Death squads and US democracy
14 July 2009
Burying the crimes of the Bush administration in the past, however, has proven impossible, not only because of their grave character, but also because much of what was done has yet to be fully exposed and many of the same methods are continuing under Obama.
The way in which this latest revelation has emerged is highly revealing. It has come to the surface as a result of Obama’s CIA director, Leon Panetta, briefing congressional intelligence committees on the matter. The CIA director went to Congress to give the briefings on June 23—the day after he himself became aware of the secret program and ordered it terminated.
The Obama appointee supposedly in charge of America’s spy agency became aware of this operation only four months after assuming his post.
The implications are clear. The CIA maintained the secrecy ordered by Cheney even after the latter had left office, and continued to conceal the existence and nature of the covert operation not only from Congress, but from the Obama administration itself.
The exact nature of the secret program has yet to be made public either by the CIA or those members of Congress briefed by Panetta.
A report published in the Wall Street Journal Monday, citing three unnamed “former intelligence officials,” suggests that it was aimed at organizing the “targeted assassinations” of individuals deemed enemies of the United States in the so-called “global war on terrorism.” In other words, the CIA appears to have been organizing death squads.
“Amid the high alert following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a small CIA unit examined the potential for targeted assassinations of Al Qaeda operatives, according to the three former officials,” the Journal reports.
The Journal quotes one of the officials as saying, “It was straight out of the movies. It was like: Let’s kill them all.”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=103If you think that these death squads were going to be used exclusively against Al-Qaeda, and overseas, you better think again. This sounds like the "off-the-shelf" outfit that Oliver North discussed with then CIA Director Bill Casey.