C.I.A. Had Plan to Assassinate Qaeda Leaders

NYT ^ | July 13, 2009 | By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE

[Brad from Tennessee]

Lyndon Johnson told a reporter that after he became president he discovered the Kennedy brothers had been running a “Murder Incorporated in the Caribbean.” Dominican Republic ruler Rafael Trujillo was assassinated four months after JFK took office. Robert Kennedy was White House liaison to Operation Mongoose, the CIA program to destabilize the Castro regime. This included schemes to kill Castro. JFK also plotted a military coup in Vietnam that ended in the death of President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother.

[Richard Kimball]

Wait until unemployment hits 12%. Congress will investigate whether Bush ordered the 9/11 attacks.

[catnipman]

Another new tempest in a teapot to try and distract the masses from their woes: “Gee, I woke up this morning and forgot I don’t have a job and can’t find one. I was just so outraged to find out that the CIA was trying to kill Bin Laden and didn’t tell Nancy eight years ago. You Bastards! You tried to kill Binny!”

[Sergeant Tim]

Wait until next time. Congress will investigate if Cheney ordered al Qaeda to hit us again.

[Neverforget01]

This is truly the silliest thing I've ever read. The CIA was looking into assassinations instead of bombing and risking civilian lives and Democrats have a problem with it, even though the plan never got off the ground! I would think they would be smarter to argue incompetence at not getting the program in place!

Canceling it shows that Panetta/Obama are weak on terrorism; why would the Dems want to expose that?

[KarlInOhio]

Before 9/11, the last time we had an attack against us of that severity was Pearl Harbor. When we found out on April 14, 1943, that its planner and leader, Admiral Yamamoto, would be within reach of our air power we went after him specifically and killed him on April 18, 1943. FDR's order was to "Get Yamamoto". If our leaders and press took the current war one tenth as seriously as WW II this wouldn't be an issue.

As a little add on: The Japanese war aims were not to destroy the United States. They just wanted us out of the Pacific so we couldn't interfer with their plans to take over most of Eastern Asia and the Pacific. On the other hand Al Qaeda has stated it wants to destroy us. Which one of those two should be treated more seriously.

[Venturer]

The CIA under Panetta is a joke.

Lets just close them down and save Billions.

I bet the morale there really sucks.

[ExGeeEye]

How could the role of the United States be masked?

Operationally, our SpecOps guys already know how to do this. Beyond that, just don't tell the New York Enemy Intelligence Briefing Paper ("Times").

Should allies be informed and might they block the access of the C.I.A. teams to their targets?

True allies wouldn't. Still wouldn't tell 'em. Give them plausible deniability.

What if American officers or their foreign surrogates were caught in the midst of an operation?

Well, it would be a learning experience-- how not to get the next team caught.

It's a war. Our side gets captured, wounded, and killed in war just like the enemy. We're pretty good at keeping our numbers down, but we will never reach 0% casualty on any significant operation, and we had better accept that.

Would such activities violate international law or American restrictions on assassinations overseas?

If so, change the US law and [have intercourse with] the rest.

Unasked: what if they retaliate by attmpting to assassinate people on our side?

You mean like in Khobar, Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen and New York City? How would it be fundamentally different?

[noah]

CIA: YOU CAN NEVER CARRY OUT A SECRET OPERATION IF YOU HAVE TO SHARE THE DETAILS WITH CONGRESS BEFOREHAND.

So much for protecting the nation!!

[jmaroneps37]

http://www.collinsreport.net/2009/01/06/obama-selects-leon-panetta-to-run-the-cia-why-not-oprah/

[Deb]

Gee, it was an actual secret for eight years, till Panetta “briefed” the Democrats...

[Deb]

I do believe he said something about invading one of our sovereign allies to get bin Laden. Maybe he had his fingers crossed.