CIA shifts focus to killing targets

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

Behind a nondescript door at CIA headquarters, the agency has assembled a new counterterrorism unit whose job is to find al-Qaeda targets in Yemen. A corresponding commotion has been underway in the Arabian Peninsula, where construction workers have been laying out a secret new runway for CIA drones.

When the missiles start falling, it will mark another expansion of the paramilitary mission of the CIA.

In the decade since the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks, the agency has undergone a fundamental transformation. Although the CIA continues to gather intelligence and furnish analysis on a vast array of subjects, its focus and resources are increasingly centered on the cold counterterrorism objective of finding targets to capture or kill.

The shift has been gradual enough that its magnitude can be difficult to grasp. Drone strikes that once seemed impossibly futuristic are now so routine that they rarely attract public attention unless a high-ranking al-Qaeda figure is killed.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-shifts-focus-to-killing-targets/2011/08/30/gIQA7MZGvJ_singlePage.html

[ixion]

1. Ah, good... Obama's CIA kicking illegal killings into high gear

great. :sarcasm:

[Freddie Stubbs]

17. But at least he is not water boarding them

[No Elephants]

20. I hear the recovery rate from waterboarding is higher than the recovery rate from assassination.

Of course, the CIA could torture someone and then kill him or her. It's been done.

Or, we could kill people, then drown them--respectfully, of course. I hear that's been done, too.

[Arctic Dave]

2. I remember back in the day when the Soviets used to murder foriegn nationals

and the US would howl in protest and point and wag it's finger and say, "Look at those horrible Soviets, what kind of depraved savage would do things like that"!

Today, when we do it, we cheer it.

[No Elephants]

21. Are we even sure this program will be limited to foreign nationals?

[daleo]

3. Lyndon Johnson used the phrase Murder Incorporated for the CIA

Nothing new, but people used to be scandalized by this.

[No Elephants]

22. Used to be?

[rucky]

4. At least they quit doing extraordinary renditions

we think

[EFerrari]

7. Then who are the prisoners sitting in that bunker in Mogadishu?

[rucky]

12. The CIA wouldn't lie to us

:evilgrin:

[Odin2005]

9. No they didn't.

[No Elephants]

23. Untrue. In 2009, Obama announced renditions would continue, but

we would now tell the nation to which we sent someone to be interrogated not to torture them. *wink, wink*

Of course, torture is about the only reason we would have to send someone to, say, Syria, to be interrogated instead of interrogated them ourselves.

In any event, that's his story and he's sticking to it.

[DeSwiss]

5. K&R

''What sort of moral compass allows us to condemn actions by one administration only
to be silent (complicit?) when our own candidate commits them?'' ~Norman Mathews

[Solly Mack]

6. How peachy!

[Odin2005]

8. Great, more CIA killing squads.

:puke:

[zogofzorkon]

10. Fifty Fuggin Years it don't change

<http://youtu.be/C3V98lnJX1k>

[marasinghe]

11. this quaint turn of phrase caught my attention -

".... Drone strikes that once seemed impossibly futuristic are now so routine that they rarely attract public attention ....".

indeed; i guess even collateral deaths of civilians don't get the attention of the US public at large, any more. says it all about the new mindset of the US in general: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil; long as it's our guys doing the evil.

[No Elephants]

24. Four wars don't get our attention anymore. Why the hell would a drone?

How would we even know a drone had been sent unless our establishment media told us? And how would they know unless the administration told them?

But, generally, media bothers us with news about the war as seldom as it can. It would only distract us from Lindsay Lohan.

[Downwinder]

13. No need for a grassy knoll.

[Volaris]

14. Isn't there a standing Executive Order banning the use of Assassination

by American forces as a political tool/Weapon of War?
Or did Jr. overturn that, too? He destroyed so much, its hard to remember sometimes what is his and what is not....

[Nihil]

15. There are definitely laws against murder ...

... but the administration doesn't give a fuck about them either.

Regardless of that, there is no way that this particular piece
of shit can be blamed on Bush - this is ALL Obama's policy ...

"Change" eh?

:puke:

[hack89]

19. Many legal experts make a distinction between assassination and "targeted killing.".

It may be a meaningless distinction but it is not as clear cut as many would like it to be.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeted_killing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination

[No Elephants]

26. Yes, it is clear cut, despite Yoo and Bybee type equivocation.

" as many would like it to be."


:eyes:

[hack89]

30. Like I said - " as many would like it to be." nt

[No Elephants]

25. Please tell me you are not blaming this on Bush.

[24601]

28. Of course we are - Obama MUST follow Bush orders - shit, he's

probably following Cheney's orders, too - and Vice Presidents, present and former, have no command authority.

[Blue_Tires]

16. uh...when has that ever NOT been their focus??

despite their 'official' stances of the past?

[Javaman]

18. The headline reads like it was from The Onion.

"We are now shifting from killing innocent civilians who attend weddings to killing actual taiban fighters".

My head hurts.

[No Elephants]

27. I've had maybe one or two drinks every couple of years. I've been thinking about taking

up drinking, though. An Amaretto or two on the rocks might be about my speed.

On the other hand, seems like a bad time to take on an additional expense.

[marasinghe]

29. i hear ya. graduated myself from zero - to a bottle of wine on weekends; did not help.

i figure - short of getting stone drunk - nothing gets this shit out of mind.
well .... perhaps if weed makes legal in NY one of these days, might help ....