Wall Street Journal:
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.
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60 minutes;
July 12, 2009
Elite Officer Recalls Bin Laden Hunt
Delta Force Commander Says The Best Plan To Kill The Al Qaeda Leader In 2001 Was Nixed
Fury told 60 Minutes his orders were to kill bin Laden and leave the body with the Afghans.
"Right here you're looking at basically the battlefield from the last location that we had a firm on Osama bin Laden's location," Fury explains to Pelley, looking at a ridgeline with an elevation of about 14,000 feet.
Asked how tough it would be to attack such a position on a scale of one to ten, Fury tells Pelley, "In my experience it’s a ten."
But they didn't take that route, because Fury says they didn't get approval from a higher level. "Whether that was Central Command all the way up to the president of the United States, I'm not sure," he says.
The next option that Delta wanted to employ was to drop hundreds of landmines in the mountain passes that led to Pakistan, which was bin Laden’s escape route.
Okay, there a big large group of Al Qaeda moving south. They can engage that," Fury explains.
But they didn't do that either, because Fury says that plan was also disapproved. He says he has "no idea" why.
"How often does Delta come up with a tactical plan that's disapproved by higher headquarters?" Pelley asks.
"In my experience, in my five years at Delta, never before," Fury says.
Let the CIA do their job protecting our country. Send Panetta back to where ever he came from because he is only a political hack in the wrong place. Another disasterous administration pick by the BHO staff.
the CIA works for corporations not the american people.
That's absurd!!!!
not a lot of choice out there with dimocraps - hard to find one who has paid his taxes - if Bam bam went for quality, he'd end up with the WH full of Republicans
What have your silly little coments to do with what is being discussed here. Tax and money problems are shared by both partys. Does Jack Abramhoff pay his taxes on time? Oh I forgot he is in Federal Custody.
Ask Mccain and Palin about not paying taxes...th
It is not the CIAs job to take direction only from the VP without accountability to Congress
It is not okay for the VPOTUS to order the assassination of people in other countries
Being the judge, jury and executioner for people on Cheney's hit list is not only wrong, it is probably criminal.
Hmmmm....
Rumsfeld Admits to "Ghosting" Detainee
Thu, 2005-12-29
By David Swanson
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has admitted that he "ghosted" a detainee, meaning that he made the decision to hold a prisoner without keeping any records of the fact.
While prisoners of war can be theoretically stripped of their rights by calling them other names (like "unlawful combatants"), they are probably most effectively stripped of all rights by keeping their imprisonment secret. That is what Rumsfeld says he did.
http://www
This supposed Secret Program they tell us is simply about killing Al Qaeda operatives. That is what we are being told. Why if 100 % of Americans would have liked that to happen and why if Al Qaeda most assuredly would understand that we wanted that, would this program have to have been kept a secret. On the face of it, there is something fishy going on. Especially since our Army and our Marines are in Afghanistan to kill Al Qaeda and were even already killing them openly elsewhere. Why need a "Secret " Program. As Paul Harvey would say, "What is the rest of the Story?". I would much like to know what the real need for secrecy was. How much more spying on Americans were they really doing. What Americans were they planning on killing because they stood in the way of their other schemes. Secrecy can and is more often than not employed against the very people that it supposedly is meant to Protect. Secrecy can hide things that are better revealed to the light of day. What dark things are being done under the guise of secrecy to enable power grabs or to enable Corporations vile plans for their further domination of Americans. Better the CIA should be disbanded then that they should be employed for the dirty work of men like Cheney or the Bush family.
George Bush claimed that he had the lawful authority to murder anyone he so chose, any time he so chose.
Congress apparently approved that philosophy because they continued giving him the money to finance his criminal activities.
I find it incredible that anyone would go along with the proposal that any gov't official or politician has the lawful authority to just murder anyone he so chooses.
I suspect the CIA assassinated far more than "al qaida operatives
The CIA is little more than a criminal enterprise & should be disbanded.
George Bush should be in prison for conspiracy to commit murder. Along with his entire administration.
LOL - talk about being an ignoran us!
Have you noticed how much classified information has been "accidently" leaked since Obama took office. Gee, I wonder if it's to make Bush look bad. Perhaps.
If you are referring to the top secret plan to capture or kill bin laden.....
I don't mean that.
If you refer to the super secret plan to capture or kill Bin laden and his associates
Try reading the article next time, maybe then you'd notice that all the informational leaks are attached to "this is no big deal and here's why statements" ... 1+1=1 much?
Yeah, because that's why. Ok.
What "classified information"?
The newspapers have been routinely reporting on all the "al qaida operatives" the US has been assassinating since Clinton was president.
If that's "classified," they must be referring to the classified ads in newspapers because it was no secret.
Wait a minute ..most of everything "accidently leaked " has been out there before ...just because the MSM just didn't jump on it ...doesn't mean anybodys trying to make bush look bad ...he and his merry band of neocons "rule the world" plan have done that all by themselves
I'm a liberal Democrat who detests Dick Cheney, but I always assumed that we would be very proactive about killing Al Qaeda operatives. If you're sure you've go the right man, go for it.
I'm a conservative Republican who detests Panetta and BHO. However, I always assumed that we would be very proactive about killing Al Qaeda operatives, since it would be better to "Off" them than bring them back to stand trial supported by liberal lawyers.
Nothing wrong with trying to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives. During the campaign Obama said we should have been trying to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives and turns out, we were.
Your jumping to conclusions, It seems that you were briefed before the Director of the CIA.He says he just learned about the program a day or so before he reported it to Congress.
Did you read the article?
Does it not seem strange that the CIA had a secret plan to assassinate leaders of Al Qaida? When for the last seven and a half years of G W's presidency, getting Bin Laden was supposed to be his main objective.
A secret plan that took seven or eight years to not go operational no less...
The CIA had a program they started back in 2001 which was just killed last week. After more than 7 years, they were still in the planning stage? Either this shows dishonesty or gross incompetence . Why would you fund a program that could not find its way out of the planning phase for 7 years. Was the plan to watch for the Al Quieda operatives to die of old age? This defense is laughable. This needs to be investigated to see what it really was and audit what was done and what it cost.
If it was an assassination ring, then the CIA was most likely trying to k!ll the monster(s) they created so Cheney would come out smelling like a rose. Whatever the program, I'm sure there are (and were) many more programs, kept secret from congress and senate, started during the Bush years.
It seems curious that the WSJ is the news organization that is "breaking the news" about the secret plan. Why is that? Why hasn't that information been confirmed by other news organizations? Until we hear verifiable information, it seems imprudent to start guessing about the " secret plan".
Is the WSJ is the only source because there is only one person who is willing to speak as an 'unidentified source" or is this just Right Leaning Media attempting to make the program seem legitimate and a non-starte
The only evidence that has been released thus far is that JYoo wrote a memo without peer review and sent it off to be used by the WH to skirt the legal issues of FISA. Typically, Yoo has asserted that the President can do whatever he wants and needs no oversight and needs to tell anyone in Congress about it. The DOJ was left off the "read on" list, so legal review was avoided and when they learned of the information (after the fact) and posed questions to the WH, they were told by AGonzales that their input was not necessary.
So in effect, we still do not know anything about the SECRET PLAN, if it was constitutional, if it was put into use, if , if, if. So quit worrying about SPIN by GOP Senators and backers...
What about the 2,000 Afghan prisoners of war who were shot to death in the back of container trucks then buried in a mass grave. This is called a war crime plain and simple and the Bush administration did nothing about it. As for this new tale about a "secret CIA operation to kill al Qaeda operatives," give me a break. Almost immediately after the 9/11 attacks, the whole country, including Congress were told that "al Qaeda was responsible for 9/11." So now they are saying they wanted to secretly kill the operatives. When the Bush administration invaded Iraq based on false intelligence they didn't need a secret CIA program to kill Saddam Hussein's sons or any other so called al Qaeda operative they claimed to have found, but now they are trying to come up with some lame excuse for breaking the law that they can shove down the throats of the American people the same way the shoved a pack of lies about Iraq and 9/11 down the throats of the American people in the run up to the Iraq War. Get real. These people need to be brought to justice.
Links please and not from some conspiricy theory website...
We were shown video of some of the prisoners that reportedly were later shot in those storage containers on the evening news. They were rag-tag Afghan militias made up of men and boys, mostly dressed in dirty, ragged clothing and half starved. At that point in history, the MSM tried to tell us what was going on. How quickly the Bush administration nipped that in the bud!
http://int
Here is what you need to know on the manipulation of the intel in the run up to the Iraq war. This alone requires a criminal investigation by the DOJ and Congress. The DOJ needs to investigate because there is clear criminal conduct with intent to break the law. The Congress is duty bound by statute to investigate because they were deliberately deceived into authoring a preventive war.
Wake up - this is the real deal.
democracyn
for your link to this story
BTW - Obama told Anderson Cooper on CNN yesterday that he wanted this mass murder investigated reversing the statement that had come out of the White House earlier saying that this crime was out of the jurisdiction of the US
In 1993, "al qaida operatives" attempted to blow up the WTC's. They were caught and sent to prison, where they remain today.
The US has been assassinating "al qaida operatives" since 1993.
It is not new nor is it secret.
Going to prison is the same as being killed?
There is a distinction here which is important in light of the recent debate. It appears that the CIA was ordered to keep this program from Congressional oversight. It is also clear that the VP was manipulating the CIA's intel in the run up to the war. While I have a deep respect for the work of the intel community when they play by the rules, the rules were clearly broken here.
In this "secret" program and in the run up to the Iraq war, the CIA and other intel agencies were, in effect, commandeered by Bush and Cheney. When you say that "these people need to be brought to justice", I agree. However, in my view, "these people" are the ones who forced the intel community to go along with the massive fraud on the general public. They have committed serious crimes and they are surely not be above the laws of this country.
Thanks for the intel link but what I was really looking for was one that was in reference to "2,000 Afghan prisoners of war who were shot to death in the back of container trucks then buried in a mass grave." Viper, Are you suggesting that US servicemen carried this out?
Read the news and get informed.
http://www
This involed Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan warlord on the CIA payroll whose militia worked closely with US Special Forces as part the American-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in 2001. Meanwhile this US-backed warlord is now the appointed military chief of staff to Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. Since Gen Dostum was on the CIA payroll and reported to commaders of the US-backed Northern Allilance, the US is responsible for investigating any reports of war crimes. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration failed to do so and blocked any attempts by intervening forces to do so. Suspected war crimes that go without investigation have a way of demanding justice no matter how hard those in the halls of power try to sweep them under the rug. Voices from the grave are often louder than the voices of the living.
I really have to ask for one of you who give this story any credibility at all, exactly who do you think the CIA has been targeting with those drone fired missiles over the past 8 years? (actually almost 20 years by now)
Who would that be?
And, if it's so secret, how is it you know about it?
The CIA didn't have drone missiles 20 years ago.
How do you know?
According to Wikipedia, some forms of drones have been around for a long, long time.
"The earliest recorded use of an unmanned aerial vehicle for warfighting occurred on August 22, 1849, when the Austrians attacked the Italian city of Venice with unmanned balloons loaded with explosives
There were also remote controlled passenger jets used as early as the 1950s to test what happened top them when they crashed. All the crap about remote controlled jets not existing when nine-eleven happened did a terrible disservice to the airline industry which strives to protect us each and every day.
actually they were cruise missles and yes the US has had them in the inventory for well over 20 years--and yes President Clinton ordered their use against Al Quida
Sy Hersh.. ummmm
I was going to say the same thing ... Hersh wrote about this in March 2009. Only the MSM didn't cover it back then so I guess that's why this is breaking news?
There is no way this can be the program in question. Going after AQ is not controvercial in any way on either side of the aisle. It makes no sense for C_heney to want to keep this a secret. Consequently, some other and much more controversial program is likely to be what the former administration tried to hide from Congress.
try reading the article first
I read it. I just didn't find it credible.
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First Posted: 07-12-09 10:20 PM | Updated: 08-12-09 05:12 AM