Of Dick Cheney, assassinations and a flash of deja vu
The Guardian newspaper in London has published the following:
Dick Cheney, the former vice president, ordered a highly classified CIA operation hidden from Congress because it pushed the limits of legality by planning to assassinate al-Qaida operatives in friendly countries without the knowledge of their governments, according to former intelligence officials.
Former counter-terrorism officials who retain close links to the intelligence community say that the hidden operation involved plans by the CIA and the military to launch operations, similar to those by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, to hunt down and kill al-Qaida activists abroad without informing the governments concerned, even though some were regarded as friendly if unreliable.
The CIA apparently did not put the plan in to operation but the US military did, carrying out several assassinations including one in Kenya that proved to be a severe embarrassment and helped lead to the quashing of the programme.
The newspaper’s description produced a flash of déjà vu. This is something I wrote for the AJC in late October 2001, while temporarily posted in Jerusalem:
In Washington, word has leaked that President Bush has given the CIA $1 billion and clear instructions to conduct its shadow war against terrorism — wherever it might lead.
The concept is unfamiliar to most Americans. But a version of it has been going on in Israel for nearly 30 years. Its architects say the United States will see some satisfying victories. But America should prepare itself for tragic blunders and unintended consequences, they say.
”You have to be very careful not to make mistakes, ” said Gidon Ezra, a member of Israel’s parliament and a former deputy chief of Shin Bet, the country’s internal security force. “But mistakes happen. Sometimes innocent people get killed.”
Then there are the moral ambiguities — the internal conflicts between a country at war, and one that places a high value on legal norms.
Even as the Bush administration set in motion its clandestine, ”dead-or-alive” operation against Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network, the U.S. State Department condemned the most controversial tool in Israel’s anti-terrorism campaign — its policy of pre-emptive assassinations.
”We remain opposed to targeted killings, ” said spokesman Richard Boucher.
It is not clear assassinations of terrorists will become part of the American portfolio. U.S. officials remain mum. But Uzi Arad, a former head of Mossad, the much-feared Israeli intelligence agency, said America is at the beginning of a path that his country has trod since 1972.
That September, at the Olympic Games in Munich, masked Palestinian terrorists killed Israeli athletes and coaches. Like the Sept. 11 attacks in America, the drama played out on television.
“The analogy is very much with [Prime Minister] Golda Meir in the wake of the Munich massacre, ” Arad said. “Golda Meir issued an order to exact justice. In the years that followed, it was done. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. Sometimes with more success, sometimes with less.”
While Arad draws a distinction between Bush’s search for justice and Israel’s pre-emptive strikes, Ezra does not. Eventually, the two motivations merge, the former deputy chief of Shin Bet said.
”A lot will change in U.S. policy, ” Ezra predicted. Foremost will be the rules of interrogation regarding suspects, he said. Israel recently renounced torture, but maintains its right to ”pressure” arrested suspects.
In the United States, any evidence gathered in such a way would be ruled tainted and thrown out of court. But Ezra said the object ”is not to put them to trial, but to get information.”
Under U.S. law, immigrants suspected of a crime or other violation of their status can only be held for 48 hours without charges. “Which is nothing, ” Ezra said. “You sometimes need two months to open their mouths. ”
Bush on Friday signed into law a bill that allows authorities to detain immigrants for seven days, and detention could be repeatedly extended for six-month periods.
Israelis have steadfastly rejected the death penalty in cases of criminal murder, but the government’s policy of assassination has broad public support among those who feel their lives randomly threatened by suicide bombers.
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© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
16 comments Add your comment
Will Jones - Atlanta
July 13th, 2009
5:43 pm
If the movie “Munich” is true, the State of Israel exacted judgement against those who slaughtered innocent Israelis attending the Olympics.
Fair’s fair.
Cheney, on the other hand, needed to assassinate, or incarcerate and induce “confessions” through torture, those chosen as “whipping boys:” a distraction from his own, and Bush’s guilt for their 9/11 treason.
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/hankramey/The%20New%20Pearl%20Harbor.pdf is the free copy of the proof of their treason. “Try the Spirit.” Read it yourself.
This is not an academic distinction. Rome failed to exterminate world Jewry in the Holocaust and the “palastinian” followers of Maronite Roman Catholics have taken up Rome’s anti-Semitic “replacement theology” slack.
Cheney and Bush are murderers of innocent blood – on 9/11 and beyond. Cheney’s mentor, Nixon, and Bush’s father, assassinated President Kennedy.
The abominations of the known Anti-Christ in America will not be arrested until the American People make it so. That false Jews from the State of Israel and PNAC helped Bush and Cheney is all the more reason the righteous in America must redouble efforts to burnish our place in history as the New Israel.
theamericanfundamentdotblogspotdotcom
Annuit Coeptis
Keith
July 13th, 2009
7:41 pm
Kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out. May peace be upon you.
Zaid
July 14th, 2009
1:32 am
“Kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out. May peace be upon you.”
My, what advanced commentary from the far-right wingnut crowd.
Copyleft
July 14th, 2009
8:36 am
Why let a little thing like U.S. law get in the way?
nader paul kucinich gravel
July 14th, 2009
11:56 am
Mossad “advisors” just like at Abu Ghraib
B52 errant nukes, USMilSpec anthrax, 7/7 London bombings, Madrid train bombings, Tillman’s tight 3 shot group in the forehead, Benazir Bhutto
DNC & RNC have BOTH sold out the country in order to enrich themselves.
Independents agree on more than we disagree.
Beware the divide and conquer.
Gravel Kucinich Paul Nader
McKinney Ventura too
perotcharts.com
Five veterans
The Fed
AIPAC
9/11
Will Jones - Atlanta
July 14th, 2009
12:45 pm
Is Ventura RC? The rest are…and Perot a proven fraud.
Let’s follow Thomas Jefferson and Martin King: America’s Prophets.
Annuit Coeptis
Will Jones - Atlanta
July 14th, 2009
12:46 pm
Paul? My mistake but there’s no mistaking what a fraud he is after “Bruno.”
Annie
July 14th, 2009
7:45 pm
This is still difficult to understand.
The CIA began training up the mujihadeen in the late 70’s, knowing that many of them owed nothing to this country. They were sent to Afghanistan to fight. When they were cashiered, they formed al qaeda, which was confluent with hamas, at least in Florida for many years. The EIJ brought Ayman al Zawahiri to the US for a fundraising tour after he killed his way to power.
Al qaeda in the US partnered at times with the various families of the mob, with middle eastern and far eastern terrorist groups, with eastern european terrorist groups, and with the CIA. They moved on our government in every way open to them, trading friendship for dereliction of loyalty.
Having experienced alot of this saga firsthand, I am amazed our country thinks it is going to one-up al qaeda abroad or within the US. I am equally amazed that current and former elected and appointed officials think it is safe to maintain relationships with wahhabists, taleban, and supporters of al qaeda.
I do recall the many times I appealed for help to various federal. state and local agencies regarding terrorist confrontations involving myself, family and friends. I was always assured that the agencies…the CIA and the military would make quick work of apprehension and/or killing of the various terrorist leaders. And so ordinary law enforcement practices were not applied in instances of terrorist confrontations in the US. It was apparent early-on to every witness and victim of terrorism that there would be no easy or time-delayed intelligence sharing through interrogation of al qaeda leaders or foot soldiers. I also recall how quickly, just a matter of less than a year, our country swung from fully active to permitting local jihadists.to attend CERT and Citizen Corps meetings in my city at the EOC. And then, of course, more bad things happened.
I remember George Bush and, before him Bill Clinton saying that no foreign terrorists were killing people in the US, or that there were no sleeper cells in the US, or some other sort of rubbish.
While we should abhor the practices of snatch and kill here and abroad, we should also be mindful that any law enforcement action which works from lists instead of warrants isn’t American. Any agent of our government who does these MIB acts must be sworn…that is, must be not only responsible but also responsible in a court of law for their actions.
We have a tremendous challenge to intercept and prevent terrorist attacks. And, as Mohammad Atta once said to me, “You may take the stories of this meeting to your police and agencies in this country, but you will never know who is really working FOR you. This terrorism challenge is very comples, defies solution by approaches, and demands involvement. The fools amongst us are costing some of us our lives.
I did participate in the Tower Commission and I was very adamant that our country needed to prosecute those members of the intelligence community who were performing extrajudicial homicides, and that we additionally needed firm guidelines for intelligence gathering within the US, and for espionage activities at home and abroad. Many of the practices of the CIA placed the US in greater danger. I still believe that the issues I shared then, apply now with as great or greater urgency.
Will Jones - Atlanta
July 14th, 2009
10:47 pm
The People must reassert sovereignty and righteousness. Obama is brilliant and may fully understand, correctly. His may be a “transitional” administration. The sectarian faction which is the Anti-Christ in America must be destroyed and the fascist plutocracy which brought it expropriated and expunged.
Copyleft
July 15th, 2009
9:53 am
The Cold War policy was “prop up terrorists so they’ll help us fight the communists.”
Any child could see where such a stupid policy would lead… and it did. Repeatedly.
Reverie
July 15th, 2009
4:44 pm
Actually, if they had not done this I would have been surprised and disappointed. As for as I am concerned there is NO sanctuary for enemies of our nation. While the hate filled and gutless left whines on and on, the right actually does the hard work of keeping the world safe. If you are an enemy of my brother, you are my enemy. I will hunt you where you hide and kill you where you stand. You will fear me and my family. Obviously, I don’t think the left is comfortable with this but they are, after all, gutless morons. For you blathering idiots on the left, if you actually believe in God and the sanctity of the individual, you would get down on your knees every night and give thanks for the people that keep you free. I doubt you will, though. You are too wound-up about our elegant President.
Harvey
July 15th, 2009
8:55 pm
That September, at the Olympic Games in Munich, masked Palestinian terrorists killed Israeli athletes and coaches. Like the Sept. 11 attacks in America, the drama played out on television.
—-By Jim Galloway
____________________________
Jim Galloway cleverly promotes the Israeli targeted assassination practices for use by the US.
Massive bombs used by Israel and the US to kill targeted suspects but kill innocent family bystanders to be acceptable practice ?
The clever insertion and co-relation of Palistinians and 9/11 — “That September, at the Olympic Games in Munich, masked Palestinian terrorists killed Israeli athletes and coaches. Like the Sept. 11 attacks in America, the drama played out on television”.
He says Israeli revenge for the so called Munich Massacre was a case of —”Sometimes with more success, sometimes with less.”—
The less success he fails to mention was the more than 20 innocent civilians murdered by Israeli Jews in their revenge.
Was any one ever charged over the innocent murdered bystanders ????
Likewise when the US unsuccessfully targeted Saddam Hussein and murdered innocent bystanders was any one charged ? ? ?
Seems the “War on Islam” is really open season and target practice — shooting fish in a barrel — for the Judeo/Christian Alliance.
Will Jones - Atlanta
July 16th, 2009
4:08 am
Enter your comments here
Will Jones - Atlanta
July 16th, 2009
4:17 am
Bush and Cheney committed 9/11. That isn’t a “reverie,” above, it is dull delusion or infamous, treasonous lie.
The fascist “right” you promote is closet-queen draft-dodging pervert adulterers and pansies duping the untutored innocent into false war. Why else is the Gay Old Pervert party but a tool of fascist plutocracy with Nazi and pederast propagandists pandering for papism?
America is founded as a bastion of Classical Liberalism, “de facto” left-wing, establishing individual sovereignty over the state for the first time in history: American Exceptionalism. Read the Founders’ writings if you aren’t a committed agent of treason who knows exactly why you lie.
http://theamericanfundament.blogspot.com
Spöken som finns « Nemokrati
July 16th, 2009
11:46 pm
[...] AP – Liz Cheney refuses to discuss veep’s roles in CIA, Sydney Morning Herald, Atlanta Journal Constitution – On Dick Cheney, assassinations and a flash of deja vu, U.S. News & World Report2, Chicago Tribune – What they don’t know won’t [...]
Incredible
July 18th, 2009
1:15 am
Hi. The story really isn’t so much about who and tactics as much as how the young people had their lives ruined in the process. They used female CIA operatives to effect these assassinations without notifying them. In my case, I was not told until eight years later that what I thought was a sleep disorder was real. That the levitation was real. It does involve extraordinary renditions and American targets, and I feel violated that they ruined my career as a law student. I applied to multiple internships and one of these included the CIA. My resume was forwarded to the DC club, and I had holograms in my room and my life deteriorated. I have been discredited and the usual. I attempted to finish law school in 2004 when they reactivated the program, but a former CIA operative failed me in the law class he was teaching. They reactivated the program, only to hold certain people down. I will never know the full story, but I have never been notified. I received a phone call eight years later stating that the gentleman was the head of the squad and was going to give me orders. I am in the process of doing an employment verification at the CIA, but my feeling is that they will use the time-tried “untrained technicians” approach and again, I will lose. If there is anyway I can help people in this situation, then I will. I am not sure what it takes in order to stop this type of behavior. Why is this agency with an unqualifed director (I have more experience and if allowed to finish law school by the CIA I would have) allowed to disqualify people like myself from public service and squander thousands of dollars spent on my tuition? I have had attempts on my life on several occasions and I don’t know what to think. Especially when I only had an inkling of this after several unknown facebook friends posted CIA materials on my profile in plain view. They really do treat women there well.