Did I Say the Daily Beast Story Was BS?
Because it was. They were trying to hide the fact that the company of their former ExecDir, Buzzy Krongard and Blackwater, is the gimmick behind the CIA’s assassination program.
The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects.
The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the new C.I.A. director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.
Only of course they didn’t mention Buzzy Krongard, not once, in the whole article. Didn’t mention that he left the CIA before he got this contract. (He was probably contracted by Dusty Foggo, but whatever.)
If I had to guess, I’d say the Dems are closing ranks around Panetta.
I don’t love Panetta–he has humiliated himself thus far. But hey, if those trying to reform the Company join with Panetta and push him, we might make some progress.
And some more of the juicy bits:
And btw, I don’t think Joe Finder will have any more credibility in the future than does Joe The Plumber.
Tina Brown, you got pwned, but you usually do. *g*
He’s in Twitter right now trying to challenge me. Nice to see the CIA can mobilize in social media to protect their propaganda.
What, witticisms at 40 paces?
‘Cause actual threats, you can (probably should) report to the police.
Oh, these CIA shills–they’re not very witty.
You be careful, please.
I hereby adopt and incorporate, as if set forth again herein, my previous Condiliar quote of shock.
Blackwater was hired for the assassinations.
Wrong thread…you move so quickly, EW!
okay, I think I am confused. Where does Buzzy Krongard fit in? He was former ExecDir of what?
The CIA.
oh okay. He was the one with the brother who was on Blackwater’s board, right?
Almost, but not quite. *g*
Buzzy was Executive Director of the CIA and then he joined Blackwater.
His brother was the Inspector General at the State Department who got caught perjurying himself at a Congressional hearing where he was being grilled by Chairman Henry Waxman about obstructing investigations into Blackwater’s crimes in Iraq.
whoowheee! hard to keep the perps straight. Thanks.
damn .. must be nice to get to execute people with a death warrant signed by the prez himself .. but .. what i do know about this is .. even killing “enemies” when your life is on the line.. when it’s really kill or be killed .. can come back and bite you in the ass ..
i suppose one could/can find and recruit psychopaths for this work .. but what do ya do with them when they eventually stray off the reservation .. they’re already damaged goods and obviously warped when first engaged .. how do you deal with the frankentroops once they’re back on civvy street ..
Suicide em?
good question ?? one way tickets ?? i dunno .. but i can see it as a planning problem .. any planning officer[s] who failed to think this through to it’s probable logical conclusion would .. imo .. be derelict in their duty ..
then again .. in terms of the bushys .. we already know from the lack of planning for post-battle iraq ..they weren’t much on foresight .. but i can’t believe any responsible J-3 or S-3 staffs wouldn’t carry it to it’s natural conclusion..
i also can’t see the duplicity of suiciding them as in any way being consistent with the normal honor code of the serving officer corps.. things have changed since my time in uniform … but not on that front ..
it’s what the brits call a ’sticky wicket” ..even for clandestine service spook-types .. imo
m
I’ll bet that underneath the disagreements we’ve heard about on everything from troop levels to legalities are some intense disagreements over just such questions as “Then what do we do with them?”
Re officers’ codes of honor, I’m going to have to look up who carried out the Night of the Long Knives. Going into the 3rdR the German corp certainly had some claim to that sort of honor. Not that any such horror could happen all at once here, of course —the present climate really would not tolerate it I think— but some kind of gradual, um, sequesteration …
[Ah yes, the wikipedia account relies on a few standard accounts. The regular corp was clearly on board, as the brownshirts had started acting as if they thought they could supplant the regulars. Could have been an accident: on the other hand, if one knew that a body that was fundamentally an undisciplined rabble could prove troublesome once the need for manufactured havoc had ended, one might want to encourage such a delusion in order to generate a pretext, and also to bind the regulars more closely to oneself than they might perhaps otherwise have been …
It would make sense both for Panetta to spot the control issue immediately and to be alarmed by it.]
dragon .. i skimmed by something on this the other day over at abu muqawama’s {CNAS}..site ..
let me see if i can find it .. have a look at it ..and drag back a linky ..maybe .. [ i don’t have much luck with the linky thingy herein for some reason]
all part of the plan
“America suffers an epidemic of suicides among traumatised army veterans”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t…..873622.ece
check your brake lines on the car before ya leave the house ..eh EW ..
Beginning to think I need to worry–for the first time in years. They’re cranky in Twitter.
NSA, FBI, CIA……
What’s another three letter group on yer ass?
i did six months TDY with teh DIA once ..[been 35 yrs ago] and with the spooks we knew [CIA] at the time .. it was hard sometimes to figure out exactly which side they were really on .. some of the ops were convoluted to the point of seeming inside-out .. [that assumes of course that what we were told was what was really going on ..and there really is never an assurance of that where spooks are involved]
i know it’s no comfort..but .. i was just pulling your chain ..
i still question the wisdom of the whole scenario/program .. due to the assured psychological damage to the doers .. and anyone who would be impervious to that damage would by definition be a psychopath.. and like i said ..what do ya do with with ‘em “down the line” ..
You & the boyz are welcome to hideout at our place. Would be a little cozy, but we have lots from the garden to keep us all fed!
Today in Parsing
This does not say that it did not capture nor kill any people who were not terrorist suspects.
This does not say that it did not capture nor kill any people who were known terrorists.
This does not say that it did not severely injure, even leave brain-dead, any terrorist suspects.
Etc. etc. etc.
You mean that President Bush and Dick Cheney actually authorized the use of death squads? Did they have a death panel to pick their targets?
This whole country is rotting out from under our feet.
-G
“i still question the wisdom of the whole scenario/program .. due to the assured psychological damage to the doers .. and anyone who would be impervious to that damage would by definition be a psychopath.. and like i said ..what do ya do with with ‘em “down the line” ..”
Actually, the Israeli’s have apparently studied the psychological effects of this in depth. No real impact they could find. It all has to do with very careful selection, keeping them isolated while “on duty” in the desert, long term training, total involvement in the planning of any mission, and close association with the current political leadership who do take votes on any assassination. In otherwords, they actually get to witness the political leaders taking responsibility for the decision.
Total opposite of US practice in covert work, where everything is done to give the political leadership total deniablity of any action that goes right or wrong.
thank you sara .. interesting idea .. when i think about it .. it parallels how we train and use our military sniper units .. but we don’t involve them in the planning ..voting part ..etc ..
and ..as to my #26 .. i went and looked at the abu topic i had skimmed over .. it wasn’t a worthy enough pelt to warrant killin’ it ..skinnin’ it and draggin’ it back over here ..
In otherwords, they actually get to witness the political leaders taking responsibility for the decision.
“Responsibility” in what sense? The political leaders never have to face justice for these decisions.
“Responsibility” in what sense? The political leaders never have to face justice for these decisions.”
Justice, in the normal sense is not really part of the language of the covert business, and we misunderstand the business if we apply a civil and criminal law concept to what they do. Now I want to make clear, I don’t advocate these things. They offend my Quakerly Sensibilities as to the ideals of conflict resolution. But to do a proper analysis, you have to get inside the mindset of those who live and act in that world.
The Israeli’s, who are pretty bloody minded about all this, contend that to set a team of Kidon’s on to the trail of someone who trains suicide bombers to blow themselves up in Israeli Restaurants during the lunch rush, deserves to get the death penalty. That’s what the political leaders are required to vote on — is the evidence in the case clear? Does it deserve this punishment? Apparently it has to be very much a cross party vote. The Assassins are then given the case, the materials, and they figure out the plan — a plan that probably has to be executed in a place where normal police or military cannot go. They make the plan, and then lay it before the political leaders for approval. Then they train and execute it. The point is that Political Leaders are required to participate in front of those who will execute. If things go wrong, the political leaders know who will take the rap for a bad decision, or a failure to properly resource an operation. And many others in the “system” know the facts. It isn’t what would be considered kosher justice in a court of law, but there is clearly shared responsibility.
If we are correct that CIA tried to solve their turf problems, and their lack of capacity problems by outsourcing to Blackwater, and not even covering that with a written contract, then that is what we have to compare to other approaches.
Whether Panetta, Obama, and maybe Clinton and Holbrooke and Mitchel have managed to sort out all the unwritten understandings with Blackwater is something that needs to be addressed. I say this because there has been so much information about as to the essentially racist and Christian Fundamentalist culture of Blackwater — let alone its’ anti-Muslim, anti-Arab culture, that all needs to be clarified. The best way to do this is to make statute law against the outsourcing, and get back to the minimal need to have a written Presidential Finding, followed by briefing Congress persons on the two Intelligence Committees.
From his twitter wallpaper I see that Joseph Finder uses Uniball Vision Elite pens (me too) and eats Altoids. And he’s got a really boring to do list, if that’s his list: “David A B cocktail party; Find Brother printer; apply for new business card; camera to office…”
for what it’s worth, jeremy scahill is supposed to be on democracy now! this morning to discuss blackwater and cia assassination program story. of course don’t know, but maybe will move story forward. says (via twitter) that he has an article coming on it and that “the ny times piece on blackwater and the CIA assassination program is only a tiny tiny part of the story. so much more to come…”
democracy now! is 8am ET. (i stream audio from wbai, but many other sources). transcript is usually posted by 5pm day of the program.
Here is the comment to the Finder piece you inspired me to write which the Beast has refused to post.
“May I review what we have here?
Finder’s article, as we now know, was not only 100% incorrect but its entire conceit and construct was that of a fabrication designed to mislead readers about the matter.
Finder’s sources were all a) non-principals in the matter; and b) anonymous. Though they all have an obvious interest in hiding the truth and protecting the agency’s image, Finder treats them as unbiased and their “story” as the literal truth.
Panetta was not spoken to in the writing of the piece nor was anyone (at least who was cited) who did not share the bias of the other sources and might have added balance to the piece.
Finder was the willing tool of those who wanted to demean Panetta as naive and out of his depth. He wrote an inaccurate story and painted Panetta in the worst possible light thereby tending to undermine Panetta and damage his ability to lead.
Either Finder was born yesterday and was totally duped in good faith–in which case he should swear he went to Harvard and stick to fiction OR he was a shill for certain CIA individuals, currently associated with the agency and some from its past, and posed as a journalist pretending to write a piece based on fact which was, indeed, a pure fabrication. Either way he should explain himself, apologize to Panetta, and then relieve us of his presence permanently. This is shameful, shoddy, and undignified.
Ms. Brown, what do you have to say?”