DB: The Man Who Knew Cheney's Secret.

[aREDSKIN]

From 2001 AND THE WaPo: Predates SH by many years.

CIA mulls assassination missions

By Barton Gellman

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Armed with new authority from President Bush for a global campaign against al-Qaida, the Central Intelligence Agency is contemplating clandestine missions expressly aimed at killing specified individuals for the first time since the assassination scandals and consequent legal restraints of the 1970s.

Drawing on two classified legal memoranda, one written for President Bill Clinton in 1998 and one since the attacks of Sept. 11, the Bush administration has concluded that executive orders banning assassination do not prevent the president from lawfully singling out a terrorist for death by covert action. The CIA is reluctant to accept a broad grant of authority to hunt and kill U.S. enemies at its discretion, knowledgeable sources said. But the agency is willing and believes itself able to take the lives of terrorists designated by the president.

Clinton authorized covert lethal force against al-Qaida beginning in 1998, and The Washington Post reported last Sunday that Bush has signed a more encompassing intelligence "finding" that calls for attacks on newly identified weaknesses in Osama bin Laden's communications, security apparatus and infrastructure.

Bush's directive broadens the class of potential targets beyond bin Laden and his immediate circle of operational planners, and also beyond the present boundaries of the fight in Afghanistan, officials said. But it also holds the potential to target violence more narrowly than its precedents of the past 25 years because previous findings did not permit explicit planning for the death of an individual.

Bush and his national security Cabinet have been plain about their intention to find and kill bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader the administration blames for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The public face of that campaign is a conventional war in Afghanistan using uniformed troops. Yet inside the CIA and elsewhere in government, according to sources, much of the debate turns on the scope of a targeted killing campaign. How wide should the government draw the circle around bin Laden? And in which countries-among the 40 or so where al-Qaida is believed to operate-may such efforts be attempted?

Though there are differences on those matters, some officials observed that the agency is surprisingly undivided in its willingness to undertake the mission.

"There's nothing involved in this operation that isn't being debated by somebody somewhere, but our responsibilities are pretty clear to those who have the top secret code-word clearance and the need to know," said a senior intelligence official.

Botched assassinations in the 1960s and 1970s, and their airing in congressional hearings in 1974, left deep scars on the CIA. Executive orders signed by three presidents since, beginning Feb. 18, 1976, were interpreted until recently as forbidding clandestine acts of targeted killing.

It is significant that the directive Bush signed last month took the form of a presidential finding. As defined in the Hughes-Ryan amendment of 1974 and the Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980, a finding concerns only the use of appropriated funds for covert action by intelligence agencies. The military chain of command uses separate legal instruments called operations orders, numbered sequentially and prefixed by year.

As officials debate the new finding, the new consensus position, according to a participant in the discussions, is that "we should use all the weapons at our disposal." He likened targeted killings to "clipping toenails" because al-Qaida is capable of growing a new cohort of leaders. "It won't solve the whole problem, but it's part of the solution."

Spokesmen for the White House and the CIA declined to comment for this article. But the administration has laid down a public record that offers further evidence of the agency's new authority.

On Sept. 17, after Bush remarked that bin Laden is "wanted dead or alive," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Executive Order 12333, signed Dec. 4, 1981, by President Ronald Reagan, remains in effect. Like its counterparts under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, Executive Orders 11905 and 12306, the directive forbids assassination but does not define the term. Fleischer declined four times to interpret the text. "I'm going to just repeat my words and others will figure out the exact implications of them, but it does not inhibit the nation's ability to act in self-defense," he said.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking Oct. 15, went slightly further.

"It is certainly within the president's power to direct that, in our self-defense, we take this battle to the terrorists and that means to the leadership and command and control capabilities of terrorist networks," he said.

Senior officials said the president's finding directs new forms of cooperation between the CIA and uniformed military commando units. Some knowledgeable sources said it is also possible that the instruments of targeted killings will be foreign agents, the CIA's term for nonemployees who act on its behalf. That is controversial, because it involves risks of betrayal and conflicting agendas on the part of the agents, but it is also seen in parts of the agency as advantageous.

"As a force multiplier," one source said, "we can use Jordanians and Sudanese and Egyptians that are willing to do this for us."

The prospect of extrajudicial killings by the U.S. government is a departure from one of the touchstone intelligence restraints of the post-Vietnam era. It inspires strong qualms among some of those who have thought about it professionally.

"In my heart I am often for assassination, but in my head not," said Anthony Lake, Clinton's first national security adviser, reaching back to an Italian Renaissance family notorious for murder and fratricide for an analogy. "Until you can show me the firewall between those whose deaths you're positive would save a large number of lives, and those about whom you're not positive, then I think you're on a slippery slope to becoming the Borgias."

October 28, 2001

http://web.dailycamera.com/news/terror/oct01/28acia.html

[Hubbs]

What is it with Democrats and wanting to have Congress/Senate involved in everything, and I mean EVERYTHING...medicine, auto industry, banks, military operations and now intel.

When will people realize these fools wreck everything they touch?

We should just have one guy in charge. Hell, we can even make a shiny hat with a bunch of jewels for him to wear, so we know who he is.

[sacase]

Laws requiring that you notify Congress if you are going to do things like run covert-ops in other countries w/ the objective of killing people.

I'm not necessarily against doing it. I am against doing it illegally w/ respect to the requirements for running covert-ops.

Please point out that law.

People are complaining about this assasination thing when it shouldnt' even be an issue. The executiive order that President Ford issued is for assasinating political leaders of countries, not terrorists.

EO 11905

5(g) Prohibition on Assassination. No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.

So assisnating terrorists is ok.

[Destino]

What is it with Democrats and wanting to have Congress/Senate involved in everything, and I mean EVERYTHING...medicine, auto industry, banks, military operations and now intel.

When will people realize these fools wreck everything they touch?

What is it with conservatives yearning for a dictator-like executive branch that completely avoids all the checks and balances that have kept america free and great since day 1?

[Destino]

Please point out that law.

People are complaining about this assasination thing when it shouldnt' even be an issue. The executiive order that President Ford issued is for assasinating political leaders of countries, not terrorists.

EO 11905

5(g) Prohibition on Assassination. No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.

So assisnating terrorists is ok.

No one is arguing that assassination is illegal. What they are saying is that misleading congress so you can have your own personal hit squad to do with as you like is illegal. More than illegal if flies in the face of the very foundation of the united states. We don't need a damn Chavez here.

[luckydevil]

Why does Cheney keep popping up and not Bush? It just seems odd that the VP would be running this.

Kind of amazing how powerful the man was. He had more power over the national security state than the president.

[Bang]

Iraq had secret death squads, too.

Just sayin'

~Bang

[SUSkinsFan]

Along that vein. I think this scene sums up the relationship between them...(Bush is represented by the shorter guy):

[twa]

No one is arguing that assassination is illegal. What they are saying is that misleading congress so you can have your own personal hit squad to do with as you like is illegal. More than illegal if flies in the face of the very foundation of the united states. We don't need a damn Chavez here.

Anyone have any proof it was ever implemented?

Everything I've read and heard says it was simply a plan never put into action....not much different than our plans for invading Canada.

[The Evil Genius]

...not much different than our plans for invading Canada.

It's that Terrence and Philip and their dirty mouths!

[Spaceman Spiff]

Politicians always think they are above the law.

Thats much better.

[SUSkinsFan]

Anyone have any proof it was ever implemented?

Everything I've read and heard says it was simply a plan never put into action....not much different than our plans for invading Canada.

The article says that the squad was used...but that is coming from one individual so it obviously isn't verified.

[twa]

The article says that the squad was used...but that is coming from one individual so it obviously isn't verified.

They give a different story

http://www.newsweek.com/id/206607

Never fully operational,though there was planning and training,it was never used.

[aREDSKIN]

CIA Told to Do 'Whatever Necessary' to Kill Bin Laden

Agency and Military Collaborating at 'Unprecedented' Level; Cheney Says War Against Terror 'May Never End'

By Bob Woodward

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, October 21, 2001; 12:26 AM

President Bush last month signed an intelligence order directing the CIA to undertake its most sweeping and lethal covert action since the founding of the agency in 1947, explicitly calling for the destruction of Osama bin Laden and his worldwide al Qaeda network, according to senior government officials.

The president also added more than $1 billion to the agency's war on terrorism, most of it for the new covert action. The operation will include what officials said is "unprecedented" coordination between the CIA and commando and other military units. Officials said that the president, operating through his "war cabinet," has pledged to dispatch military units to take advantage of the CIA's latest and best intelligence.

Bush's order, called an intelligence "finding," instructs the agency to attack bin Laden's communications, security apparatus and infrastructure, senior government officials said. U.S. intelligence has identified new and important specific weaknesses in the bin Laden organization that are not publicly known, and these vulnerabilities will be the focus of the lethal covert action, sources said.

"The gloves are off," one senior official said. "The president has given the agency the green light to do whatever is necessary. Lethal operations that were unthinkable pre-September 11 are now underway."

The CIA's covert action is a key part of the president's offensive against terrorism, but the agency is also playing a critical role in the defense against future terrorist attacks.

For example, each day a CIA document called the "Threat Matrix," which has the highest security classification ("Top Secret/Codeword"), lands on the desks of the top national security and intelligence officials in the Bush administration. It presents the freshest and most sensitive raw intelligence on dozens of threatened bombings, hijackings or poisonings. Only threats deemed to have some credibility are included in the document.

One day last week, the Threat Matrix contained 100 threats to U.S. facilities in the United States and around the world -- shopping complexes, specific cities, places where thousands gather, embassies. Though nearly all the listed threats have passed without incident and 99 percent turned out to be groundless, dozens more take their place in the matrix each day.

It was the matrix that generated the national alert of impending terrorist action issued by the FBI on Oct. 11. The goal of the matrix is simple: Look for patterns and specific details that might prevent another Sept. 11.

continues here................

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800655.html

[sacase]

I think people fail to realize that while select members of congress hava oversight over certain things, the CIA ultimately works for the president, not congress.

[SUSkinsFan]

I think people fail to realize that while select members of congress hava oversight over certain things, the CIA ultimately works for the president, not congress.

I haven't seen people complaining about Congress not getting to approve/disapprove anything. They are upset that the law says the President has to inform certain members of Congress and he didn't do that. On top of that it wasn't the President that was doing it, it was the Vice-President doing it.

So either Bush knew Cheney was doing and didn't stop him which shows he was okay with the program being used (and if he was okay with it he should have notified the appropriate members of Congress), or he didn't know what was going on which shows gross incompetence in how he ran his White House.

[Larry]

Iraq had secret death squads, too.

Just sayin'

~Bang

Mr. President, we must not allow a mine shaft gap!

[twa]

There is no law requiring notification of planning or training,just operations/actions

another informative piece

http://volokh.com/posts/1247583710.shtml

First, I'm delighted, of course, that the CIA post 9-11 was formulating plans to try and kill Al Qaeda leaders wherever they might be; if they weren't, I would certainly have a big question about what exactly the CIA value-added to national security is. Why would you have a CIA if they weren't trying to figure out covert ops to kill Al Qaeda leaders after 9-11? As for the distinction between inserting small teams or using Predators, recall that the US only began using Predators as a weapons platform in a semi-improvised way after 9-11. The obvious tactic was small team insertion, and only when it became clear that Predators could work, did the US move to that strategy.

[SUSkinsFan]

There is no law requiring notification of planning or training,just operations/actions

That goes back to whether or not the squad was actually used.

[twa]

That goes back to whether or not the squad was actually used.

For assassinations?...No

Though terrorists were certainly targeted and continue to be today.

I wonder if Congress reads the NY Times?

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/international/15INTE.html

[GoSkins561]

The article says that the squad was used...but that is coming from one individual so it obviously isn't verified.

Good how mant terrorists did they take out?

[SkinsHokieFan]

I think people fail to realize that while select members of congress hava oversight over certain things, the CIA ultimately works for the president, not congress.

Bingo.

I think many people hear have never read, nor heard of the NSA of 1947

Nor do many people realize that CIA serves at the pleasure of the President. Congress has "oversight" but after the way Congress has used the CIA as a political football since Frank Church, I'd say that a few there are apprehensive of our legislative branch

This was program that was thought about, but never implemented. Does Congress need to know every hypothetical that CIA thinks of? That is the question

Members of the CIA felt it was uneccessary because this program was not nor did it come to fruition. So why waste the "valuable" time of the intel comittee on things that may or may not be going on?

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

Members of the CIA felt it was uneccessary because this program was not nor did it come to fruition. So why waste the "valuable" time of the intel comittee on things that may or may not be going on?

FWIW, according to Mr. Hersh this program did come to fruition. :2cents:

[twa]

FWIW, according to Mr. Hersh this program did come to fruition. :2cents:

And Mr Hersh's proof?

[jpillian]

And Mr Hersh's proof?

It does seem curious that Panetta felt it was needed to cancel a program supposedly stillborn/non-operational since its inception. It also seems crazy that Congress got in an uproar over 'being lied to' for a program that supposedly didn't do anything.

One possibility is that there is more to this than has made it into the mainstream press.

Another possibility is that Panetta is just acting on the administration's behalf, the administration is coordinating with the DNC in Congress, and it's all just a political "much ado about nothing."

:whoknows: