Posted on 08/19/2009 8:31:17 PM PDT by james500
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 successfully 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 C.I.A.s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June 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 actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. 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 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. Blackwaters 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
CIA = US Postal Service
Blackwater = Fed Ex and UPS
Well, who else would they contract to kill terrorists? New York Times reporters?
LOL! Splendid analogy.
It sounds to me it might have worked. We should keep that one on the shelf. All’s fair in love and war.
> Well, who else would they contract to kill terrorists? New York Times reporters?
If the NYT reporters could rig themselves up with explosive belts, it might work. They have probably already got direct trusted access to the terrorists, whenever they want.
Yeah, so?
When you need a specialist, call a pro.
Sounds like a plan. A good plan.
Meanwhile, Barry Sotero, please release your actual birth certificate & Passport records — not to mention the records of the various universities that you attended ...
“Sounds like a plan. A good plan.”
It appears not to have gotten far. I suspect Department of Defense had a hand in that.
I can't figure out how it's controversial to be aggressive while fighting a war. But somehow it has gotten that way.
And the point is ????
This is the best way to take out the bad guys. Hire someone to do it.
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