Obama Discusses Targeted Killing of U.S. Citizens During Google+ Hangout

[leveymg]

56. If you don't believe me, read what Undersecretary of State Kennedy had to say about

how the US Intelligence Community uses double-agents, and sometimes issues them visas and lets known terrorists onto commercial airliners.

In an extraordinary display of candor following the attempt by the "Underwear Bomber" to set off binary explosives over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, the State Dept. acknowledged that the CIA let Abdulmutallab onto the plane knowing he was involved in a terrorist cell.

In response to Senate questions, on January 27, 2010, an official from the U.S. State Department stated that Abdulmutallab's visa was not revoked because federal authorities believed that it would have compromised a larger investigation. The official, Patrick F. Kennedy, Undersecretary of State for Management, said intelligence officials had told the State Department that letting Abdulmutallab keep his visa would allow for a greater chance of exposing the terrorist network. Here is the relevant section of Kennedy's statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 20, 2010. It explains why the State Dept. did not revoke his visa, even though he was on several terrorist watch lists: http://travel.state.gov/law/legal/testimony/testimony_5433.html

We recognize the gravity of the threat we face and are working intensely with our colleagues from other agencies to ensure that when the U.S. Government obtains information that a person may pose a threat to our security, that person does not hold a visa.

We will use (visa) revocation authority prior to interagency consultation in circumstances where we believe there is an immediate threat. Revocation is an important tool in our border security arsenal. At the same time, expeditious coordination with our national security partners is not to be underestimated. There have been numerous cases where our unilateral and uncoordinated revocation would have disrupted important investigations that were underway by one of our national security partners. They had the individual under investigation and our revocation action would have disclosed the U.S. Government’s interest in the individual and ended our colleagues’ ability to quietly pursue the case and identify terrorists’ plans and co-conspirators.

This was just one of several AQ terrorists that Anwar al-Alwaki was a point of contact with.

BTW: I never said about al-Alwaki, "Terrorist/CIA agent fails to provide information to prevent "underwear bomber" from entering U.S. airspace so he's targeted for killing." That's your misinterpretation. I said he did provide information or indicators that led to a number of actual and intending AQ terrorists, including the risky but ultimately successful operation against the Underwear Bomber. What is not entirely clear is to what degree his role in identifying these subjects was witting -- although circumstantial evidence appears to indicate to some degree he was a cooperating with the US at some point -- the decision by CIA to target him was made despite his apparent usefulness.