O.K. Democrats, back off, Cheney and Bush authorized secret CIA operation to capture and kill al-Qaida figures, SO WHAT?

STORY FROM HERE.

See, this is why I can never be a liberal. Uhm what part of SECRET and CIA does Nancy Pelosi and company NOT get? Hell, I thought everybody KNEW we were trying to capture and kill al-Qaida members anyway? I don't know about you, but I have no problem with our #1 spy agency trying to kill our enemies. Isn't that what they do? Maybe I watch too many Bond movies.

So I guess they didn't tell the members of the respective intelligence committees in the House and the Senate. I know, we don't want the CIA doing all kinds of craziness like toppling democratically elected governments or supporting tyrannical governments, these things come back on us pretty hard. BUT this was about Killing Al-Qaida members, which too me is to be expected all things considered.

Anyway, Why would anyone think otherwise? So they didn't tell congress, illegal, maybe, necessary, absolutely. Loose lips sink ships. Just saying...

Comments

[Will Staples]

Yeah, because due process? Rule of law? Outdated, cowardly bunk that just holds us back, am I right?

[DJ Black Adam]

Egads Will they are SPIES. They are cutthroat by NATURE.

[Neil]

As always, I love your balance. We may not agree on everything political but you do as well as anyone I've seen at critiquing both sides. Kudos, my friend.

[Marbles]

Well, first of all, because they were required to disclose this stuff by LAW. That's number one.

But even more importantly, this comes down to abuse of power. Things like this are extremely dangerous. Sure, this particular instance was the killing of al-Quaeda leaders (while I'm against all murder as a general principle, I'm sure none of us would shed a countable number of tears for dead terrorists), but what would it be next time? Cheney fed on and helped expand a culture of secrecy, abuse, extralegality and corruption that would make just about anyone else blush. (Nixon didn't have anything on the Bush administration). The places that normalizing such programs/methods would take us as a society are dark and grim.
So don't start falling for that false premise that just because this program was set up to kill people we ain't that fond of, that makes it okay.

[DJ Black Adam]

Marbles:

Thanks for posting. I understand what you are saying, we don't want these types of operations to become the standard, and yes, I believe Cheney and Co. took advantage of fear in the US to do all manner of things BUT, who really thought we WERN'T trying to KILL Al Qaida members?

[theARCHiTeKT]

Conspiracy theories aside...
They're above the law and it's impossible to hold any of them accountable for anything. A lot of people seem to think it's okay under the guise of wartime and possible terror attacks. One question though. Why is it so easy for them to play God, yet so difficult for a clandestine organization to keep a secret? A little dry humor for you right there.

[Will Staples]

Okay, first of all, I'm sorry for blowing up the way I did.

The point I was trying, very poorly, to make is that while I don't think they need to announce every single shot they intend to take months before they take it, the simple existence of this program should have been made public knowledge, and it DEFINITELY should have been made known to Congress! The whole thing is basically a rogue agency.

The whole thing is typical of clandestine Bush-era policy: "You don't need to know what's up. Trust us. We know what we're doing. The law would just slow us down." Even if most of the people they kill are actual bloodthirsty terrorists, like Guantanamo Bay, they're going to end up killing innocent people who just had the wrong skin tone in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[DJ Black Adam]

@Will:

I can see your point. I just don't know if going after these guys for this issue is worth it. They are out of office now (for a few reasons), should the democrats really go after the last administration on THIS issue?

[froutz]

1) I'm glad the CIA has been working on ways to hunt al qaeda terrorists.
2) This misguided anger against Cheney and the CIA is clearly just to cover Pelosi.
3) Another interesting article on the topic here: https://www.mindreign.com/en/mindshare/World-Politics-and-Current-Events/Let-the-CIA-fight-terrorists/sl34045952bp344cpp5pn1.html