Report: ‘No geographical limitations’ on CIA assassination program

[robertpaulsen]

Source: The Raw Story

The Central Intelligence Agency’s secret assassination squad was allowed to operate anywhere in the world, including the United States, according to a Thursday report in The Washington Post.

“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,” the paper reported. “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.”

Reporter Joby Warrick added: “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.”

This revelation, buried in paragraph 12 of the Post’s report, was highlighted by Talking Points Memo’s Zachary Roth later in the afternoon.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/16/report-no-geographical-limitations-on-cia-assassination-program/

---

The names going through my head give me the chills.

Paul Wellstone?

David Kelly?

Any other possibilities?

:scared:

[Soylent Brice]

1. K&R

[pearl]

2. It gives me chills too

And could they have possibly been operating before 2001?
Add JFK jr. and Mel Carahan. It just stinks to high heaven. This could possibly be what has congress so upset. What Bastards they are. For the longest time I have had a phrase, "Cheney's CIA"

[notadmblnd]

3. The guy that "jumped" off the pentagon

Enron figures K Lay (perhaps faked) and that Baxter guy who "committed suicide" on a freeway.

[Cant trust em]

4. If we were going to make the jump to assassinations...

why would we limit our geography?

It's like "I'm willing to kill people, but not in Uzbekistan. That would be unethical!"

[Pavulon]

6. CIA kills people..Not news.

they have been for a very long time. Killing people here would be a legal issue. Killing americans would be a major issue.

[Cant trust em]

8. That is true. Good point. nt

[ScottLand]

14. But would you know it

if they were killing Americans? When they operate in the dark and no one even knows they exist, what can't they get away with?

[Pavulon]

15. Killing americans on american soil

is a very big no no. Killing saudis in sudan, who fucking cares (per cia).

[No Elephants]

35. Not a no no anymore, if it ever was.

[No Elephants]

37. I am just happy that America now knows for certain that the CIA is willing to execute Americans.

I am sure many hearing this will imagine it is really only Al Qaeda, though.

BTW, how does the CIA know for sure who is Al Qaeda and who isn't? We know we had/have people in Gitmo, as young as 12, who turned out to be innocent--well, except for confessions wrought by torture.

Now we're letting them out of Gitmo. Either we assassinate them, or we risk retaliation, possibly by generations. But, then again, that ship sailed long ago.

[midnight]

26. Yes it is a legal issue to those following the law. Currently America

seems to be renedered lawless.

[No Elephants]

36. Remember when Bush said he brought the rule of law and democracy to Iraq?

Apparently, he forgot to bring them back.

[No Elephants]

34. There's no jump to assassinations overseas by the CIA. None. The news (to some, not

to DUers and other cynics, though) is that the assassination squads were revived (or never ended) and U.S. citizens were also targets (successful or not).

Now, was the CIA responsible for Carnahan and other political threats, or was some other group responsible, or are those really unrelated events? We'll probably never know for certain. But, I've heard speculation that even Chappaquiddick was a set up. And I would not put it past the Republicans to have their own hit squads, being possibly less risky than the CIA.

Is it true, though? Dunno.

Edited to add link. http://www.crimemagazine.com/richard_nixon_kennedy.htm

I'm sure there are better sources. I'm just not in the modd to find them. Sorry.

[Pavulon]

5. Michael Jackson..For sure.

seems all speculation. No documents to really work with.

[robertpaulsen]

16. Who was killed is my speculative question. That Bush gave the green light is not speculative at all.

The link in the OP provides documentation that the program had no geographical restrictions. So my question pertained to Bush enemies who died under questionable circumstances.

[Igel]

27. The finding gave no geographical restrictions.

I take the reporter's word on that. But he doesn't say something that is relevant, and he did not say that the "program had no geographical restrictions." He was precise, and the precision is important.

Congress' law concerning the CIA contains stipulations on where the CIA may operate.

Both legislative and executive restrictions would apply. In other words, the CIA program would have had geographical restrictions, if done legally.

[robertpaulsen]

31. Which law of Congress are you referring to?

And how could a legislative restriction apply when intelligence officials were under no obligation to report their operations to Congress?

[hootinholler]

7. There are many others. n/t

[notadmblnd]

9. Mike Connell the IT epert

For those of you who remember the famous 1969 animated Tootsie Roll commercial -- the wise old owl's line is indeed applicable to the missing White House emails -- the world may never know.

Unfortunately, this holds true more than ever with the untimely death of Bush IT guru Mike Connell. Connell was killed this past Friday while attempting to land his private plane three miles outside Akron-Canton Airport.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-abrahams/white-house-email-trail-g_b_152965.html

[notadmblnd]

10. link to a DU thread dated Dec 1 2005

Why Have So Many Bush Administration Enemies Died Untimely Deaths? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5495235&mesg_id=5495235

[robertpaulsen]

12. Thank you very much for that link!

I'm not sure how I missed that the first time around. I'll check and see if I can find the name of the guy who "jumped" off the Pentagon. I seem to recall he had some affiliation with John Bolton, but I might be mistaken.

[dflprincess]

21. Especially amusing in that link are the posts

that seem to think anyone who finds the items discussed in the original post suspicious are just nutty tin foil hat wearers.

[bemildred]

11. Team America, World Police.

http://www.teamamerica.com/

[New Dawn]

13. Fascism on the march.

[Jackpine Radical]

17. I betcha hald the DUers reading this had the same set of thoughts,

pretty much the same list.

[cascadiance]

18. So did they give these guys double 0 numbers with license to kill...

It would fit that the past administration would take works of fiction and warp them twistedly into reality, like they've already done with 24 and Babylon V (note below)...

Bond series - the formula for a license to kill

24 series - the formula for a license to torture

Babylon 5 - the formula for fascist dictatorship of Earth

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated/msg/c320273baf21a72c

So I was talking to Doug Netter this afternoon, who had in turn spoken with
Bruce Boxleitner earlier in the day about the year 2 DVD. In the course of
that conversation, Bruce mentioned something that Doug in turn mentioned to me.

To wit:

Bruce had been at the White House about a month ago, in the company of wife
Melissa Gilbert, president of the Screen Actors Guild, for a discussion with
some of the functionaries there concerning acting roles moving north of the
Canadian border.

As they're talking, in a long conference room, in the middle of the meeting the
door oens and Karl Rove -- main strategist for the Republican Party and power
behind the White House throne -- comes in. He says (paraphrased from memory)
to Melissa, "I hope you'll forgive me, but I actually here to see Bruce."

He then tells Bruce, "I just wanted to tell you that I'm a big science fiction
fan, and that Babylon 5 is the best science fiction television series *ever*."

Then there's a pause, and he adds....

"And the President thinks so too."

Upon hearing this, I went to lie down for a spell, but I fully expect to be
back on my feet by Spring, latest.

jms

([e-mail])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

[kurtyboy]

19. From "The One Percent Doctrine"--(Suskind, pp181-2)

"Flashing before them was on a wide screen was a grainy, gray-washed video of a jeep traveling through a barren stretch of of Yemen's Ma'rib desert....With Harethi were six companions--all believed to be al Qaeda members, and now visible in the lens of a U.S. Predator drone, launched from the nearby, postage-stamp sized country of Djibouti. As the jeep drove through an isolated section of the highway, one of the passengers chatted on the phone to an al Qaeda soldier who happened to be in U.S custody. Of course, the jeep's passenger didn't know that....

The armed Predator certainly worked. Tenet gave the order and a Hellfire misille screamed forth from the drone, eviscerating the jeep. Seven men, including Harethi, died. Among the dead, the CIA soon found out, was Kamal Derwish, the inspirational friend and guide to the Lackawanna men--one of the world's most sought-after men--sought largely because he could clarify whether the "Lackawanna Six" were truly an al Qaeda cell, bent on destruction, or a half-dozen confused friends from Buffalo who had got in way over their heads. The consensus--despite tough talk and press releases from Washington--had settled, already, on the latter. The only potential counterpoint was now a charred corpse in the Yemeni desert."

I wonder if any Americans were among the seven killed that day? And how many other days were there? In how many other nations?

This is truly a "Shoot first, ask questions later" policy. D'ya think they discontinued it yet?

[hootinholler]

20. Who whas the Baltimore Prosecutor who was killed in Pa?

That one always smelled.

-Hoot

[XXXMADAM]

29. The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna

http://www.yardbird.com/luna.htm




On December 3, 2003, Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Luna vanished from his desk in the federal courthouse in Baltimore, Maryland. The next morning, shortly before dawn, Luna’s body was found face down in a cold stream outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He'd been stabbed thirty-six times....

During the administration of former President George W. Bush, the U.S. Justice Department hinted that Luna committed a far-fetched suicide. Luna was said to have driven himself across four states in a wildly improbable midnight ride, supposedly stabbing himself dozens of times before throwing himself into an icy stream.

The press, the public, and Luna's friends and family, were repeatedly told by FBI agents that the case was closed, and that the murder was a suicide, or a matter involving Luna's personal life, and so was not subject to federal investigation. All along, the Lancaster County coroner's office ruled the death a homicide.

The good news is that the Obama Justice Department appears to be taking Luna's murder very seriously

[hootinholler]

32. Thanks for that link!

That's one that smells badly.

-Hoot

[Ian David]

22. CIA is not legally allowed to operate with the U.S. IIRC. n.t

[formercia]

25. Laws are for little people. n/t

[No Elephants]

38. When you are talking assassins , you are not talking "legal."

[troubledamerican]

23. Just call it "Operation Condor, US chapter: The Early Years"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor

[leveymg]

24. Dealey Plaza, C&O Canal, Audubon Ballroom, Lorraine Motel, Ambassador Hotel . . .

but America has always had many death squads. Some of them work with intelligence and police agencies, some are military units, others are private-sector. It wasn't all the CIA or really the CIA.

[bobthedrummer]

28. Here's a crosspost to an active GD thread , thanks for starting this one robertpaulson

"In light of the assassination program, a few questions about some people I knew about..." (started by Octafish 7-17-09)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6089862

:patriot:

[truthisfreedom]

30. Anybody see Bill Maher tonight?

If Cheney was going to be crazy, he should have pushed for this instead of torture.

Surgical takeouts would have been better than massive loss of life in Iraq.

I think he only set it up as cover for his more evil deeds.

[No Elephants]

33. Yep. It was horrifying, shocking and disgusting that Maher said that.

If we condone secret hit squads, we are scum, IMO. And done for. (Like THAT"s not a slippery slope to Stalin's Russia.)

[bobthedrummer]

39. That includes HOMELAND, Inc. then.

"CIA Domestic Operations Division: A DU collaborative thread"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6095958

[daleo]

40. I have to wonder if U.S. citizens were murdered

Cheney certainly seems capable of it.

[daleo]

41. I have to wonder if U.S. citizens were murdered

Cheney certainly seems capable of it.

[bobthedrummer]

42. Moon landing kick...

[robertpaulsen]

43. Thanks Bob. Here's a Raw Story update.

House probe of covert CIA program could target Cheney

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3977470