Who Was on the Assassination List? (Cenk @ Huffington Post)

[ihavenobias]

By Cenk Uygur

I have now learned not to question Sy Hersh. When I heard he was working on a story on an run by Dick Cheney, I told to be skeptical. Come on, bounds of reason. Assassination teams, really?

Well, it turns out, ! No, !

But I still don't get it. If these teams are meant to kill or capture senior Al Qaeda operatives, what's the big deal? Aren't we trying to do that already?

Is that really out of the ordinary? And what difference does it make if you kill people by missiles fired out of drones or you kill them at close range?

So, there are two possibilities here. One is that the CIA has gotten too risk averse. I think they should obviously have highly-trained paramilitary teams ready to take out our enemies. Is this something they should use often or without going through all of the proper channels? Of course, not. Look at how many times we were . We only kidnapped and tortured those guys. At least, we didn't terminate them with our hit squads...

...And there's the rub with assassination teams - once you start playing with them, it's hard to put them down. But we are at war with Al Qaeda and if someone isn't trained to take out Osama bin Laden at close range at a moment's notice, then we're doing something wrong.

Now, there is a second possibility. It's not that controversial to have a team ready to kill or capture Bin Laden or other senior Al Qaeda operatives. It is controversial to have a team ready to kill ... other targets.

Remember, the Bush administration told us that their warrantless wiretapping program was aimed only at Al Qaeda affiliates and we found out that was nowhere near the case. There were guys listening in on by the time we found out about that program.

So, I have to ask what I previously thought unimaginable. Who exactly were the assassination squads supposed to assassinate?

I really don't want to get into crazy speculation. I certainly don't think this program would be turned inward as well. And it is eminently possible that it was just aimed at senior Al Qaeda guys, as I explained above. But given the history of the Bush administration and what has been less than honest explanations in the past, one has to ask - who were the targets under consideration?

If as a journalist, you don't ask this question, then you're not doing your job. It would be hard to argue this isn't relevant.

Dick Cheney (under what authority could he order a program like this in the first place?) and ordered the CIA to lie about it to the rest of the government (including large portions of the ). Is it not conceivable that as Cheney worked the "dark side," he gave other unimaginable orders?...

to read the entire piece with HuffPo comments, and to become a fan of Cenk at Huffington Post.

[havocmom]

1. I keep wondering about the cluster of peculiar deaths of microbiologists

Early in bush years, weird cluster for some time. Still wondering what they might have been working on parts of that some corporate power didn't news about getting out.

[Ysabela]

10. Anthrax, Avian Flu, Swine Flu? You never know... n/t

[santamargarita]

23. No doubt they were behind the Anthrax Attacks

:bluebox:

[aquart]

2. David Kelly?

Always thought that Bush/Cheney had more to fear from him than anyone in Britain.

[nashville_brook]

19. beat me to it. exactly right.

[notadmblnd]

3. there was no reason for an al queada assassination squad to be covert

I think they're using al queada as a cover. I'm believe this was simply an assassination squad and that targets may have included al queada members. However, I believe there were other targets both foreign and domestic.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Either other targets or they hid it because they failed to take out al Qauida leaders

and didn't want the embarrassment.

[timeforpeace]

11. They must have failed to take out anybody by the lack of any body count.

[notadmblnd]

13. How would you know?

There's been plenty of convenient deaths.

Ken Lay, Bhutto, if IIRC the guys name was Baxter who was found dead on a freeway that worked for Enron. The guy that conveniently jumped to his death barefooted from from the CIA building in VA. With a little research I could go on and on in regards to the number of people who may have had dirt on the administration who have died conveniently.

Unless you're an insider, I ask again. How would you know?

[timeforpeace]

16. You're right. It's smarter to assume all those deaths were caused by this never-operational group.

[notadmblnd]

22. watching Olberman now

He's saying it was used to spy on Americans. NOW, you gonna try and convince me that this program existed for 8 years and had more than a million spent on it, but it wasn't used?

If you're not cynical after 8 years of bushco, then all I can say is; you haven't been paying attention.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

34. I always thought Bhutto was a strange one

She admitted to the BBC that Bin Laden was already dead, then weeks later she was dead. Coinsedence?

[ihavenobias]

35. Fair question.

Tweet it out: http://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks

[Frustratedlady]

6. I agree. Domestic is what bothers me the most.

As for al Queada, how many #2s did they catch/kill?

Sending Liz out (as well as the WSJ) indicates there is more...much more...to this story.

[defendandprotect]

7. So true . . . and supposedly another program that wasn't activated . . .??

Some are questioning that one -
Didn't have time to read your article so reply in the dark --
back later

[Doctor_J]

5. Someone tried to kill Daschle and Leahy in early 2002

and probably Rather as well. Any doubts that those attempted murders were part of Cheney's plot?

[defendandprotect]

8. Well, even in "Conspirarcy-Free America" . . . . the attempt to knock out leaders

of Congress and CLOSE DOWN CONGRESS itself is quite clear --

and Congress was pretty well disrupted, closed for months --

they're still irradiating mail --

Who was there reading the mail while Senators and Reps offices were blocked/shut down?

[cascadiance]

9. And didn't Cheney tell Leahy to go "Fuck himself" publicly when disussion was about Haliburton...

Makes you wonder if some emotions from this event might be tied to the other if this assassination squad getting out of hand were true...

[timeforpeace]

17. Them's killin words all right. But that would be Leahy trying to kill Cheney. This stuff's hard!

[Seldona]

12. K&R

These 'ends justify the means' people are capable of anything imo. Amazing how cynical one can become in such a short time. Eight years ago I would never have believed we were involved with, or at least heading towards the use of, torture.

Torture teams. Assassination teams. All it takes to turn these programs inward is an order. Now picture that power in the hands of someone worse that Dick Cheney and George *Bush. If we let this precedent stand, that will likely happen in the future.

*shudder

[subcomhd]

14. this stinks

there is more to this than trying to kill AQ. everybody in the world knows that it is US policy to kill or capture any and all AQ operatives we can get our hands on. how is that a big secret? shit, we invaded Afghanistan and regularly blow up wedding parties and innocents trying to kill AQs.

[matthewf]

15. k&r

[ejbr]

18. k & r n/t

[wantoutnow]

20. those that knew

too much about september 11th?

:hide:

[chimpymustgo]

27. As good a guess as any (and far more likely than the "cover story").

[Piewhacket]

21. K&R. n/t

[pleah]

24. K&R They keep saying this never got off the ground, but I

have my doubts.

[mzmolly]

26. Perhaps they mean literally.

;) I too doubt anything the former cabal says.

[mzmolly]

25. I asked the same question here recently.

WE WANT THE LIST!

:toast: to Cenk.

[yurbud]

28. Pat Tillman?

[troubledamerican]

29. Don't worry, Cenk. There is no "Salvador Option".

Cenk says: "I certainly don't think this program would be turned inward as well."

Biological testing? The Tuskegee experiments? MK Ultra?

I cancelled my Young Turks subscription way back when Cenk was using DLC spider Bob Shrum to trashtalk John Edwards.

Glad I didn't wait.

[Dumak]

30. One way to cover up a real assassination team

may be to create a fake assassination team that has a much higher profile, and make lots of plans but never implement them. The team members of the fake team would never know that they were intended as disinformation. Then spread some false rumors so that if true information about the real team ever gets out it will be less believable.

[cascadiance]

31. The crewmen of the B52 carrying nukes over the U.S. to Iraq/Iran staging area?

... that were later found dead in different places?

[natrat]

32. Paull Wellstone and family rip

[olegramps]

33. It's time to water-board Cheney.

It would be like Paul Harvey's, " Now here is the rest of the story."

[20score]

36. Too late to rec, but here's a kick.