**CIA Hired Blackwater Contractors to assassinate al-Qaida members!**

WASHINGTON – The CIA hired private contractors at Blackwater USA in 2004 as part of a secret program to kill top-level members of al-Qaida, a person familiar with the program said Wednesday.

The contracts, which were unsuccessful, were canceled several years ago, the person told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the program remains classified.

The New York Times, first reported the program late Wednesday on its Web site.

The Times, citing unidentified current and former government officials, said Blackwater executives helped with planning, training and surveillance for the program. The program never resulted in the capture or killing of any terrorists suspects, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials. It was never fully operational, and has been canceled twice: once by then-CIA Director George Tenet, restarted by Porter Goss, and finally by CIA Director Leon Panetta in June

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090820/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_cia_secret_program

were Cheney's private group used for activities.

That was pretty obvious.

and during and after that, they paid Al Qa'eda members to assassinate other folks who were annoying them and to cause disruptions in the Balkans.

This flow chart is getting really convoluted.

That is, I'm OK with assassinating AQ people. I'm OK with assassinating people in general IF you are already at war with them and have a legitimate casus belli. Offing some enemy leader with a sniper rifle (or up close) seems infinitely preferable to firing off bombs/missiles in response to variable-quality intelligence reports about his whereabouts, and maybe blowing up 50 or 100 or more people in the attempts.

On the other hand, I thought we had the world's greatest military etc. etc. I'm not sure why we'd need to hire a bunch of mercenaries to do it, unless it was supposed to be totally deniable and we-have-no-intentions-of-rescuing-you-if-you're-caught or alternatively it was illegal as fuck in some other way (I dunno, assassinating people who've already been cleared of any criminal involvement and are living peacefully in Belgium or something).

The US is hiring the same killers that have killed indiscriminately in Iraq.

though frankly, I doubt any AQ sympathizer gives a flying fuck whether an American is a GI or an employee of a private company. AQ hates Americans because they're Americans, not especially because they operate shady private companies.

That's why.

Of course, that's not really true but it sure did keep anyone from prosecuting them for most of Bush's term, didn't it?

He could have simply issued an executive order that redefined the existing ban on assassinations to allow doing so against terrorists and dictators, say. The rule against assassinations is not legislative, it's executive. In fact, as far back as the Clinton administration EO 12333 was interpreted that way when the CIA hinted they were examining the possibilities for killing Saddam.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63203-2001Oct27?language=printer

So the government has some room for maneuver when it comes to the legality of assassinating people in general; it's very possible that the CIA got a green light to quietly knock off a bunch of people on September 12th 2001 for all I know. Given that, I'm not sure what extra advantage there would be to hiring Blackwater's services, unless the real purpose was more complex (and less legal) than just trying to eliminate AQ people.

The catch 22 for contractors is that they weren't subject to Iraqi law and couldn't be sued here, either.

But I agree, there's more to it than that. Blackwater has been accused of being involved in illegal gun running. If they were contracting for CIA, God only knows what other criminality, like drug running, they were involved in.

/oops

You seem pretty caviler with killing people , in context of Bush lying the U.S. into a WAR and killing hundreds of thousands , not to mention the sanctions that killed tens of thousands of kids (remember Albright said is was "Worth it " on TV)and now killing thousands of civilians in Afghanistan and another , door kicking in OCCUPATION for what , the CASPIAN OIL pipeline .

And Abu Grahib was not the only torture prison , that produced DEAD Muslims , tortured Muslims , RAPED Muslims , (Taguba Report ) , several around the globe , have done the same .

Have time , we can get into U.S. backed Ethiopian Troops accused of killing and Raping Civilians and the direct bombing of Somalia , to put in place pro west War Lords .

See Ollie , this is the base line for your degenerate and fictitious moral authority , to go around the globe wacking people and oh by the way , other counties do have laws against murdering their citizens and while you argue about sniper rifles being a cool thing to use , U.S .troops are dying for the accused CORRUPT CRIMINAL Karzai ,in AFGHANISTAN .. who's brother is accused DRUG DEALER .

So Throw your Assassinations Ollie ,on the pile of bodies... say ONE - one and half million Muslims killed by the U.S. around the world , , bcs of Full Spectrum Dominance , U.S .policy to control the entire world .

You people HAVE no MORAL authority to go around murdering people , you people HAVE no MORAL authority to decide who will die , from a sniper or predator , but you do have the bloody , racist arrogance of criminals , to murder w/o trial , people who use to work for you , battling the Soviets . It seems working with the agency is a health hazard .

Robert Baer and many others say there is no Al qaeda in Afghanistan, you people are killing Pashtuns tribal members , resisting your occupation .

I don't mind you venting but you seem to think I approve of all wars and all foreign policy decisions of the US; I don't. Indeed, it's because I think a policy of 'full spectrum dominance' is wasteful of both our resources and of human life that highly targeted military actions like assassination are sometimes preferable - as I said above, in cases where there is a legitimate casus belli. To my mind that does not include pre-emptive strikes or subverting diplomacy, but responding to actual attacks that place against the US which result in loss of life.

In short, I think it is far preferable to remove one general than 10 lower-ranking officers, 100 foot soldiers, or 1000 civilians...which is how military action often turns out, even the legitimate kind.

Latin America for that very reason.

of course they are trying to assassinate them, along with every other non-brown-person in Iraq/Afghanistan....

Why is this news?? Raise your hand if you think plausible deniablity exists....

ED to add "other"....don't want to be mis-understood.

Using civilians on the highway as target practice comes to mind.

wackjob CEO thinks it is.

Another waste of taxpayer dollars on an incompetent (and evil) private contractor.

Kind of like that nut in NH with his gun strapped to his leg in that ridiculous holster.

...there are units of the US military that can do this.

Why are we sub-contracting it?