CIA Program to Assassinate Al Qaeda Leaders On Point of Activation When Panetta Pulled It; Pressure for Investigation Increases

by Bartleby the Scrivener |  The allegedly toothless CIA program for assassinating Al Qaeda leaders wherever they could be found was apparently on the point of growing fangs at the time Panetta pulled it, according to this Washington Post article.

The plan to kill top al-Qaeda leaders, which had been on the agency's back burner for much of the past eight years, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight because of proposals to initiate what one intelligence official called a "somewhat more operational phase." Shortly after learning of the plan, Panetta terminated the program and then went to Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers, who had been kept in the dark since 2001....

The plan to deploy small teams of assassins grew out of the CIA's early efforts to battle al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A secret document known as a "presidential finding" was signed by President George W. Bush that same month, granting the agency broad authority to use deadly force against bin Laden as well as other senior members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

The finding imposed no geographical limitations on the agency's actions, and intelligence officials have said that they were not obliged to notify Congress of each operation envisaged under the directive....Two U.S. officials with detailed knowledge of current CIA operations said the agency presented Panetta last month with new plans for moving forward with training for potential members of the assassination teams -- activities that would have involved "crossing international boundaries," in the words of a former counterterrorism official briefed on the matter. (WaPo)

At TPM, Zachary Roth comments:

"No geographical limitations" presumably means that operations could potentially be carried out in countries, friendly or unfriendly, that are far from any war zone -- including even the US itself. And it seems likely that they would be carried out without notifying the foreign country in question.

Of course, we've frequently, and quite openly, used the military to carry out attacks on specific Qaeda leaders -- even before 9/11. But using the CIA to do so, and with such broad authority to operate anywhere in the world, as this program seems to have given the agency, would appear to take things into a different realm.

No kidding.  As Robert Baer points out in Time, setting up assassination squads for any purpose is taking things into a different realm: " "In the CIA, that was the closest thing we had to the Ten Commandments."" 

So now what happens?  The Raw Story suggests that a full investigation into the program may be imminent and that the mood of the public is ripe for it.

Citing a "significant shift in the mood" of the electorate and elected officials, US Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) told the Newark Star-Ledger that there is now momentum for a full investigation into the CIA's unreported assassination program.

"Holt said he believes the investigation, which he also called a review, should be as intense and comprehensive as the probe conducted more than 30 years ago -- in the wake of the Watergate scandal -- by a special committee headed by U.S. Sen. Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat," the New Jersey newspaper reported.  (The Raw Story)

Kevin Drum says:

If the news reports are right about this program, it deserves a full-scale investigation by Congress.  Everybody knows we're trying to kill al-Qaeda operatives one way or another, so it's not as if we'd be revealing any dark secrets of national security.  And if the whole thing really was just a "PowerPoint presentation," it might exonerate the CIA and remove the cloud currently surrounding them.  What's the argument against doing this?

Oh, by the way.  The Obama administration apparently is contending that the program was legal. 

Greg Sargent:

Check out what Obama’s director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, told the Post…

Blair broke with some Democrats in Congress by asserting that the CIA did not violate the law when it failed to inform lawmakers about the secret program until last month. Blair said agency officials may not have been required to notify Congress about the program, though he believes they should have done so.

“It was a judgment call,” Blair said in an interview. “We believe in erring on the side of working with the Hill as a partner.” (emphasis in original)

For Blair to defend the CIA’s legal right to keep Congress in the dark is important because Dems such as Rep Jan Schakowsky and Senator Russ Feingold charge that the CIA program did break the law, with House Dems mulling a probe.

But the Obama administration now seems to be sending a message to Dems, defending the Bush-era program: Cool it; the program was not illegal; we’re voluntarily resetting the agency’s relations with Congress.

Bush Lite strikes again?

Memeorandum has more....

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