Comments for What Was That Secret CIA Operation? Targeted Assassinations?

What Was That Secret CIA Operation? Targeted Assassinations?

2009-07-13T11:46:33Z

According to the Wall Street Journal's Siobahn Gorman, "a secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter."

It's a curious story. So Congress knew about the finding (which has been previously reported -- first by Bob Wooward in Bush at War, then elaborated on by Ron Suskind and others) and the revelation is that the CIA had a cell that was still proposing ways to carry out the finding? That doesn't seem objectionable... especially if the finding had been fully briefed to Congress and the CIA hadn't authorized any action operations.

What's ticklish is that the Joint Special Operations Command, operating under the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (against Al Qaeda) and the Bush/Cheney Article II inherent authority rubric, fairly routinely captured/killed Al Qaeda leaders in places like Yemen and Somalia... without the permission of the country involved. (The CIA often provided intelligence to help these efforts.) The CIA needs a presidential finding to begin a covert op; for a clandestine op (an operation that results in something public but whose originator is hidden), the disclosure requirements are different. And the Bush administration claimed the inherent authority to capture or kill Al Qaeda leaders anywhere under its interpretation of terrorism as a military matter.
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So maybe it was a program designed to provide cover for covert ops in friendly countries to capture or kill Al Qaeda leaders operating in areas non-contiguous to the battlefield.

The CIA uses predator drones to kill Al Q leaders in Pakistan, occasionally without direct permission from the Pakistanis, which is technically covered by the AUMF. Without reference to the law, it's a distinction without much of a difference.

Comment from Dredd on 2009-07-13

2009-07-13T13:12:18Z

The big question going through many of our minds is based on the "open government" concept but without accountability.

The question is "Is The Law On The Table"?

Comment from Kerguelen on 2009-07-13

2009-07-13T14:00:26Z

Once again the content of the program misses the point. It is the cover-up, the refusal to brief lawmakers, or the withholding of information that is the rub. The question is not what was the program, the question is did the CIA fail to brief the required members.

Comment from Pwnce on 2009-07-13

2009-07-13T15:47:58Z

The Dems on the Intel committee would be hugely stupid to create this kind of brouhaha over a simple separation of powers violation, so I would hope that they're going all-in on a program that is egregious on its face.

Marc's "covert ops in friendly countries" theory definitely shocks my conscience, but I think in order to elicit any kind of public condemnation, and thus Congressional vindication, the proposed program would have to involve a very friendly country.

Comment from Marc Adin on 2009-07-13

2009-07-13T23:14:11Z

Give me a break. The story running around now that the "secret op" that the CIA hid was targeted assasination attempts aimed at Al-Qaedda is a CIA plant to get some disinformation media program going. Everybody and their mother would be pleased with the "plan." Isn't that why we invaded Afghanistan? Think about it for chrissake. If bin Laden was working at Bloomingdales in Manhhatan and someone blew him away, you think that would be a problem?

I can't believe people are so simple as to fall for a red-herring like this. Maybe you are that simple minded. Maybe some doods at the CIA are laughing their asses off right now.

Keep digging, Ambinder. Maybe you'll come up with something not laughable. How about 'plausible deniability' like third party hiring of guys like FARC or MC13 to carry out assassinations, et.al.?

Comment from Marc Adin on 2009-07-13

2009-07-13T23:19:45Z

[cont'd] In the US or other countries, with an unknown connection to the bad guys. Sleeping with bad guys to get at the baddest doods is an age old black ops tactic. My guess is that whoever was doing work on 'the dark side' had no clue they were doing or trying to do someone in the CIA's bowels bidding.

Perhaps we'll never know.

Comment from hottubs on 2009-07-19

2009-07-19T17:03:45Z

If they do assassinations without through court that means Human Right Violations. That's why I think that CIA works should never reveal for public consumption.

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