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Monday, July 13, 2009

Congress to Investigate Efforts to Kill Bin Laden?

I didn't think that the recent revelations about secret CIA programs would amount to much substance.

This is it:

Congressional demands for an investigation grew on Monday over new disclosures that a secret CIA program to capture or kill al-Qaida leaders was concealed from Congress for eight years, perhaps at the behest of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The program, which never got off the ground and remains shrouded in mystery, was designed to target leaders of the terrorism network at close range, rather than with air strikes that risked civilian casualties, government officials with knowledge of the operation said Monday.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The program was canceled last month by CIA Director Leon Panetta shortly after he himself first learned of it.


I'm sure there are many in Congress who are disappointed that this can't be spun into a domestic spying issue.

The fact is, back when we were trying--with this program--to get bin Laden, many of the people now screaming for an investigation were complaining we weren't doing enough to get bin Laden.

Well, they were claiming that when they weren't asserting we had bin Laden on ice just waiting for reveal him for an October election surprise.

I'm still a supporter of Congressional oversight of intelligence, but it isn't clear to me whether this program fell under rules for disclosure to Congress.

It seems like we have another plastic turkey issue.

UPDATE: An agreement that this is a plastic turkey issue:

This is their most ludicrous gambit in a long time — and that’s saying something. Given their eight years of complaints about President Bush’s failure to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, and given President Clinton’s indignant insistence (against the weight of the evidence) that he absolutely wanted the CIA to kill bin Laden, one is moved to ask: What did Democrats think the CIA was doing for the last eight years?


Seriously, this is ridiculous. Or it would be if those leading the charge didn't trust their allied media to provide the cannon fodder to carry the day.