Posted on 07/14/2009 5:23:00 AM PDT by freed0misntfree
WASHINGTON Since 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency has developed plans to dispatch small teams overseas to kill senior Qaeda terrorists, according to current and former government officials. Skip to next paragraph Paul Buck/European Pressphoto Agency
The plans remained vague and were never carried out, the officials said, and Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, canceled the program last month.
Officials at the spy agency over the years ran into myriad logistical, legal and diplomatic obstacles. How could the role of the United States be masked? Should allies be informed and might they block the access of the C.I.A. teams to their targets? What if American officers or their foreign surrogates were caught in the midst of an operation? Would such activities violate international law or American restrictions on assassinations overseas?
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Let me get this straight ... if we drop bunker buster on them from 10,000 feet that’s legal... but if we sneak up behind them and stab them with a knife that illegal?
ROFL!
What kind of stupid rule is that !@
The fact that we are now hearing about this is all I need to know how good congress is in keeping our secrets.
What’s interesting is that even the liberal commenters on NYT’s website are wondering what was wrong with this plan.
LOL! I hope they publicize this even more. Panetta was so noble to stop the CIA from killing our enemies. Do they honestly believe the average American will think this is wonderful? No, the average American says kill the terrorists! Do everything you can to stop the murdering, evil *%#@***. Now we see why the average American doesn’t believe the dims are worth anything on National defense! They do stupid stuff like this.
Didn’t that issue have to do with heads of state, not heads of terrorists’ organization?
Gee didnt The One say his goal was to kill Osama?
“C.I.A. Had Plan to Assassinate Qaeda Leaders”
People should be MORE upset that they never put the plans into action.
That's the issue here. Bush never put the plan into action. Panetta, though, is even worse for canceling it. Very hypocritical of the Obama administration.
In concept, there is nothing wrong with the plan. IMHO, its better to kill a rogue target with an assassin team than with a bomb/drone. With the latter, you risk collateral damage and it might take a while to figure out if you really got the target or not. The biggest problem with this plan (as the article points out) is ensuring the teams have a reasonable chance of successfully carrying out their mission and returning safely.
This is only a problem with dems.....don’t want to offend anyone, even enemies committed to killing us.
(I feel like if I turn around, Rod Serling will be there)
IMHO, Obama stays off the subject of terrorism because of his Muslim background.
The New York Times would tell you that since Obama has a "D" by his name, everything he does it good. A person with an "R" by their name is condemned for the same action. They've enshrined the double standard in gold over there the Pinch Central. They suck more.
It sounds like someone has been watching that movie w/Charlie Sheen (Navy SEALS) too much..........
Wasn’t that what they were supposed to do?
What a crock. I remember BO vowing he was gonna get Bin Laden.
yeah right....
This is a program that never was, unfortunately. We are reading about it now, because someone in Congress released it to the New York Times in order to provide cover for the lying Speaker of the House. Scoring cheap political points is more important than National Security.
What this proves, beyond doubt, is that the biggest enemies of the United States are not Al Qaeda, the Chinese, etc.; but members of the United States Congress. And they all have (D) next to their names.
The CIA had a plan to assassinate al Qaeda leaders? Good! Nice to see that my excessive taxes were being used competently in at least one government agency.
I believe he thinks that by taking about it, it causes it. That by ignoring it it will magically go away. Or in other words, appeasement will satisfy the terrorist and they’ll play nice. They only did it before because of all the mean things we said about them...
Reality and Obama are on two different planes...
This bunch is not worried about offending anyone. The commie/Fascist/Socialist/ Dems want to destroy the American
Constitution. If you look at the minions around him they are the progeny of the 60’-70’s hate
America First Crowd.
That is all you, me, and Congress need to know now about the phony scandal the Dems and their lacky media are peddling that VP "Darth" Cheney ordered the CIA not to brief Congress. The Executive in our government gets the completed plan first, advises Congress, and executes the plan under their Constitutional authority. Oh, by the way, the thing not mentioned in the NY Slimes article is the 9/18/2001 AUMF.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.