Don’t Shoot

The CIA's kill teams were modeled on Israel's hit squads

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  • Posted By: Popsiq @ 09/17/2009 10:24:20 AM

    You can hide an Israeli, especially in Europe - they come from everywhere. How do you hide a six-foot four corn-fed lunker from Nebraska who's working off the CIA abstract for wherever he is?

    Like before, it's far easier to raise up a force of 'allies' who take direction well. Heck they'll even find their own targets for you. Just ask anybody in Southest Asia or the other two Americas.

    Doing that, it isn't necessary to 'blend in' - just call it 'foreign aid work', being a 'missionary' or a 'good will ambassador'.

  • Posted By: txbrit @ 09/14/2009 11:25:37 AM

    According to the 9/11 commission, in December 1998, four months after Al Qaeda attacked two U.S. embassies in Africa, President Clinton signed a "memorandum of notification" that first authorized the CIA to use Afghan tribesmen to kill Osama bin Laden, if it became necessary
    Who gives a s__t about these people they all hate us anyway so give them a real reason

  • Posted By: AnonyMouseReader @ 09/01/2009 7:37:09 AM

    Ahem, idiots.George Bush ordered the CIA to launch Hellfire Missiles at "Kamel Derwish, a U.S. citizen."
    "neither the intelligence community nor the White House was especially concerned about whether the proposed kill teams violated the law."

    Despite what you fools think the CIA is not empowered to assasinate US citizens at home or abroad. The Constitution clearly states that we are entitled to"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Bush ordered a murder of a US citizen, just like he did so many on 9/11.

  • Posted By: mahalapril @ 08/28/2009 3:37:22 PM

    IT SEEMS THAT THE ENEMY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ,CIA,POLICE ,US MILITARY AND FBI ARE OBAMA,HOLDER AND THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS WHO [ ARE ANTI-AMERICA,ANTI-MILITARY,ANTI-COP,ANTI -CIA] ARE DEFENDING THE ISLAMIC TERRORISTS RATHER THAN THE 3,000 INNOCENT AMERICAN CIVILIANS MASSACRED ON 9/11. THE INVESTIGATION OF THE CIA BY OBAMA, HOL;DER AND THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS [TO COVER PELOSI POLITICALLY AFTER SAYING THAT THE CIA ALWAYS LIE TO CONGRESS] WILL BACKFIRE AND WILL RESULT IN THE ASSASSINATION OF OBAMA AND HOLDER BY AGENTS OF THE CIA,US MILITARY,FBI AND POLICE. THIS IS A VERY REAL POSSIBILITY BECAUSE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AND THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS ARE ABUSING,DEMONIZING,NEGLECTING, DEMEANING,ATTACKING AND LEAVING VULNERABLE OUR ULTIMATE DEFENDERS OF THE US CONSTITUTION,FREEDOM,HOMELAND AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

  • Posted By: Sooriamoorthy @ 08/22/2009 2:49:22 AM

    Who's surprised? Certainly not those who're civilized and intelligent.

  • Posted By: downsteamjim @ 07/19/2009 10:42:12 AM

    Killing our enemies in a time of war. What a strange concept Can't we just pin a scarlet T on them and let them go?!

  • Posted By: johnjmccarthy @ 07/17/2009 4:22:47 PM

    Current events re the row about Congress and CIA fidgiting about kill teams has the MSM all a twitting about nothing new.

    The MSM has been known to spike such stories as far back as 1971 when Mike Wallace sent me a plane ticket to fly to New York City for a two day interview at CBS headquarters in Manhatten, two blocks from the Holiday Inn where I was provided a room.

    Sixty Minutes, then in it's infancy, did not follow up on any of the material I provided for copying at Wallace's office.

    Same thing happened at Bob Woodwards office at the Washington Post in May, 1984. No follow up.

    Now Greg Miller of the LA Times is writing about Cheney and the hit squads recently exposed by Seymour Hersch. Miller has been ignoring my information since 1995.
    http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id1.html
    http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id48.html

    It mattered not that I was mentioned in the Congressional Record in September, 1969 when Congress was rejoicing about the dropping of murder charges against eight 'Green Berets' in Vietnam.

    Located in 2000 were once top secret minutes of National Security Council minutes unilaterally declassified by the State Department, much to the angst and chagrin of the CIA, which irrefutably show blatant disregard for Presidential Directives issued during NSC meetings, during wartime. LBJ did not want the Vietnam War expanded into 60,000 square miles of Cambodia, but CIA had other designs to expand the war in spite of Presidential Directives. Some would call that treason.

    The MSM is dead and gone re being the governments 'watchdog'. They have been neutered by The Secret Team.
    http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/ST/

    Kudo's to NEWSWEEK Magazine who place a paragraph about myself in the Periscope Section of the November 11, 1970 edition with William Calley on the front cover.

    John McCarthy
    vpocv@hotmail.com

  • Posted By: Trooper101st @ 07/17/2009 8:13:44 AM

    This would not be something new. It was CIA's risk averse mindset that killed this program. All over the world, there are operatives, money men, facillitators etc. that SHOULD have gone down. Fear, the fear of being discovered and the fallout it would bring killed this. You think Golda Meier consulted the Knesset after Munich? You think she ASKED for permission? Thats why we have a CIA that is more concerned with CYA than the mission at hand. Congess does NOT need to know everything. They can't keep thier mouths shut anyhow. There will be another attack on US soil, and the wrong people will get blamed. The REPUKES must be licking thier chops...

    • Posted By: Hagbard Celine @ 07/17/2009 10:25:58 AM

      "Congess does NOT need to know everything"

      The law says otherwise.

      • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 07/17/2009 2:05:39 PM

        No it does not, at least as it goes for the Congress in entirety, hence the very presence of ''intelligence committees'' who themselves are sworn to secrecy regarding sensitive intelligence that cannot be shared with the media-hunting herd of the larger body, who would spill all in a trice. Arguments by liberal law scholars are that such secretive actions violate Art 1 of the Constitution, although all presidents since George Washington have endrunned this article as it applies only to ''expendtiures'', not to actual intel gathering and dissemination. The Pelosiists demand that all of Congress should be informed of such intelligence which is insane on its face, as all anyone need do with intel that they personally deem odious, is to run to scribblers like Sy Hersh and Bob Woodward, only adding to the decimation of the nations intelligence services thus allowing al Qaeda and other groups free rein to plot other works that would neccesarily include yesterdays Jarkarta bombings on western-owned hotels.[ my money is on JEMMIAH ISLAMIYAH, an al Qaeda splinter]. Even Jay Rockefeller ,Democrat and member of the Senate Intel committee, admits that such a wide sharing of intelligence can be used for partisan gains, with the CIA caught in no-mans land, dying a death of a thousand media-produced cuts.

        • Posted By: Hagbard Celine @ 07/17/2009 2:47:43 PM

          "Arguments by liberal law scholars are that such secretive actions violate Art 1 of the Constitution, although all presidents since George Washington have endrunned this article as it applies only to ''expendtiures'', not to actual intel gathering and dissemination. "

          Okay, so congress should simply not fund the CIA. Giving a blank check to an organization with no oversight isn't in the best interests of the republic.

          • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 07/17/2009 3:20:21 PM

            Nonsense. The 1976 and 1992 acts by Congress specifically include ''oversight'' ,hence the structure of the ''intellligence'' and ''select'' committees in the House and Senate. It is not required by the Document that each and every congressman/woman be apprised of the programs being pursued by the nations intelligence branches. Bear in mind that al Qaeda reads the NY Times too and may adjust their tactics to move around the spilling of such secrets to the press.[ which would occur under an ''everybody knows''scenario].

  • Posted By: kstern999 @ 07/14/2009 2:16:53 PM

    Clearly the Israeli Hit Squads were a big success, completely eliminating terrorism from the face of the earth.

    • Posted By: Trooper101st @ 07/17/2009 8:16:01 AM

      You canh't turn the other cheek w/ these people. REVENGE feels good, and that works for me.

    • Posted By: cutter37 @ 07/14/2009 5:53:30 PM

      What an inane comment. And all just to further your belief system! With your distorted logic, it makes sense not to go after terrorists because one can never eradicate all of them. THAT is why one must never let their guard down and supress and/or eliminate them as they appear. Just because it is a never ending battle is no reason to give in to terrorism.

      • Posted By: kstern999 @ 07/15/2009 2:11:38 PM

        You might consider that fighting terrorism with hit squads has only made the problem worse.

        • Posted By: Hagbard Celine @ 07/16/2009 12:29:49 PM

          Nonsense. It worked quite well for Israel. They took out the entire organization (Black September) which had attacked their athletes.

          Hunting terrorists with tanks is ridiculous. Hunting terrorist leaders with "hit teams" is just difficult.

          • Posted By: bighead1191 @ 07/16/2009 5:04:28 PM

            "Hunting terrorists with tanks is ridiculous. Hunting terrorist leaders with "hit teams" is just difficult."

            Thank you for the comment. The reason we are losing the "war on terror" is because we are fighting it wrong. You won't win this war with an army...

  • Posted By: deedubman @ 07/14/2009 4:41:10 PM

    What Bush and Cheney did was wrong, and they should be prosecuted. The rule of law is a big part of what makes the USA such a great country. Those of you here who are raging against the press apparently have a problem with free speech when you don't agree with it. The CIA didn't have to inform congress because they never put the plan into action? What if the CIA spent taxpayers money on a plan you didn't agree with? Would you be happy with your congressional rep being kept in the dark about it? Neocons willing to suspend the constitution for their narrow aims are the true traitors here. String 'em up!

    • Posted By: cronie 805 @ 07/14/2009 5:31:17 PM

      Deedumbman , you are the traitor!!! what dont you understand the law does NOT apply to this because it never went thru.. HELLO.. I dont understand you liberals the CIA wanted to go after TERRORIST the same people that wnat you , and your family , my family and every american DEAD.. when are you guys gonna get it when its too late.. dang losers

      • Posted By: deedubman @ 07/14/2009 7:49:49 PM

        Traitor? Losers? cronie 805, you're resorting to the standard right-wing tactic of name-calling when you are losing an argument. I know, honey, it hurts. Go have a beer.

        • Posted By: karela @ 07/16/2009 9:26:39 PM

          cronie 805---The law in fact requires that programs or "anticipated" programs must be reported to Congress. If They've been planning it for eight years and have had three high level meetings this year, then it Thatwas at the very least an anticipated program. There may be times when we need to do things like this, but after Iran Contra, the deemed it wise for the CIA to have Congressional oversight. That's the law. Congress may have gone along. The CIA has to obey the law. We all have to obey the law. That's what makes America work. We can't let ourselves become so afraid of bad guys that we forfeit everything we've built in the last two hundred plus years. If we do that then terrorism wins. That's the total purpose of terrorism----to inspire terror in a people. Americans are not cowards and we aren't going to be "terrorized". In America, no one is above the law. That's the way it works. And it's worked pretty well so far.

    • Posted By: Retiree60 @ 07/14/2009 5:37:42 PM

      I think you're missing a point. There are somewhere less than 20 members of the Intelligence commitee. There are hundreds if not thousands of really nasty ideas thrown around the CIA every day. THere's no way that all of them can be reported to congress.

    • Posted By: jcred @ 07/14/2009 4:47:29 PM

      The CIA has to be able to discuss and work on ideas before they are presented to their superiors (ie: Congress). Even the ideas that they don't end up using.

  • Posted By: karela @ 07/16/2009 9:06:29 PM

    The CIA has done enough creepy things in the past that have been far outside the realm of American ideals. The thought of them having secret assassination teams is certainly something that would require Congressional oversight. It's ironic that they've been working on this for eight years and they say that if Congress had known about it that Congress would have approved---and yet they didn't tell Congress and thus violated the law. The law says that they have to report to Congress on their programs AND on "anticipated" programs. If they've had at least three high level meetings this year about it, why is it that they didn't bother to tell the Director of the CIA about those meetings? It smells. It's likely that the reports of Cheney's secret assassination squad that came out last year were in fact true. Bush told Congress in his 2003 state of the union address that they had detained 3,000 terrorists and that there were a lot more who wouldn't be causing any more trouble. And yet there are only about 200 prisoners at Gitmo. They have released thousands of people who they had erroneously called terrorists but found out that they were innocent. How many of the ones they killed had never been terrorists? When the CIA goes hotdog, America usually gets egg on it's face. Instead of Republicans in Congress blaming Panetta for obeying the law, how about if we find out the names of the people who broke it and hold them accountable? I thought that Republicans were the ones who wanted rule of law. You can't chant USA while you're trashing the Constitution and the laws of the land.

  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 07/15/2009 3:42:12 PM

    Then too, the idea that these American ''hit squads'' are a new deal may come to a surprise to the likes of Hosenball and Isikoff, but to no other thinking person.

    Indeed, the ideal of J Edgar Hoover was that his brandnew FBI would be the sort of ''hit squad'' needed to take down the Pretty Boy Floyds, Bonnie and Clydes ,Barker Gangs, and others who were popping up all over the midwest during the Depression. Most, [as with Dillinger, now the subject of a new Depp movie ''Public Enemies''], were to be summarily executed and were, with Dillinger chased into an alley outside the Chicago BIOGRAPH theater and pumped full of lead without drawing a weapon, and Texas authorities who merely engineered an ambush to take out the Barrows who were similarly unarmed. The idea here was not to force a surrender but to kill with extreme prejudice, even if the targets [such as those at Little Sweden Wisconsin, a noted Dillinger hangout], were the wrong ones, with two innocents killed by the FBI in that botched raid in 1934. From the Vietnam Wars CIA PHOENIX program of hit-squad assassination, to Mayor Daleys Chicago sub-force killers in his police department that went after the Black Panthers, Ruby Ridge and its use of killer-snipers,the CIA ''Good Shepard'' post WWII period, which used hit-squads to kill suspected Soviet spies,the nations history has no end of the usage of such programs over the course of the last century.

    • Posted By: hlgns763 @ 07/15/2009 5:29:36 PM

      going off of what Lee Holmes said....

      is ANYONE even remotely suprised at any of this? honestly?

      not to be a conspiracy theorist, but to think the government didnt have such organizations/teams operating since even the founding of this country is extremely naive, and is evidence of giving into the propaganda and lies of our government (which there is an abundance of both).

      its like beleiving in and hanging onto every word obama says, for the record i voted for him, but to beleive his every word as gospel truth means you have just been brainwashed. to think that we ever have, or ever will, get the TRUTH from our "leaders" is laughable at best.... to think we are going to get the TRUTH from newsweek/times/post/fox/local news is also laughable.

      "the media...the OTHER, OTHER branch of the government."


      jeez... and this crap is hardly "ultra secret". been documented, and watched it on the history channel. same idea, different era.

  • Posted By: kenfromillinois @ 07/14/2009 4:08:36 PM

    I'm all for kill teams to go after terrorists. They could practice at the New York Times, home of the truth terrorists and move on to Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. Actually, getting rid of biased, lying journalists world wide would do more for peace than any other action. All journalists of today seem to be focused on creating more hate with bias, lies, innuendo, and incomplete reporting.

    • Posted By: hlgns763 @ 07/15/2009 5:23:33 PM

      i see we are a big supporter of free speech.... ever read the constitution?

      go write your own news articles then... not a journalist? hmm.... you might have some issues exposing what you beleive is the "truth" then wont you?

    • Posted By: Hagbard Celine @ 07/15/2009 12:39:23 PM

      "Actually, getting rid of biased, lying journalists world wide would do more for peace than any other action. "

      Kim Jung Il? Is that you?

  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 07/15/2009 2:04:30 PM

    ''Ultra -secret'' all right.

    The New York Times Dec.14,2002:''Bush Has Widened Authority Of CIA To Kill Terrorists''

  • Posted By: Sooriamoorthy @ 07/15/2009 11:04:01 AM

    Nothing noteworthy in this article, after all both countries ,I mean both States, are built on stolen land in the wake of genocide and plunder.

    • Posted By: Hagbard Celine @ 07/15/2009 12:37:43 PM

      All states are built on stolen land. Each and every one of them.

      So what's your point?

  • Posted By: burbank @ 07/15/2009 3:01:01 AM

    In October of 1985 Suni muslims captured 4 Soviet diplomats in Beriut, Lebanon. They then killed one of the hostages. The KGB then sent in one of their Alpha teams, and thorugh intelligence gathered from KGB operators in country, found out who the pperpatrators and their relatives were and where they lived. They then kidnapped the relatives, and through their policy of "no negotiation" started sending severed body parts back to the Suni leaders. Their message was perfectly clear, the hostages were released, and no Russians were kidnapped for the next 20 years. The fog of war, at times, occludes the truth and prevents governments from doing what really needs to be done in a time of crisis. The Israeli's, and most cretaintly the Russian's knew this back then, and they know it know. Those who would do us harm do not understand the politics of negotiation, they only understand the politics of force. If we are ever going to win the war on terror, then we must adopt a strategy that sends a clear message to terrorists that we will respond in kind and by any means necessary to stop the threat. That means target identification, target acquisition, and target elimination; with no quarter asked for or given. That's the way the game is played. The KGB and the Mossad understood back then, and it is time we took a page out of their playbook and understand it now.

    • Posted By: Galasso @ 07/15/2009 6:09:20 AM

      After the US Embassy in Tehran was taken over by the rabid Isamic radicals in the early 1970s, the Soviets were asked what they would have done in the same situation and they replied that it would have never happened. When asked why, they replied 'Because we would not have permitted it." We, of course at the time, had the great international strategist team of Carter and Brezinski who were found of sending nasty Diplomatic notes to the people who offended or attacked us ot taking great umbrage at the UN..

  • Posted By: Cliff-N-Cali @ 07/15/2009 4:22:52 AM

    Wasn't this one of the topics discussed shortly after 9/11? Why didn't the CIA do more? Why didn't the President do more? Why didn't the military do more? Well people their doing more!!! Why don't we sit back and let them do their jobs????

  • Posted By: boredwell @ 07/15/2009 12:40:48 AM

    France's Expeditonary Special Forces pursued Somali pirates, captured them on land and spirited them off to stand trial in France. I believe there was not as much as a negative peep about it. They were, in fact, admired for their bravado and their success. The Mossad on the other hand has several times botched its rogue assassination attempts. Other than the unfortunate man in Norway, an agent injected a man in Jordan with what turned out not be a lethal dose. While these two incidents may boil down to a few people who didn't do their homework or prepare adequately enough, it indicates that sub rosa missions based on narrowly defined security parameters can and do backfire. The CIA and Cheney should have learned something from previous clandestine subterfuges with Allende in Chile and the Iran-Contra legerdemaine. That said, I'll bet if you polled Americans, a majority would say they wouldn't lose sleep over ridding the world of terrorists one way or the other.

  • Posted By: BOFORCE @ 07/15/2009 12:16:06 AM

    Perhaps the US government won't need to inflate its terrorism-arrest stats after it implements the Defense Science Board's recommendation. This influential committee inside the Pentagon has proposed a terrifying way to fight evil-doers: Goad them into making terrorist attacks. Yes, you read correctly. Instead of waiting for a plot to be hatched and possibly executed, go out and make it happen.
    In summer 2002, the Defense Science Board outlined all kinds of ways to fight the war on terrorism around the world. The scariest suggestion involves the creation of a new 100-man, $100-million team called the Proactive Pre-emptive Operations Group, or P2OG.
    This combination of elite special forces soldiers and intelligence agents will have "an entirely new capability to proactively, pre-emptively provoke responses from adversary/terrorist groups," according to the DSB's report.
    Just how the P2OG will "provoke" terrorists into action is not specified, at least in the unclassified portions of the report. United Press International - which apparently has access to the full, classified version of the report - says that techniques could include "stealing their money or tricking them with fake communications." The Moscow Times offers further possibilities, such as killing family members and infiltrating the groups with provocateurs, who will suggest and even direct terrorist strikes.
    Once the terrorists have been provoked, what then? UPI says that by taking action, the terrorists would be "exposing themselves to 'quick-response' attacks by US forces." In other words, the plan is to hit the hornet's nest with a stick, while waiting nearby with a can of bug spray. The flaws in this approach are obvious. Although not spelled out in the UPI article or the report itsef, the idea seems to be that the P2OG will cause terrorists to make an attack but supposedly stop them right before the attack actually occurs. Will the P2OG always be able to prevent terrorism it creates from taking place?
    Will it always be able to "neutralize" all of the terrorists during that crucial window after a plan has been put into motion but before it's been carried out? I wouldn't want to bet lives on it. But that's exactly what's happening.
    Whenever any future terrorist attack occurs - an embassy is truck-bombed, a nightclub is blown to smithereens, prominent buildings are hit with hijacked passenger jets - we'll never be 100 percent sure that this wasn't an operation the P2OG provoked but then was unable to stop in time.

  • Posted By: Sylvester Fordoms @ 07/14/2009 5:27:51 PM

    Although I am not a supporter of the former administrations assault on our civil liberties as US citizens, as a US war veteran, I am in full support of any efforts to assault and eliminate the enemies of our Country wherever they may reside. The fact that Congress was not informed whether intentional (or not) is unacceptable by those placed in the highest positions of trust and leadership of our Country. The average citizen may not need to know the details and scope of operations, but our duly elected officials tasked with upholding the checks and balances of government should. The "just get it done" attitude should not prevade the offices of our government when lives are in the balance. That 'attitude' is best reserved for the men and women of our armed forces whose lives may be at stake when closing with the enemy.

    Sylvester Fordoms
    Fmr Capt., USMC

    • Posted By: ritdog @ 07/14/2009 7:31:09 PM

      The big trouble is that most of the idiots in Congress can't keep their mouths shut. This has been seen over and over again, to the detriment of our military. Congress as a whole does not care about what happens to our guys and gals in the service as long as it doesn't affect their re-election. They seem to suport the current "action plan" announced July 2nd, of soldiers NOT shooting at taliban that are shooting at them, not chasing them, if the Taliban enter buildings or areas where there MIGHT be civilians. We are to break off contact. This is to eliminate civilian deaths. Nobody gives acrap about ours. Imagine fighting WWII like this. We'd all be speaking German. Considering that the whole population is armed to the teeth, and is NOT fighting the Taliban, I consider that they support the Taliban, and thus are terrorists also. As the parent of a soon-to-be UH60 chopper crew chief, I'd like him to be able to respond in kind to somebody shooting at him. It's just nuts......

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