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nytimes.com - 7/14/2009

C.I.A. Had Plan to Assassinate Qaeda Leaders

— nytimes.com — Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, canceled an assassination plan after learning of it.... (more) C.I.A. Had Plan to Assassinate Qaeda Leaders

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tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com - 7/13/2009

CIA Vet: Agency Doesn't Need Secret Program To Target al Qaeda

— tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com — Earlier today, we raised a few questions about the notion that the secret CIA program that Dick... Cheney reportedly withheld from Congress concerned an effort to kill or capture al Qaeda leaders. And now a top counter-terror expert is doing the same. ... (more) CIA Vet: Agency Doesn't Need Secret Program To Target al ...

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npr.org - 7/13/2009

Former CIA Director: No One Told Me Not To Tell Congress

— npr.org — Hayden during a March 30, 2008, appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images for Meet... the Press By Mark Memmott The man who ran the CIA from 2006 through January says he wasn't told by then-vice president Dick Cheney not ... (more) Former CIA Director: No One Told Me Not To Tell Congress

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Adding It Up
Balloon Juice — Josh is puzzled. The New York Times is also reporting now that the secret Bush-era CIA program kept from Congress and terminated last month by CIA Director Leon Panetta was a plan to assassinate top al Qaeda officials that was never implemented. This is additional confirmation of the Wall Street Journal story that essentially reported the same basic outlines of the still-classified program. The Times compares the program to drone attacks against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “This was another effort that ...

About that Secret Program
The Anonymous Liberal — ... Some have expressed skepticism about this explanation, suggesting that it doesn't add up, that targeted assassinations aren't all that different--at least from a legal/political perspective--from the drone attacks that we've been carrying out since the Clinton administration. David Kurtz at TPM writes: ...

Cheney's secret assassination program
The Reaction — ... Really? That's it. Not that an assassination program isn't serious, or illegal, but I was expecting more, something more juicy. (After all, the U.S. already does this, more or less -- in Pakistan, for example.) But maybe there's a lot more to it, as TPM's David Kurtz suggests: ...

Cheney, Hersh and The CIA's Assassination Squads
Newshoggers.com — ... the moderates fearful for their own safety if they don't "jaw, jaw instead of war, war". I've argued for exactly that in the past and, after all, the only differences between a special forces bullet and a Predator-launched missile are that the bullet is cheaper and doesn't also hit dozens of civilians. But such a program shouldn't be secret - in fact it relies for some of its efficacy on being publicly known. And the problem with secret assassination orders is mission creep.  it's not at all clear why this particular program would be so ...

Democrats vs. the CIA
Weekly Standard Blog — ... Barring some further revelation about this program that truly shocks the conscience then, one might speculate why Democrats are so up in arms over this program -- even some on the left can't understand the problem. One ...

Secret CIA Program: Al Qaeda Hit Teams, or Death Squads?
The Moderate Voice — ... Let’s start with this post David Kurtz wrote yesterday. “Something [about this program] isn’t adding up,” he said: ...