Dick Cheney 'hid plans to kill al-Qaida operatives abroad'

Dick Cheney 'hid plans to kill al-Qaida operatives abroad'

• Ex-CIA officials say foreign leaders were also in dark
• Investigation demanded into post-9/11 strategy


Dick Cheney, the former vice president, ordered a highly classified CIA operation hidden from Congress because it pushed the limits of legality by planning to assassinate al-Qaida operatives in friendly countries without the knowledge of their governments, according to former intelligence officials.

Former counter-terrorism officials who retain close links to the intelligence community say that the hidden operation involved plans by the CIA and the military to launch operations, similar to those by Israel's Mossad intelligence service, to hunt down and kill al-Qaida activists abroad without informing the governments concerned, even though some were regarded as friendly if unreliable.

The CIA apparently did not put the plan in to operation but the US military did, carrying out several assassinations including one in Kenya that proved to be a severe embarrassment and helped lead to the quashing of the programme.

A former intelligence official said the plan was hatched in the cauldron of the September 11 attacks when officials were pushing various forms of unilateral action and some settled on the Israelis as an example.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/13/cheney-cia-al-qaida-assassinations/print