CIA Didn't Tell Congress About Program to Kill = Al-Qaeda Leaders

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CIA Had = Program to Kill=20 Al-Qaeda Leaders
Agency Didn't Tell Congress About = Bush-Era Plan=20 to Use Assassins

By Joby Warrick and Ben Pershing
Washington Post = Staff=20 Writers
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The CIA ran a secret program for nearly eight years that aspired to = kill top=20 al-Qaeda leaders with specially trained assassins, but the agency = declined to=20 tell Congress because the initiative never came close to bringing Osama = bin=20 Laden and his deputies into U.S. cross hairs, U.S. intelligence and=20 congressional officials said yesterday.

The plan to deploy teams of assassins to kill senior terrorists was = legally=20 authorized by the administration of George W. Bush, but it never became = fully=20 operational, according to sources briefed on the matter. The sources = confirmed=20 that then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney had urged the CIA to delay = notifying=20 Congress about the diplomatically sensitive plan -- a bid for secrecy = that=20 congressional Democrats now say thwarted proper oversight.

The program, which was terminated last month, touched off a political = firestorm last week when several Democrats said the CIA had misled = Congress by=20 not disclosing its existence. CIA Director Leon E. Panetta gave = lawmakers their=20 first overview on June 24, within hours of learning about it, the = officials=20 said.

Some officials familiar with the program said certain elements of it = were=20 operational and should have been disclosed because they involved = "significant=20 resources and high risk," as one intelligence official described it. But = others=20 said the initiative never advanced beyond concepts and feasibility = studies.

Intelligence officials also offered conflicting views of Cheney's = alleged=20 role. One official recalled that the vice president ordered only a = temporary=20 delay in notifying Congress, until the planning for an al-Qaeda hit = crossed=20 certain thresholds -- for example, a planned movement of operatives = across=20 international boundaries. "What is being labeled now as covert action = never=20 reached that point," said the official, who is familiar with = intelligence=20 committee briefings on the matter.

Three former intelligence officials who were close to the program = said it=20 operated within legal guidelines.

"Everything we did fell under the [authorizations] of both = administrations,=20 Democratic and Republican," said one former counterterrorism official = with=20 detailed knowledge of the program. "We would have been professionally = negligent=20 if we had not taken the actions we did. There was zero legal risk in my = mind."=20

Panetta's revelation that he had terminated the program drew fresh = criticism=20 from Republican lawmakers yesterday.

"Why would you cancel it?" asked Sen. Christopher S. Bond (Mo.), the ranking Republican = on the=20 Senate intelligence committee. "If the CIA weren't trying to do = something like=20 this, we'd be asking 'Why not?' "

Neither the officials nor the CIA would elaborate on the program or = explain=20 how it differed from other, well-understood attempts to destroy = al-Qaeda's=20 senior leadership. But one U.S. intelligence official, speaking on the = condition=20 of anonymity, said the program was small and intermittent and "exactly = the kind=20 of work people would expect the agency to be doing."

The CIA was authorized in 2001 to use lethal force against a small = group of=20 top al-Qaeda leaders. Although the agency's attacks on terrorist camps = using=20 pilotless aircraft is well documented, the newly disclosed program = involved=20 operatives "striking at two feet instead of 10,000 feet," an = intelligence=20 official said.

Senior White House officials said President Obama was briefed on = Panetta's=20 decision after returning to Washington early Sunday from an overseas = trip. The=20 officials said the White House was not consulted before Panetta canceled = the=20 program. They declined to elaborate.

On Sunday, key Democrats called for an investigation of whether the = CIA broke=20 the law by not briefing Congress. The claims of inappropriate secrecy = also=20 fueled calls for the Obama administration to begin a formal = investigation of the=20 CIA's counterterrorism policies during the Bush administration.

Some details about the CIA's newly disclosed program were first = described in=20 an article on the Wall Street Journal's Web site Sunday night. = Yesterday, former=20 and current intelligence officials characterized the initiative as a = series of=20 discrete attempts to locate and kill bin Laden and his top deputies as = new leads=20 surfaced about their possible whereabouts. Bin Laden is believed to be = living in=20 a rugged area along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

U.S. officials have said they think bin Laden is in Pakistan, so any = attempt=20 to kill him using ground forces probably would require an incursion into = Pakistani territory.

One current intelligence official said the program was always small, = but over=20 time the agency considered different approaches that took advantage of = evolving=20 technical capabilities. Options were being actively weighed as recently = as this=20 spring, said the official, who added that Panetta learned of the program = during=20 a briefing that described new CIA proposals for going after bin Laden. =

Staff writers Michael D. Shear, Paul Kane and Karen DeYoung and = staff=20 researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.