Panetta axed CIA plan to outsource assassination to Blackwater

NYTimes

C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help in Plan to Kill Jihadists
The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials. Leon E. Panetta, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, canceled a program to locate and kill the leaders of Al Qaeda.

The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects. The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.’s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.

So let me get this straight, the Bush administration was outsourcing murder to private contractors, and furthermore, this program was the one that the CIA was directed not to tell Congress about?

We know the US government has taken extraordinary actions to prevent any kind of oversight of Blackwater contractors. The do not fall under the Uniform Code of Military Justice that governs the US military. And note that this 2004 attempt to set up a Blackwater hit team is in the same era as Bremer's infamous Order 17 in Iraq that essentially made Blackwater immune from ANY civilian investigation or prosecution in Iraq or the US.

A secret mercenary hit team with a licence to kill and accountable only to the White House. Thank god they bungled it when they tried to get it running.



[edit on 20-8-2009 by metamagic]

When I heard this early this morning and hit the Drudge Report I was really surprised I had to do a search to get any information. Really, does this surprise anyone? The CIA is the pig of the alphabet boys and we all understand plausible denial as UFO buffs. Blackwater is nothing but a bunch of mercenaries so this is usual fare.

What is out of the ordinary is the CIA actually telling anyone about this stuff. I give Panetta credit, but of course there are going to be many people that will feel otherwise.