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CIA Spent $1 Million Training Hit Squads to Kill Al Qaeda Leaders

by Jarrett Martineau | July 15, 2009 at 02:58 pm

156 views | 38 Recommendations | 4 comments

Over the past eight years, the CIA is reported to have spent $1 million on a "highly classified program" to train elite hit squads intended to target and kill Al Qaeda leaders.

CIA Director Leon Panetta canceled the program on June 23, 2009 — the day he learned of it — and then notified Congress on June 24th.

If it had proceeded, the program's goal would have been to assemble and deploy teams of CIA and special-operations force to assassinate high-ranking members of Al Qaeda "with hit teams on the ground".

The discovery of the CIA's secret program is expected to prompt an investigation into the operation and why Congress was not informed of its existence.

The highly classified program, which never became operational but remained in existence until it was shut down by CIA Director Leon Panetta in June, is expected to trigger a congressional investigation, other officials said.

Had it become fully developed, the CIA's aborted plan would have been a covert-action program. At the outset, the potential operation wouldn't have been limited to particular countries. The use of hit teams was in accordance with the authority granted by the 2001 order, said a former national-security official familiar with it.

According the Wall Street Journal, the "targeted killing of terrorists" has been prohibited by presidential orders dating back to a Ford administration era ban on assassinations.

The ban can be waived, however, if the president decides to do so, as theere is "no specific federal law that bans the practice".

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Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 15:05 on July 15th, 2009

Therein lies the problem. This issue has come up to the Supreme Court a few times and has been rejected. Arlen Spectar addressed this issue during the Sotomayor confirmation hearings yesterday. The problem is no one knows if it is legal or not. Obviously the spin artists will spin it their way.

A. Tran

at 18:34 on July 15th, 2009

Thanks Jarrett for this piece. This story is troubling even though your piece pointed out that it's not operational.

Albert Milliron

at 20:19 on July 15th, 2009

I think this is diversion off of Speaker Pelosi knowing about high value targets receiving enhanced interrogation techniques. One million dollars is pretty small for a CIA operation when you consider the Covert proxy war in the 1980s against the former soviet Union in Afghanistan was up to 700 million dollars. You don't report to congress an program that is not actionable. If it is implemented then you are required to brief 8 people in congress. This was a program to kill enemies of America and I might add Canada, UK, and Australia. These are the people who are killing our soldiers in the field. This program would have used the secrecy as an asset in tracking down people like Bin Laden as our Military channels can be filled with leaks.

smorrison20

at 20:59 on July 15th, 2009

I have to agree with politisite. Seems like a small price to pay. If they make it twice that can we get it rolling? Just kidding but really killing terrorists either by assassination or military brute force has the same end so where is the problem. Use a dagger or use a sword the end is the same. Just my opinion though.