OK, I'm confused. I thought that was what they were supposed to be doing. I'm pretty sure that's what Bill Clinton had in mind when he was lobbing cruise missiles onto assorted patches of desert and rocky crags in Afghanistan. I know that is pretty much was George Bush was talking about with his "dead or alive" speech. In fact, when the U.S. military blew up Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the CIA started lobbing Hellfires into Yemen and Waziristan, I thought that was the basic idea.
Of course he's talking about the big hush-hush secret that the United States plotted to kill AQ leaders as reported in today's Wall Street Journal. Go figure...
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This is pure political foolishness and the facts that the DCI is a long term Democratic party stalwart, the CIA has a dispute with the Speaker which needs to be papered over and the President's economic plan is in trouble all bring this partisan idiocy to the fore.
As Greyhawk said, the program did not become operational so there was no need to inform Congress. The fact that a decision was made to use UAV strikes instead of which Congress <i>was</i> informed seems to be forgotten by many. There are, of course, some who object to the UAV strikes. However, Congress as a body apparently does approve of them; they keep funding that program...
Truly secret programs by the Executive have been around in this country for over 200 years -- to include by us, the nascent US, during that Revolution.
Let us not forget the context in which this story takes place. A few weeks ago, Pelosi was drawing heat for accusing the CIA of misleading Congress. It was a charge that she struggled, and failed, to defend. Ever since, Congress has been looking for something that they can hold up as evidence, so as to say, "look! The Speaker is NOT irresponsible!"
The point is hiding the program from Congress. The point is that a secret, Executive Branch program to assassinate "foreign" terrorists will indeed at some point morph into a state-sponsored, secret, assassination program of "terrorists" - foreign and domestic. The last eight years have shown us that the line between 'foreign' and 'domestic' is permanently blurred, if not gone. Truly secret, lethal, Executive Branch programs are unaccountable. They do not respect lines on a map, blurred or otherwise. Secret Executive Branch assassination programs will be used against perceived enemies regardless of geographical location. An Executive Branch, unchecked by Congress, will use the power of the state to control the citizens who authorize that state. An unchecked Executive Branch will use its secret programs to perpetuate the rule of "the king." We fought a revolutionary war, didn't we, to reign-in the power of the king, to name "The Executive Branch," and then to define and control its exercise of power.