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George Tenet 'Suspended Secret CIA Hit-Squad'
As CIA director in 2004, George Tenet terminated a secret program to develop hit teams to kill al-Qaeda leaders, but his successors resurrected the plan, according to former intelligence officials.
Tenet ended the program because the agency could not work out its practical details, the officials told The Associated Press.
George Tenet, CIA director in 2004, terminated a secret program to develop hit teams to kill al-Qaeda leaders (Photo: AP) Porter Goss, who replaced Tenet in 2005, restarted the program, the former officials said. By the time Michael Hayden succeeded Goss as CIA chief in 2006 the effort was again flagging because of practical challenges.
CIA Director Leon Panetta drove the final stake into the effort in June after learning about the program. He called an emergency meeting with the House and Senate Intelligence committees the next day, informing politicians about the program and saying that as vice president Dick Cheney had directed the CIA not to inform Congress about the operation.
The CIA declined to comment on the officials' comments.
One former senior intelligence official said on Wednesday that the idea never quite died because it was a capability – the details of which remain classified – that the CIA wanted in its arsenal. But as time wore on, the official said, its need became less urgent.
Another former official said that the CIA's reliance on foreign intelligence services and on drone-launched missile strikes proved over time to be less risky yet effective in targeting al-Qaeda chiefs for death or capture. President George W Bush authorised the killing of al-Qaeda leaders in 2001.
According to one congressional official, the agency spent more than $1 million over the eight years that the CIA considered launching the hit teams. The official would not detail the exact amount or how it was spent.
The House Intelligence Committee is laying the groundwork for a possible investigation of the program and its concealment from Congress. In late June it asked the CIA to provide documents about the now-cancelled program to kill al-Qaida leaders.
Agency officials say it is complying with the request. Panetta has at the same time ordered a thorough internal review of the program.
The committee will try to establish how much was spent on the effort, whether any training was conducted and whether any officials travelled in association with the program, a committee official said. Those factors would determine whether the program had progressed enough to require congressional notification.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes is expected to decide as early as this week whether to press ahead with a full investigation.
15 Comments so far
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"....saying that as Vice President Dick Cheney had directed the CIA not to inform Congress about the operation."
Is it the job of the CIA to follow orders from the Vice President despite it being unconstitutional? Was it unconstitutional? If so can the CIA use the defense of "just following orders"? Congress needs to investigate and press charges if laws were broken, their last ounce of credibility hangs in the balance.
Rightwing authoritarians follow orders from whoever acts most authoritarian. That's the nature of the brute.
Can the Congress water board any of the people they investigate?
"The CIA's kill teams were modeled on Israel's hit squads"
"the Mossad's "Wrath Of God" teams, which were dispatched to kill terrorists throughout Europe"
What fun to browse the Interweb.
If the 'program was secret'---how can anyone prove that Tenet 'suspended' it?
Americans as a whole seem to have become so stupid as to believe these kinds of distortions.
George Tenet was and is as corrupt as the others does anyone really expect any truths to come from anyone/anywhere in the US Government?
Good Luck America, you really need it.
"Tenet ended the program because the agency could not work out its practical details, "
Anyone buying this? That the CIA could not figure out how to perform assassinations?
This is perhaps the dumbest denial I've ever heard.
Hmm, I dunno. Maybe they should have done like other stuff and outsourced it to the Mossad. Maybe they did.
They abducted people and they tortured people - to death. They sent whole armies into countries that didn't attack the United States. So, no, it's not credible that they "could not work out its practical details" of an assassination program.
At this point, though, why do they continue to lie about it?
-TIA
Seymour Hersh Journalist for New Yorker Journal reported this in March and was mocked by the media. Hersh said "they left a trail of bodies and it was conducted by a special operations command rather than the CIA. Now they are denying this he said last week " Last time they said the government doesn't torture, now they say they don't assassinate." Obushma is another phoney politican and he is going to prove to be far worse then Bush/Cheney.
I wonder if they did the Michael Connell job.
Pretty much sounds like the Phoenix Program where the convert ops (CIA) in Vietnam murdered anyone with any connection wether good or bad to the Viet Cong and pretty much murdered women, children & old men..
No change then...
AMERIKKKA THE GREATEST PRUVEYOR OF VIOLENCE IN THE WORLD TODAY
Yes, it does like the Phoenix program, though smaller in scale. So it makes one wonder why we're hearing claims that it never got off the ground. The U.S. government has launched such assassination programs before.
Actually, Obama's Predator drone attacks are the same thing - assassination, except by remote control.
-TIA
Constitution was designed to protect rights like " keeping and bearing" Uzis and AK47s by right wing nut jobs as they protect innocent zygotes by gunning down Doctors.
now you understand why obama 'hides in cave'
edweg
I keep hearing this story - that the assassination program never got off the ground. But when the mainstream corporate media starts repeating this stuff, it's usually propaganda.
My prediction is that Congress will never hold hearings. Many crimes have gone unchecked. Why would assassination be any different?
-TIA