THE CIA ASSASSINATION PROGRAM

[Orwellian_Ghost]

THE CIA ASSASSINATION PROGRAM.

Siobhan Gorman reports in the Wall Street Journal that the CIA program recently disclosed to Congress by Leon Panetta was designed to target high-level Al Qaeda leaders for assassination--something the CIA has been explicitly barred from doing since the Ford administration. It's worth noting however, that the CIA has attemped assassinations in the past--most infamously numerous attempts to kill Fidel Castro, at the behest of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, who played a prominent role in intelligence affairs in his brother's administration.

According to current and former government officials, the agency spent money on planning and possibly some training. It was acting on a 2001 presidential legal pronouncement, known as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts. The initiative hadn't become fully operational at the time Mr. Panetta ended it.

In 2001, the CIA also examined the subject of targeted assassinations of al Qaeda leaders, according to three former intelligence officials. It appears that those discussions tapered off within six months. It isn't clear whether they were an early part of the CIA initiative that Mr. Panetta stopped.

Spencer Ackerman argues that this proves Panetta wasn't merely trying to curry favor with Congress but may have been obligated to by law, writing "If he discovered the effort and didn’t tell Congress, it would be cause for the oversight committees to rake him over the coals, even if he scuttled the program."

I would also second Ackerman's defense of the CIA, which I think is even more relevant in this context. The CIA has only ever done what the executive in charge has asked it to do--its most infamous abuses do not originate with the CIA, they usually originate with policymakers, not the agency.

...

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=07&year=2009&base_name=the_cia_assassination_program

[stray cat]

1. My problem is they didn't inform congress - I'm not against killing Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri

[blindpig]

2. Ok, where does it end?

It is the same logic which caused numerous attempts against Fidel Castro, foments reactionaries everywhere, assassinates local leaders, leftist or not, who even say 'boo' to entrenched power.

Abolish the CIA.

[defendandprotect]

11. Exactly . .. when you drop atomic bombs on other nations, when you assassinate world leaders . ..

where does it end except back on your own doorstep--!!

Abolish the CIA --

[wantoutnow]

5. remember who armed and funded bin Laden in the 80's?

Would that make our former administration an accessory to murder?

[defendandprotect]

12. We were still giving Taliban millions just before 9/11 --

[wantoutnow]

13. right.

:thumbsup:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

3. bump

[Octafish]

4. WSJ perpetuates the meme that Kennedys ordered the assassination of Castro.

That was Dulles, Harvey and Helms -- evidently for Nixon and Eisenhower -- in 1960.

http://www.jfklancer.com/cuba/castroplots.html

[Thothmes]

6. Goes back further than that

FDR authorized an assissination during WWII.

[Octafish]

14. He was trying for Hitler and Tojo, IIRC. The thing is, WSJ continues to spread the Big Lie re JFK.

From the great DUer DrDebug:

Mon Jun-12-06 01:19 PM
Response to Reply #21

62. Diem was not ordered by JFK

Edited on Mon Jun-12-06 01:20 PM by DrDebug
It's a late response, however this should put that JFK / Diem story to rest. During the Nixon administration E. Howard Hunt falsified cables saying that JFK ordered Diem, however JFK didn't know about it at the time and even investigated who ordered it.

The story:

JFK informed Diem on August 14, 1963 that the U.S. government would be unable to continue their present relationship, if Diem did not issue a statement reaffirming a conciliatory policy towards the Buddhists and other critics of his regime.

To this day, nothing has been found in government archives tying the killings to either John or Robert Kennedy (1). The news reached Kennedy the following day and according to David Kaiser, Kennedy left the room in shock (4).

On November 4, 1963 there is a recorded conversation in the White House about the "suicide" and it becomes clear during the conversation that there was more to it. John F. Kennedy says the following:

"I think one of the problems…is how we square a military revolt against a constitutionally elected government which we approve as opposed to our position on Honduras and the Dominican. How do we square that?" (5)

And they express their worries about the possible involvement of the U.S. Government especially since Hilsman previously wrote a memo: "tell appropriate military commanders we will give them direct support in an interim period of breakdown (in the) central government." (5)

Kennedy immediately ordered William R. Corson to find out what had happened and who was responsible. The answer he came up with: "On instructions from Averell Harriman... The orders that ended in the deaths of Diem and his brother originated with Harriman and were carried out by Henry Cabot Lodge’s own military assistant." (1)

Having served as ambassador to Moscow and governor of New York, W. Averell Harriman was in the middle of a long public career. In 1960, President-elect Kennedy appointed him ambassador-at-large, to operate "with the full confidence of the president and an intimate knowledge of all aspects of United States policy." By 1963, according to Corson, Harriman was running "Vietnam without consulting the president or the attorney general.” (1)

(...) At the heart of the murders was the sudden and strange recall of Sagon Station Chief Jocko Richardson and his replacement by a no-name team barely known to history. The key member was a Special Operations Army officer, John Michael Dunn, who took his orders, not from the normal CIA hierarchy but from Harriman and Forrestal. (1)

According to Corson, "John Michael Dunn was known to be in touch with the coup plotters," although Dunn’s role has never been made public. Corson believes that Richardson was removed so that Dunn, assigned to Ambassador Lodge for "special operations," could act without hindrance. (1)

During the Nixon administration cables were released by the State Department which said that the Diem assassination was ordered by John F. Kennedy, however during the second Hunt v. Liberty Lobby trial, E. Howard Hunt testified the following under oath:

Q: "Did you ever have discussion with Mr. Colson about forging some cables in order to blame John F. Kennedy for the death of the leader of South Vietnam?" (2)

Lane states that Hunt paused, looked at his attorneys for help, but there was nothing they could do. The question was proper.

Hunt: "Yes, that is a matter of public record. I can't remember whether Kennedy himself was to be blamed. But certainly the Nixon administration--the Kennedy administration, by the Nixon administration." (2)

Q: "Did you ever have discussions with Mr. Colson in which you agreed to falsify State Department cables to show that President John F. Kennedy's administration ordered the assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem?" (2)

Hunt: "I did." (2)

Q: "And, in fact, did you falsify and forge those documents?"

Hunt: "Did I?" (lengthy pause) "Yes I did."

Sources:
1. The Secret History of the CIA by Joseph Trento (p.334-335)
2. Plausible Denial by Mark Lane (p.269) ( http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6... )
3. The New York Times, Ted Szulc (August 24, 1963) ( http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6... )
4. American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson and the Origins of the Vietnam War by David Kaiser (p.275) ( http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6... )
5. http://www.kennedymen.com/tapes/tapes.asp (Tape 18; November 1963)

OP w/Links: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/DrDebug/35

Re: FDR -- The guy was trying to end war and killing. From what I've seen and read, the murderers of Diem were trying to start one.

[ShamelessHussy]

7. It was well known and admited to publicly and writen about in many books - see link inside

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6065305&mesg_id=6065305

Now if they were targeting folks other than AQ, now that would be news, and I bet that is the real story.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

8. What do you mean 'if'?

:rofl:

[ThomWV]

9. Nobody in the press has any idea what the Program was about - its all conjecture

[defendandprotect]

10. JFK denounced the assassination of world leaders --

and Howard Hunt spent quite some time in the basement of Nixon's White House

trying to forge cables which would suggest that JFK ordered the assassinaton

of Diem Bros. Those cables were left in his WH safe when he ventured out to

the Watergate and I believe they were found by John Dean.

[aikoaiko]

15. No difference to me whether they use a Hellfire missle, a sniper rifle, or a supressed 9mm to head

:shrug:

either way, they shouldn't have lied to congress.