Officials: CIA program targeted al-Qaida leaders (Democrats upset their friends were targeted)

ap ^ | 7/13/2009 | PAMELA HESS

[tobyhill]

A secret intelligence program canceled by CIA Director Leon Panetta in June was meant to find and then capture or kill al-Qaida leaders at close range rather than target them with air strikes that risked civilian casualties, government officials with knowledge of the operation said Monday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program, said the spy agency's program never got off the ground.

Panetta canceled the effort on June 23 after learning of its existence, its failure to yield results, and the fact that Congress had been unaware of the program since its inception in 2001, according to one official with direct knowledge of the plan.

That official said former President George W. Bush authorized killing al-Qaida leaders shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and that Congress was made aware of that. However, the official said, Panetta also told members of Congress that according to notes that he had been given on the early months of the program, then-Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA not to inform Congress of the specifics of the secret program.

Panetta told the committees there was no indication that there was anything illegal or inappropriate about the effort itself, the official said.

[Joan Kerrey]

Jeez, what an outrage that we’d actually go to the extreme of targeting terrorist for killing up close. /s

[TChris]

The ‘Leaker’ is in violation of federal law in illegally and without proper authorization classified information to unauthorized personnel.

How long has it been since we had an administration that CARED about leaks of classified information enough to actually PROSECUTE anyone? GWB had PLENTY of worthy targets for prosecution, yet he did nothing.

There's almost nobody left in DC who gives a rat's patootie about national security or the law.

[SandRat]

I think not since Woodrow Wilson.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest_at_the_Beach.

[Marine_Uncle]

It sure looks like the clowns are desperate to create diversions from zero’s zero performance. Why else would their leaker(s) at this point even bring it up. The L/MSM unless they literally attempt to rewrite what the CIA plan was meant to accomplish have nothing to gain. Even the dumbest among the morons that voted for the clowns can see that it would have been an appropriate measure to take to safeguard our country.