Posted on 07/14/2009 9:59:53 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Via The Hill:
With their Speaker behind them, House Democrats are pushing ahead with plans to hold a series of hearings investigating instances in which intelligence officials may have misled members of Congress.
Senior Democratic aides said that a major announcement could come by the end of week, but it was already clear on Monday that House Democrats are seizing on weekend news reports that former Vice President Dick Cheney hid information from Congress.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the CIA, under the direction of Cheney, developed a secret counterterrorism program and then was directed by the vice president to conceal it from Congress.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that the program was a classified initiative to kill or capture al Qaeda operatives.
Unfortunately for Democratic witch-hunters, their pals at the national security-defying New York Times apparently blew this secret back in December 2002:
The Bush administration has prepared a list of terrorist leaders the Central Intelligence Agency is authorized to kill, if capture is impractical and civilian casualties can be minimized, senior military and intelligence officials said.
The previously undisclosed C.I.A. list includes key Qaeda leaders like Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as other principal figures from Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups, the officials said. The names of about two dozen terrorist leaders have recently been on the lethal-force list, officials said. “It’s the worst of the worst,” an official said.
President Bush has provided written legal authority to the C.I.A. to hunt down and kill the terrorists without seeking further approval each time the agency is about to stage an operation. Some officials said the terrorist list was known as the “high-value target list.”
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column in this country.
Step in awful stuff lives up to his name (again)
LMAO!! Between Hairy Parry and now this, it has been a laugh a minute around here!
Who knew fighting evil could be so much fun? This Margarita I am drinking right now is suddendly so much better——and it was damned good to begin with.
You got that right!
*****************************EXCERPT INTRO******************************
WSJ ^ | SIOBHAN GORMAN
Posted on Sun 12 Jul 2009 06:21:48 PM PDT by balls
WASHINGTON -- A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said CIA Director Panetta, above, told lawmakers Vice President Cheney ordered information be withheld from Congress. . The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn't clear, and the CIA won't comment on its substance.
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.
The revelations about the CIA and its post-9/11 activities have emerged amid a renewed fight between the agency and congressional Democrats. Last week, seven Democratic lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee released a letter that talked about the CIA effort, which they said Mr. Panetta acknowledged hadn't been properly vetted with Congress. CIA officials had brought the matter to Mr. Panetta's attention and had recommended he inform Congress.
Thank you for the ping Ernest.
#
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/international/15INTE.html
“Bush Has Widened Authority of C.I.A. to Kill Terrorists
By JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON”
Published: Sunday, December 15, 2002
CIA officials had brought the matter to Mr. Panetta's attention and had recommended he inform Congress.
LIKE did the CIA setup Panetta?
Are they getting even with Pelosi...Man...these questions just are killers.....
ROFLMAO!!!
And see #48....
It was sure as heck there this morning when I first found it and read it!
I am not surprised....
And she is 3rd in line, folks.
I am laughing so hard I am snorting!!
Headed for the blender. It’s gonna be fun.
The ‘real’ CIA is neither GOP or Dems. They are CIA.
IIRC, Feinstein jumped on Panetta’s wagon yesterday or today. Her timing stinks :-)
A distinction without a difference.
The Dims who attended the Panetta briefing last month are proving exactly why the CIA and the Bush WH kept them out of the loop about some programs. They can't keep their mouths shut.
Excellent...get it on your private storage....
An update ping!
Time to send Leon back to Saving the Oceans or the home.
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