things done since AST has to deal with the AF signals intelligence people regularly), I can't see this Rich Culver leaving AST anytime before his final retirement to the Bahamas. In fact, I am starting to suspect there is no "Rich Culver"...

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The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker

October 5, 2009 11:07 PM in reply to Badtux

Perhaps you are correct, but is the distinction you are making between NSA and special ops that important for the position of Director? I know the website makes APF look like Commando Central, but that doesn't mean our Mr. Culver has to be one, does it?

I checked and AST has multiple connections with the Army, civilian policing and Homeland Security. Also I found this:

Sunnyvale, CA.--(Business Wire)--Applied Signal Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:APSG) (AST), a leading provider of advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) solutions, today announced that it will showcase an extensive and evolving collection of advanced communications surveillance products at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) on June 2-4 at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida.

http://www.policeone.com/police-products/radios/surveillance/press-releases/1837310-Applied-Signal-Technology-Inc-to-Showcase-Products-at-SOFIC-2009-Conference/

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The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker

October 5, 2009 11:24 PM in reply to Badtux

And they're kinda picky about people they hire:

http://www.simplyhired.com/job-id/dek4v24kpp/special-programs-jobs/

Special Programs Telecommunication Operator
Applied Signal Technology - Reston, VA
Special Programs Telecommunication Operator Northern Virginia
. . . . The qualified candidate will have: 1. Active duty U.S. military experience in a Special Operations unit (SEAL, Special Forces, SWAT Team, Rangers and other government law enforcement backgrounds) 2. Telecommunications expertise with 3+ years in a SIGINT environment 3

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Badtux

October 5, 2009 11:57 PM in reply to The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker

Interesting. Looks like they're branching out a bit into actual operations rather than staying strictly a gear supplier like they were when my source was in Air Force Signals Intelligence, they were hiring signals geeks and high-ranking signals intelligence officer retirees then. They are definitely Connected with a capital "C", according to my source their initial startup funding was NSA off-budget funding and they still continue to have more money than any sales figures can justify (i.e., it seems likely they're still receiving significant sums of off-budget monies).

Which presents a problem for the notion that this Mr. Culver would leave AST or that AST themselves would have anything to do with APF other than as a supplier of communications intelligence gear -- it simply is not rational to believe a company so deeply Connected would get deeply involved with a company as sketchy as APF or that one of their fairly recent hires, undoubtedly well compensated (that's how they stay Connected -- they hire high-level retiring signals officers to keep steering contracts their way via their connections back in the services), would leave in order to work for APF. This simply isn't how AST operates. I can see them doing a deniable black bag job on behalf of the NSA to plant bugs in steel reinforcement beams intended for Ahmadinejad's bunker, maybe (though that's stretching it -- more likely, they'll be designing the bugs to be planted in the beams, not doing it themselves, and want the black ops guys just to get the parameters for what's feasible to do). But this APF stuff just is not their style, it's way too open for them and the possible downsides too big given their rather cushy niche in signals intelligence.

That said, it's possible, people have done stupid things like leave a well-paying job to go to work for a sketchy company simply because they got bored and are looking for something with a bit more adventure, but I still think it highly unlikely.

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The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker

October 6, 2009 8:24 AM in reply to Badtux

Badtux, if I were coming from it at your angle I would conclude the same thing. But I'm coming at it from a different angle: That APF is just a cutout.

Without going into a tangent, suffice it to say I'm aware of a motive for this. I'm especially keen to why a shadowy group of transnationals and black budget types would want to burrow into U.S. soil at this EPIC time in history, but not want us to know about it. I know why they would want to outfit UN peacekeeper-types in red, white and blue. I know why US elites are hiring their own private police forces en masse. And don't even get me started on this Homeland Security overkill.

In short: It's our turn.

http://www.enterprisecorruption.com/

Plenty of visitors to this site will try to brush this off as "conspiracy theory" (so what if it is?) but the simple fraud argument just does not wash. Hardin has no money to steal. APF was BRINGING IN money, and from the sound of it, our tax money, which means the Feds had an interest in APF being here. I can put two and two together and see the hand in front of my face, and I don't need a shrieky Alex Jones controlled-ops shill to spell it out from me. Something's afoot.

Now, if this IS the Richard Culver, he might just demur now, especially since it looks as though the APF project is "on hold." From all the changes they're making, it looks as though the transnationals are trying to find a new, pajamahadeen-proof angle that will be more palatable to Middle America. I see a hole in their strategy, though: I don't think they have this kind of time. The SHTF train has left the station and is likely to hit home before Christmas. But we shall see.

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old59034

October 5, 2009 11:58 PM

ah-h-h hah, Meester Borat is smell you every where en Hardon Mountain - he like make sex with Two Rivers goobers who es "all hat, no cattle"

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Bill Cole

October 6, 2009 1:46 AM

Given the plagiarism from Allied, the claimed ownership of a Xe (Blackwater) facility, the stupid logo choice, and the long rap sheet of the only identifiable person associated with APPF, what is the basis for believing that anything APPF says is anything more than fraud? Seriously: what is the evidence for APPF being anything more than a small-scale fraud?

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brillobreaks

October 6, 2009 5:03 AM in reply to Bill Cole

There isn't any. But it's easier to speculate about various conspiracy theories than to dig up the rather petty small town politics that are actually driving this.

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