How Politicians, Members Of the Media, And The Pundits Have Embarrassed Themselves On The "Secret" CIA Program To Target Al Qaeda Leaders

President Obama and CIA Director Panetta at the CIA (Photo from The Daily Mail)

CIA Plan To Strike Al-Qaeda Terminated: Report -- AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Central Intelligence Agency had a secret plan to capture or kill Al-Qaeda operatives but it was terminated by new CIA Director Leon Panetta, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Citing unnamed former intelligence officials familiar with the matter, the newspaper said the precise nature of the highly classified effort remained unclear, and the CIA would not comment on its substance.

Read more ....

My Comment: When this story broke out via through The New York Times last week, I criticized their reporting immediately. And even though there was no public reporting on what this "secret CIA program" actually was, I had no problem in outlining what it was in a post a few days ago.

Since then, I have heard (for the past few days) Senators, pundits, and media personalities criticize the Bush administration for keeping secrets, and the need (according to Attorney General Holder) to now investigate President Bush's torture policies.

Sigh .....

This is so full of crap.

This Secret CIA report was nothing more but an investigation by a CIA group to examine the targeted killings of Al Qaeda leaders. President Bush and Vice President Cheney did not give the green light .... and the program never become operational. Should Congress have been notified of such an investigation .... some say yes, some say no .... but if this program did become operational, no one argues that Congress would have been informed. There is no evidence to the assertions that Vice President Cheney wanted this kept secret .... but this has not stopped Senators to demand a witch hunt.

So why the outcry? The outcry came about because the CIA Director learned that such an investigation was never put the rest, and that once in a while this investigation was revisited. He canceled this examination, and notified Congress about his action. At the same time Attorney General Holder has made it clear that he wants to investigate former Bush Administration officials for breaking the law in regards to torture .... a decision which is to be made in the next few weeks.

These news stories were reported when President Obama was finishing his visit to Ghana .... even though the CIA story was known a few weeks before, and Holder had Newsweek publish his interview at the end of last week. Was this planned .... call me a cynic .... but with problems with the economy, the stimulus package not working according to expectations, Nancy Pelosi's assertions that the CIA lied to her (and not providing a shred of proof since making them in May), unemployment going north above 10%, and problems with Health Care legislation and Cap and Trade .... yup .... we need a distraction, and the Bush-Cheney boogeyman is a good one to troll out.

But what really irks me is not the politics of this scam .... as a Canadian I could not care less about American politics .... what irks me is that it appears that we do not have a program to kill and/or capture Al Qaeda's leaders. And what little program that we did have .... which was never a program .... has now been canceled by CIA Director Panetta.

Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong? If it was up to me, the priority should have been (and should still be) to kill Bin Laden and his closest advisors .... and spare no resources to do it.

Unfortunately, Congress and CIA Director Panetta clearly believe that the tactics that were used in the past 7 and a half years is what is wrong .... hence we are where we are today.