Calls grow for action on CIA plan to kill Al Qaeda leaders

Program kept from Congress for 8 years

July 14, 2009|Pamela Hess, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Congressional demands for an investigation grew yesterday over new disclosures that a secret CIA program to capture or kill Al Qaeda 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 yesterday.

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 learned of it.

Some Democratic lawmakers suggested the failure to notify the congressional intelligence committees violated the oversight laws, which require the intelligence community to keep Congress informed of its activities.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that House and Senate intelligence committees should “take whatever actions they believe are necessary to get more information on the subject,’’ including whether Cheney played a direct role in proposing the secret program and withholding information from Congress.

Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, joining the ranks of those calling for a thorough investigation, said, “Individuals who ordered that Congress be kept in the dark should be held accountable.’’ Feingold said he had “deep concerns about the program itself,’’ adding that he had written to President Obama to ask for the probe.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said that being kept in the dark by the CIA broke the law and “should never, ever happen again.’’

But defenders of Cheney suggested that no laws were broken because the counterterrorism program never got beyond the talking stage.

However, the issue might come down to whether any tax dollars were spent on the planning - and thus subject to congressional scrutiny.

“There are points governed by law at which the executive branch is obligated to notify Congress of an anticipated intelligence activity,’’ said Vicki Divoll, a former deputy counsel to the CIA Counterterrorist Center who was general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2001 to 2003.

“Even if arguably those points weren’t reached, the executive branch may not spend money developing a program if those funds had not been appropriated and authorized by Congress,’’ said Divoll, who teaches government at the US Naval Academy.