The other shoe has dropped in the matter of a CIA program the Congress complains it didn’t hear about:
A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.
The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn’t clear, and the CIA won’t comment on its substance.
According to current and former government officials, the agency spent money on planning and possibly some training. It was acting on a 2001 presidential legal pronouncement, known as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts. The initiative hadn’t become fully operational at the time Mr. Panetta ended it.
In 2001, the CIA also examined the subject of targeted assassinations of al Qaeda leaders, according to three former intelligence officials. It appears that those discussions tapered off within six months. It isn’t clear whether they were an early part of the CIA initiative that Mr. Panetta stopped.
This account tracks with previous reports that activities were limited to planning and training. If no one was killed or captured, the Congress has no valid complaint about not being informed. “Highly classified” and “Congressional oversight” have proven to be incompatible concepts in the past.
What’s still a bit puzzling is the assessment floated this weekend that the then-unidentified program was the sort of thing that would have been approved in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but not thereafter. I’m ready to assassinate al Qaeda types now and on an indefinite basis. I doubt I am alone.
