CIA Used Blackwater in Plan to Kill Al Qaeda Operatives
By Susie Madrak Thursday Aug 20, 2009 1:00pm
(h/t Michael.)
Well, well, well. Isn't this interesting:
WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects.
The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the new C.I.A. director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.
It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.
Officials said that the C.I.A. did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune. Blackwater’s work on the program actually ended years before Mr. Panetta took over the agency, after senior C.I.A. officials themselves questioned the wisdom of using outsiders in a targeted killing program.
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Suprised? Should you be that one criminal entity hires another criminal entity to do its bidding?
Americans need to face up to the fact that we as a country have been looking the other way for far too long.
> Americans need to face up to the fact that we as a country have been looking the other way for far too long.
Might be nice.
Though giving up the "We are perfect and the saviours of the world" lie & myth is far too hard for the vast majority I'd think.
this on a moral, as well as, a financial level.
Now you really are asking the likely impossible.
I'm sure Sitting Bull would agree. Don't you think?
They don't count. See "Doctrine of Discovery" on the Google.
I really wish the media would quit dignifying these murdering thugs as 'contractors'. They are *mercenaries* and they embrace all the rotten attributes that go with the title.
hired assassins. These individuals were employed from the fringes of society, outcasts from previous wars and revolutions. Some of the most despicable are from the Bosnian conflict and African operations, murderers, rapists and genocidal henchmen. Make no mistake its blood for money with this bunch and many know each other from all over the world and enjoy their work. The deceit is in how this story is put forward by getting you to believe they planned, but did not use the services of Blackwater for assassinations. IMO it will eventually get out from whistleblowers within the organization that this was Cheney's private hit squad, and you payed for it. They also want you to believe this was a worthy undertaking against only Al Qaeda. Yeah right. These are the kind of people who would carry out a hit on someone like Pat Tillman no questions asked, just how much.
We did it numerous times with Castro.
Why would the CIA need Blackwater to teach them how to do this stuff? Isn't secret shit their claim to fame.
I can tell you one thing, they could have paid me a whole lot less and I wouldn't have captured or killed anyone either.
harder to trace back to just who gave the greenlight.
I thought anything done in this country's name comes back to the government. Were they planning to kill these people and not claim credit? That doesn't sound like the bush administration to me.
Maybe it's the same reason they used halliburton and KBR to do things our military is trained to do and perfectly capable of doing.
It's all about looting the treasury.
To date, contractors are not held liable as agents of the U.S. government - which is why they were used to torture detainees in Iraq.
Do not believe for a moment that no one ever did. Cheney would rather look a little like a buffoon than go to jail or the Hague for trial.
If the CIA is so good at covert operations as they claim then why did they need Blackwater? To do this, the CIA would have had to hand over all relevant highly classfied and up to date intelligence regarding any suspected Al Qaeda operatives, hand over any possible connections and locations, plus provide any additional training to a company that would not have that knowledge. This is not something that a highly skilled operation would do unless they are either not that skilled or are so desperate to provide links to Al Qaeda that they had to outsource their operations with the hope that the company would come up with suspects where they could not.
a long line of fundamentalists. Dobson and his Focus on the Family are heavily funded by Prince and his family. GWB thinks God talks to him and wanted him to be President to help bring about the "final days." C Street members think they are preparing for the return of Jesus the businessman, and that they are the new "chosen people," and that their Jesus uses them to accomplish his ends. Thus, whatever they do, and I mean whatever, they are justified in doing. We mere mortals should not concern ourselves with Jesus's plans. I am not making any of this up. Google any of it. They are rich, powerful, and nuts.
...who wouldn't know "Jesus" if he bit them in the ass.
working here. This is "ass covering," to use a legal term. It is also called "plausible deniability." They think they are clever until they get caught. And they are, because no one makes them pay.
used Blackwater to sabotage small planes. I'm hoping something about that will come out soon.
?
CIA .......... Caught In the Act .........
This has been happening for years the world over (1953 Iran coup for instance), interesting to see it on mainstream.
!
That's one of the funnier things I've heard all day !
How many Epic Fails of the CIA's (and FBI's) can there be?
Al Qaeda operatives, uncooperative tribal chiefs, suicidal scientists, DC Madams - it's all good.
There is a special ring in Hell for these animals...*
*Apologies to real animals.
It's a leap but a few years back we would have thought this was a leap.
..can be awful tricksy. I hear that some of them are disguising themselves as liberal bloggers!
They'd like it too much.
later folks!
See ya. And leave my sister alone. :)
Good God. Power has corrupted the CIA. It's time for a good flush!
I think this statement has sliped though time from 40 years in the past .......
I think Ape-Man is older than 40. This statement has been around since the beginning.
All cringe into the background, while the martial Reichian warrior-father transcends conventions in order to unleash his pure supra-rational masculine energy on the evildoers.
When will Brad Pitt be playing Erik Prince?
By the way, does anyone find it odd that apocalyptic Christians are limber enough to push-pull Aramaic pronunciations until they get "Barack Obama" = Satan, but never seem to notice that a guy named Prince runs a company named BlackWater (ie Dark Water, ie Prince of Darkness)?
Just sayin', as "serious" journalists say.
It's too easy for me to get paranoid about Blackwater being Bush/Cheney's private hitman force.
Good point.
Cheney now lives next door to CIA HQ. Of course this means nothing and is just a bizarre, freak coincidence.
?
about where he lives, definitely kidding about it being a freak coincidence.
Can't Blackwater guard him?
Recently accused Blackwater of having employees and civilians murdered.
Did they know where these operatives were? If they did, why not just go after them, what did they need BW for? Everyone was so feverish at that time if they had killed one, I doubt anyone would have noticed anything except the headlines that would have read, Al Qaeda second in command killed in wherever.
A vote for a republican is a vote for a corrupt CIA.
To be fair...there are shadow entities on both sides of the political cabal that consistently tell the public what we need rather than produce what the public wants.
Yeah its shady but I'm all for killing Al Qeada operatives as efficiently as possible. So did they ever find/kill any?
Read the article .. answer is "no" ..
yes.
How is this different than a mob hit? Aren't there people in jail, right now, who have been caught a camera setting up a hit during sting operations? I trust indictments will be forthcoming?
Because the US condones it
Yes, right after Cheney, Rove and Bush receive theirs.
.
administration goes free, then everyone should be let out of prison.
and we all know that can't happen, so busch-cheney and company must go to jail.
...that "torture investigations would harm national security!"
Dear GOP dipshits: You are confusing national security with your personal future political prospects. Torture already harmed national security. Investigating and prosecuting torture is what will help repair that damage. Unless you are implying that there might be a price to pay if you don't get reelected - like a mob protection racket. "Nice country you got there, it'd be a shame if anything happened to it..."
.
Is that what they're calling murder now? I wonder if this new terminology will carry over.
"The Hillside Strangler was convicted in court today on all charges of Aggressive Tactics..."
"Michael Vick was convicted of encouraging aggressive tactics in canines..."
"Scott Peterson was charged today with using aggressive tactics on his wife, Lacey Peterson..."
-ep
nice call! time to ignore all the republizan labels. They don't work any more. People are getting smarter.
The scoundrels are getting weaker.
Republicans = Murderers.
Yes. "Aggressive tactics" my ass!
From The Nation by way of Common Dreams:
Jeremy Scahill - Blackwater: CIA Assassins?
Much more at link .
Video Interview
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/20/reports...
Jeramy Scahill with Keith Olberman"We all know there is more"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#32501173
VIDEO interview with an long time insider Ray McGovern:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com...
They responded to the president i meant to DICK.
There's no reason not to go out and haul the whole busch-cheney crime family into prison, now, before they do more irreparable damage to the nation and it's citizens.
Who in their right mind would possibly object now?
The "Right" mind would.
ya. but then they are not in their right mind.
you just picture the typical beer swilling redneck that would approve of this Blackwater policy. I've met many. Real patriots to the bone. Many would think liberal lefty hunting is just a-ok. I think Palin would approve behind closed doors. By the way isn't it about time she dumped the "Dude" and started strutting her stuff. Coming right up.
how Blackwater planned to lure Al Qaeda operatives into the Haliburton-built showers.
Al Qaida are a bunch of filthy murderous dirtbags who blow up little schoolchildren, women in marketplaces, literally anybody. I have absolutely no problem with hunting them down and eliminating them BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. If the CIA needs some help, they should be able to hire it. Most people in the CIA are not trained or equipped for this kind of activity. Sorry, but somehow I can't feel sorry for Al Qaida. This is a war, not a game of patty-cake.
I take it you are not a supporter of the Constitution of the United States of America and the rule of law ???
If you think for one instant that Al Qaida gives a shit about the "rule of law" you are living on another planet. If they are not fought with every means we have at our disposal, EVERY means, we will surely lose, and your "rule of law" won't matter any more. Put your turban back on and go back to your mosque.
I find it interesting that you think the US is so fragile that "we will surely lose" unless we stoop to their level. You sound afraid and fearful. Lacking self confidence, and lacking confidence in your country you seem too have the makings of a poor leader. I hope to God you are not a captain of anything.
dollars to donuts The Captain believes we were correct to invade Iraq and should invade or nuke Iran.
It is a pity so many can't see how their own fear defeats them in the end. At the sound of the first shot, they freak out and lose all discipline. Sangfroid gents...
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