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CIA Had Secret Al Qaeda Plan
WSJ ^ | SIOBHAN GORMAN

Posted on 07/12/2009 6:21:48 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 111th; alqaeda; bhocia; cheney; cia; feinstein; looselips; panetta; secrets
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It looks like the Bush administration was looking out for national security and didn't want this leaked by the likes of Sen Leahy.

Who would have thought back around 9/11 that we would have a muslim sympathizer in the WH in 2009 and a congress that wants to punish President Bush for a secret plan to kill the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks?

1 posted on 07/12/2009 6:21:49 PM PDT by balls
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To: balls

The plan was to assassinate the heads of al qaeda and the taliban.

It’s a war.


2 posted on 07/12/2009 6:23:18 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: balls

“CIA Had Secret Al Qaeda Plan”

I should hope so.


3 posted on 07/12/2009 6:24:56 PM PDT by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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To: nuconvert

Wonder how the TRUTHER MORONS (you know, 911 was a Bush inside job) will respond to these revelations.


4 posted on 07/12/2009 6:26:56 PM PDT by Mister Muggles
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To: balls

WTF? The initiative STARTED in 2001 and “The initiative hadn’t become fully operational at the time Mr. Panetta ended it.” EIGHT YEARS later? WW2 didn’t take that long. The Manhattan Project didn’t take that long. If anything the CIA should be investigated for incompetence....


5 posted on 07/12/2009 6:27:05 PM PDT by Kozak (USA 7/4/1776 to 1/20/2009 Reqiescat in Pace)
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To: balls

And the problem with this is...?


6 posted on 07/12/2009 6:27:15 PM PDT by TommyDale (Independent - I already left the GOP because they were too liberal)
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To: Mister Muggles

Oh, they’ll think of something


7 posted on 07/12/2009 6:28:34 PM PDT by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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To: TommyDale
And the problem with this is...?

I think that the Dims don't want the CIA engaged in wet work anymore.

/johnny

8 posted on 07/12/2009 6:29:39 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (God Bless us all, each, and every one.)
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To: balls
Why the hell does the CIA exist? If they are not allowed to their jobs then the only thing they are good for is attending Washington D.C. socials!

The Liberal Democrat must get a tingling feeling when they see pictures of dead Americans because they are stopping any effort to kill the enemy.


9 posted on 07/12/2009 6:30:26 PM PDT by darkwing104 (Lets get dangerous)
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To: balls

It’s 9/10 all over again and Gorelick’s wall is going back up.


10 posted on 07/12/2009 6:30:35 PM PDT by RGSpincich
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To: balls
if they didn't... i'd be pissed!!!
11 posted on 07/12/2009 6:33:01 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - Obama is basically Jim Jones with a teleprompter)
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To: RGSpincich

With two relatives working in US intelligence, I can honestly say, “You don’t know how right you are.”


12 posted on 07/12/2009 6:34:32 PM PDT by 12Gauge687 (Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice)
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To: nuconvert

Notice the use of the past tense. “Had” a secret plan. It ain’t secret no more.


13 posted on 07/12/2009 6:35:46 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (AGWT is very robust with respect to data. All observations confirm it at the 100% confidence level.)
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To: balls
In 2001, the CIA also examined the subject of targeted assassinations of al Qaeda leaders, according to three former intelligence officials

You mean after al Qaeda KILLED 3,000 people on US soil?!

Oh, yeah, I have a real problem with that! /s

Maybe, just maybe the Clinton administration should have been doing the same damn thing BEFORE Pres. Bush took office! Maybe we wouldn't have had 9/11!

If the liberals keep this up there will be another attack here. You can bet on it!

14 posted on 07/12/2009 6:36:17 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: RGSpincich
It’s 9/10 all over again and Gorelick’s wall is going back up.

Yes, and who are they going to blame this time since Pres. Bush & Cheney are no longer protecting this country?!

I don't think I have ever despised anyone as much as I do these lying crooks who are doing their best to get us all killed. Let's not hurt the enemies feelings! They can cut the heads off of our citizens but we can't 'torture' them to get INFORMATION with a freaking doctor standing by!

15 posted on 07/12/2009 6:39:14 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

“Notice the use of the past tense. “Had” a secret plan. It ain’t secret no more.”

Even scarier....there is no longer any plan


16 posted on 07/12/2009 6:42:32 PM PDT by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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To: balls

They’re upset that Cheney tried to recruit CIA to go to war against Al Qaeda instead of trying to overthrow Bush.

I think the targeted assassinations of AQ leaders was no secret; we read about Predator strikes every other week and I feel warm inside.

I don’t think Congress can claim not to know about it if we know about it.

They are going to great lengths to shift the focus away from the fact that Pelosi knew about CIA’s interrogations and that she was informed repeatedly. Now she wants to claim she didn’t know we were killing AQ leaders either. How can voters keep returning someone that dim and that dishonest to Washington again and again?


17 posted on 07/12/2009 6:45:55 PM PDT by marron
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To: balls

It wasn’t really all that secret, although it was not publicly acknowledged. But we knew that Bush had authorized going after al Qaeda leaders, we knew that cars with such leaders in them were rocketed from time to time by pilotless drones, and we suspected that Seals and Snipers and Special Forces operatives were doing their work in various parts of the world.

Good. That’s the point. They try to kill us, so we try to kill them first. Only a Democrat would be troubled by this—and a post-Vietnam moonbat Democrat at that.

And, of course, only a Commie-Muslim like Obama would put an end to the program and give the terrorists a free pass, if not aid and assistance.


18 posted on 07/12/2009 6:52:05 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: TommyDale

You mean I have been waiting all this time for Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson to walk out of a sandstorm ragged, dusty, dirty, but happy while holding bin ladens head by it’s lice infected beard followed by drop kick to the pig pen and they are still in the planning stage?
WTF??


19 posted on 07/12/2009 6:56:18 PM PDT by Protect the Bill of Rights (piddy da foo)
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To: marron
I think Cheney is on pretty firm ground here - especially after the executive order (post 9/11) delegating authority on classification of National Security information to the VP.

He's been through the legal wringer a few times - but I am having trouble recalling an instance of him losing or having his interpretation reversed by a court.

I assume he is holding back in his response on this - waiting for the usual suspects to step into the bear trap before he unloads on them.

20 posted on 07/12/2009 7:02:47 PM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
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