Report: CIA plan to seize, kill Al Qaeda chiefs at heart of Congress controversy
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/07/rep...s-controversy/
Daniel Tencer
7/13/2009
The controversy over claims the CIA lied to Congress by withholding information about a counter-terrorism program centers around an "attempt" by the agency to seize and kill Al Qaeda leaders in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
According to the story, the CIA program that agency director Leon Panetta learned of last month, and then disclosed to the House Intelligence Committee, was "an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives."
The Journal cites unnamed "current and former government officials" who reportedly said the program had never become fully operational before Panetta ordered it shut down last month.
Cryptically, the paper states: "Republicans on the panel say that the CIA effort didn't advance to a point where Congress clearly should have been notified." No explanation is given as to why only Republicans on the committee would have been privy to this information.
The paper also states: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.
Last week, Democrat members of the House Intelligence Committee released a letter stating that Panetta informed them the CIA had kept a program concealed from Congress for some six or seven years. That spawned a flurry of speculation as to what the program may have been, including questions about whether it was, in effect, a "secret CIA army" that assassinated individuals abroad and was run directly by then-Vice President Dick Cheney.
The controversy grew this past Saturday when the New York Times reported that Cheney may have directly given the order to keep the program concealed from Congress -- a violation of the National Security Act, if proven true.
The Journal's report implies the program may have never become fully functional, but questions still remain about the specific details of the program, whether Cheney ran it directly, and whether he ordered the CIA to keep it from Congress.
The Journal writes:Republicans on the [House Intelligence] panel say that the CIA effort didn't advance to a point where Congress clearly should have been notified.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said the agency "has not commented on the substance of the effort." He added that "a candid dialogue with Congress is very important to this director and this agency."
The official noted that Congress had long been briefed on the [presidential finding ordering the CIA to hunt and kill Al Qaeda agents], and that the CIA effort wasn't so much a program as "many ideas suggested over the course of years." It hadn't come close to fruition, he added.