Calls Grow for Probe of CIA Plan for al-Qaida Hits

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

Calls grow for probe of CIA plan for al-Qaida hits
By PAMELA HESS (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
July 14, 2009 1:27 AM EDT
WASHINGTON - Congressional demands for an investigation are growing over new disclosures that a secret CIA program to capture or kill al-Qaida leaders was concealed from the U.S. Congress for eight years, perhaps at the behest of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The program, which never got off the ground and remains shrouded in mystery, was designed to target leaders of the terrorism network at close range, rather than with air strikes that risked civilian casualties, government officials with knowledge of the operation said Monday.

- snip -

The leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said that House and Senate intelligence committees should "take whatever actions they believe are necessary to get more information on the subject," including whether Cheney played a direct role in proposing the secret program and withholding information from Congress.

Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat, joining the ranks of those calling for a thorough investigation, said, "Individuals who ordered that Congress be kept in the dark should be held accountable." Feingold said he had "deep concerns about the program itself," adding that he had written to President Barack Obama to ask for the probe. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat and the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said that being kept in the dark by the CIA broke the law and "should never, ever happen again." But defenders of Cheney suggested that no laws were broken because the counterterrorism program never got beyond the talking stage.

Read more: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20090713/4a5c10d0_3421_13345200907141891317246

[boppers]

1. This will not end well.

Public discussions of kill squads never do.

[Solly Mack]

2. Wonder how many people are in prison who were only in the

planning/plotting/conspiracy to commit "talking" stage?

I love my country. LOLOLOLOLOL

[Snazzy]

3. if it never got off the ground...

what were they concealing and uh, doing, for 8 years, up till last month?

If it's shrouded in mystery, how does the AP know it never got off the ground.

And how did we all of a sudden go from programs, plural, to program singular? That's rhetorical, I've been reading. But there's much more going on here than this is being spun into before our eyes.

And when did Pamela Hess leave Moonie's and join AP? Or are the two meshing together somehow now?

(on edit--on last pt, Hess left apparently over a year ago. I just remember her from the many Rummy briefings as UPI).

[quaker bill]

4. If all it involved

was shooting Al-queda leaders when found and it was 2001 or 2002, why did the Bushies hide it? Given the ease with which the war in Afghanistan was approved, they certainly would have gotten support, perhaps even a commendation for doing so. The whole point of that war was to depose the Taliban and capture or kill Al-queda leaders.

It had to be more than this, and it had to be located well beyond the borders of Afghanistan, otherwise keeping it from congress would not have been necessary or even sensible. The country was 80+ percent behind killing Al-Queda leaders at the time and the CIA was already in Afghanistan doing what it could in this regard.

[Jawja]

5. I believe it is currently being spun into

"killing Al-queda" to win public support and diffuse a groundswell for investigations.

[C_U_L8R]

6. If indeed it was ONLY about Al Qaeda

I think the Al Qaeda story could just be political cover....
a bogus sort of boobytrap that threatens anyone who comes close
to investigate that they will be smeared with the broad brush
"WHAT??? you don't want to kill teh Qaedas ???? !!!!!. You unpatriot !!!! "

Congress needs the courage to say "these people lied to us and to you.
There is no more reason to believe them now. We will get to the very
bottom of this and if laws were broken, the perpetrators will go to jail."

I think we're all waiting for that moment.