JULY 14, 2009

CIA Plan Envisioned Hit Teams Killing al Qaeda Leaders

From the Wall Street Journal
By SIOBHAN GORMAN

WASHINGTON -- A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative axed by Director Leon Panetta examined how to assassinate members of al Qaeda with hit teams on the ground, according to current and former national-security officials familiar with the matter.

The goal was to assemble teams of CIA and special-operations forces "and put bullets in [the al Qaeda leaders'] heads," one former intelligence official said.


The plan was never carried out, and Mr. Panetta canceled the effort on the day he learned of it, June 23. The next day, he alerted Congress, which didn't know about the plan.

"The agency hasn't discussed publicly the nature of the effort, which remains classified," said agency spokesman Paul Gimigliano. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday the effort stemmed from a presidential order dated September 2001 that directed the CIA to find ways to kill or capture al Qaeda leaders.

The revelation has intensified a growing battle between the executive branch and Congress over the conduct of the CIA and U.S. intelligence operations.

Democrats in Congress are calling for an investigation into whether it was properly briefed on the matter. Meanwhile, Sen. Kit Bond, the top Republican on the Senate intelligence panel, said the thrust of the plan should be resurrected. "The general concept in the plan is one that should be explored somewhere. Whether it's a modification of this plan or some related plan," he said in an interview.

Congress frequently feuded with the Bush administration over intelligence matters. Democrats expected that tension would abate under the Obama administration, but lawmakers have frequently found themselves at odds with President Barack Obama's decisions to continue or not investigate controversial intelligence policies initiated under President George W. Bush.

The tug-of-war will enter a new round as soon as this week, when the House is expected to take up a bill that would expand congressional oversight of intelligence activities, especially of covert-action programs. The White House has said it would veto the bill if passed.

Had it become fully developed, the CIA's aborted plan would have been a covert-action program. At the outset, the potential operation wouldn't have been limited to particular countries. The use of hit teams was in accordance with the authority granted by the 2001 order, said a former national-security official familiar with it.

In the most recent iteration of the project, top CIA leaders instructed officers involved to narrow its focus and report the plans to Congress if they reached a critical point, according to a former senior intelligence official.

Targeted killing of terrorists is prohibited by a longstanding presidential order banning assassinations that dates back to the Ford administration, noted Vicki Divoll, a former CIA counsel. But the president can waive that order, she said, because there is no specific law that bans the practice.

There's also no legal difference, she said, between killing al Qaeda targets with a hit team or with an unmanned drone, because the "intent to kill a targeted person" defines an assassination.

The CIA has recently opted to step up its use of Predator and Reaper drones to kill al Qaeda and related militants in Pakistan's tribal areas. That program is done in consultation with Pakistani officials and is less risky than sending in individuals, because it doesn't involve U.S. personnel on the ground.

One official with direct knowledge of the secret program said that assassination teams could be more effective than taking out al Qaeda leaders with drone-fired missiles. "We're talking about the difference between two feet and 50,000 feet," said one official with direct knowledge of the program. "Do you want the collateral damage of 50,000 feet or two?"

Mr. Panetta's decision to kill the assassination initiative has put him in a tough spot. His recent moves to stand up for the agency in disputes with the director of national intelligence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- who recently accused the agency of "lying all the time" -- have bolstered his support within the agency, veterans said. But lawmakers' rapid-fire calls to investigate Bush-era efforts like the secret assassination program threaten to undermine that support.

The flap with Congress over the secret program is already reverberating through the CIA's Langley, Va., headquarters, said one former senior intelligence official who is in regular contact with former colleagues.

"They've expressed concern that nobody's got their back," the former official said.

So the plan was never carried out, but congress is annoyed because they were never briefed about the plan and thus lost the chance to leak all the details and get the operatives killed. That seems to be what the fuss is all about.

Other than that, it sounds like an excellent plan. Drones are expensive and cause collateral damage. Bullets (even under government contract) are pretty cheap and very accurate in the right hands.

Look at it from the point of view of the Taliban leader. Would you rather be "offed" by some bored drone operator in Nevada who'd rather be flying an F-22, or by a professional assassin who used skill and tradecraft to get by all your defenses and your bodyguards to stick a silenced pistol in your ear. Your 72 virgins await.