Mission Impossible, Or At Least, Too Tough For Panetta

Huh?  The secret CIA plan cancelled by CIA head Leon Panetta and denounced by Democrats was an attempt to figure out how to capture or kill Al Qaeda leaders using live operatives rather than Predator missiles?  I get that it is difficult, but why cancel it outright?

From the Times:

WASHINGTON — Since 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency has developed plans to dispatch small teams overseas to kill senior Qaeda terrorists, according to current and former government officials.

The plans remained vague and were never carried out, the officials said, and Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, canceled the program last month.

Officials at the spy agency over the years ran into myriad logistical, legal and diplomatic obstacles. How could the role of the United States be masked? Should allies be informed and might they block the access of the C.I.A. teams to their targets? What if American officers or their foreign surrogates were caught in the midst of an operation? Would such activities violate international law or American restrictions on assassinations overseas?

Yet year after year, according to officials briefed on the program, the plans were never completely shelved because the Bush administration sought an alternative to killing terror suspects with missiles fired from drone aircraft or seizing them overseas and imprisoning them in secret C.I.A. jails.

After a skip:

Current and former officials said that the program was designed as a more “surgical” solution to eliminating terrorists than missile strikes with armed Predator drones, which cannot be used in cities and have occasionally resulted in dozens of civilian casualties.

“The Predator strikes have been successful, and I was pleased to see the Obama administration continue them,” said Senator Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “This was another effort that was trying to accomplish the same objective.”

Mr. Bond would not discuss specific details about the terminated C.I.A. program.

...

The Bush administration took the position that killing members of Al Qaeda, a terrorist group that has attacked the United States and stated that its goal is to attack again, is no different than shooting enemy soldiers on the battlefield. The Obama administration, which has continued to fire missiles from Predator drones on suspected Qaeda members in Pakistan, has taken the same view.

Kenneth Anderson, a law professor at American University who has studied targeted killings, said the United States first made the argument in 1989 that killing terrorists would not violate the assassination ban and would be a legal act of self-defense under international law.

Such killings would be premised on the condition that the authorities in the country where the terrorist was located were unable or unwilling to stop the terrorist, Mr. Anderson said.

In legal terms, he said, there is no real difference between killing a terrorist with a missile or with a handgun. “In political terms,” he continued, “there’s a real difference. The missile feels more like regular warfare, even if it’s carried out by the C.I.A.”

Don't you just know that Kenneth Anderson will have a blog?  He had thoughts about assassinations and kidnappings back in April 2006.

Comments

[Jana]

In what universe do the Democrats think this "scandal" is going to get any traction with the public?

[Buford Gooch]

The Dems thought they could buffalo the Repubs by claiming a secret CIA program had been stopped, and that the Repubs would b too patriotic to divulge the nature of a covert CIA operation. It is not smart to get into a urination contest with the CIA. The Dems may find that out real soon now.

[Dave (in MA)]

By all means let's put Cheney on trial for the crime of trying to protect Americans as we head into the midterm election season. How about we get started right after Sandy Berger puts on the orange jumpsuit?

[Trouble ahead, trouble behind; Nancy Jones you'd better watch your speed.]

This is being portrayed as Pelosi loosing the dogs on the CIA.

[Danube of Thought]

If it weren't so suicidally sad, it would be downright funny. When you ask a bunch of lawyers how you can or cannot deal with merciless, fanatical mass murderers, this is the kind of bullshit argument you should expect to be subjected to.

By all means, let's have a thoroughgoing public debate on the subject. And then let's settle it at the ballot box. Bring it on, Nancy--call your first witness.

Aloha.

[matt]

spy vs spy...this is Mad Magazine stuff.....absolute idiocy.

[matt]

Ot, but TOTUS seems to have committed suicide in the middle of a press conference...the syntax was too much to bear for the poor soul....

[cathyf]

Wildly OT, but heck it's 2am here, so...

Whenever I see the acronym TOTUS I start humming this: Totus Tuus by Henryk Gorecki. Warning -- it's pretty modern!

("Totus Tuus" was Pope John Paul II's official papal motto.)

[daddy]

"Uighar, uighar, uighar."

I like saying Uighar, and over here it is Uighar all the time. Am watching the Chinese channels and they are harsh on the protest in Urumqui, western China. Plenty video on National TV of burning cars and molotov cocktail type stuff.
Intermitant comments in English on Channel Pearl and CCTV are damning the Uighar's as fighting as allies of Al Queda in Afghanistan, and some expressions of anger at the release of the Gitmo Uighars to Pelau/Bermuda etc.

But all that being said, my current perception is that the Dem's and the Media in the US are being a tad harsher on Cheney than the Chinese officials and media are on the Uighar's. I detect a tiny bit of sympathy in some quarters at The Chi-com's heavyhanded relocation policies in their western Muslim teritory, whereas regarding Cheney, sympathy-wise I detect none.

[sevenjoyce]

Welcome to the largest and most successful interracial dating site in the world!
______ ^-^ BlackWhiteConnect.com ^-^_____ is for sincere singles of all races,
seriously looking for an interracial relationship or interracial marriage.
Thousands of new members daily. Join now to meet your dream date in this
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[the real joyce kane]

spy vs. spy; that was about black versus white too. And if you really want black and white action, skip that cheesy imitation joyce kane b!+ch and click on my lun

[Extraneus]

Thanks for the WaPo link in the other thread, narciso.

The 'Cap And Tax' Dead End

By Sarah Palin
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

[peter]

Car Czar quitting. I guess the auto industry's problems are all solved.

[Extraneus]

Cheney's Daughter Weighs Political Bid

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter says she is seriously considering a run for political office.

[Captain Hate]

Totus Tuus by Henryk Gorecki.

Nice link, cathyf; who says there's nothing good on YouTube?

[Captain Hate]

Bammers lied,
TOTUS died

[Janet]

Minority Broadcasters Seek Federal Aid
from the WSJ via Instapundit
LUN

Is anyone else sick of subsidizing the left? Our taxes pay for ACORN, PBS, Planned Parenthood,...

While we work to change hearts and minds, we are also funding our adversaries.

[Janet]

"Ot, but TOTUS seems to have committed suicide in the middle of a press conference...the syntax was too much to bear for the poor soul...."

Too funny Matt

[narciso]

Maybee picked this off her tweet; so this plan had been underway for a while, I'm kind of surprise it couldn't get implemented and Panetta shut it down

[clarice]

The same 30% who'd follow the Dems over a cliff will buy this..for everyone else there's "Who are you kidding?"

[Pofarmer]

So, the CIA was looking at options, and never carried out an operation, and this is-news? This is-scandal? Nancy Pelosi is deplorable, but, you already knew that.

[Jane]

I still think it was an ode to Nancy Pelosi.

(Cheney lied so why can't Pelosi - or something like that.)

[Ken Hahn]

The Bush Administration did not implement the program because the chance of failure was fairly high. Panetta and the Obama regime killed it because it might succeed.

[Parking Lot]

Sarah's article is excellent! I hope she gets lots of opportunity to hammer that common sense and hopeful message home to the Americoan people. It is a message that will resonate bigtime and I truly believe she has the political ability to talk over and above the yahoos and idiots who are trying to snuff her out of the public square. She will sound like a saving angel to millions of people fed up by being impoverished while listening to the boring, dishonest, smarmy bs emanating from the WH.

[Pofarmer]

There's still an awful lot of people who want to give Barack Hussein a chance, Parking Lot.

[Neo]

I love how this morning the Progressive bloggers are trying to figure out how the Democrats on the Hill left them with the intelligence operation equivalent of an "empty suit"
They are puzzled that there is any more "there" there.
I strongly suggest that they "think outside the box."

[Neo]

Midway through his speech on urban and metropolitan policy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this afternoon, one of his two small glass prompters came crashing down, hitting the wood floor and crashing in many pieces. It made quite a ruckus.

Was this a normal failure or the assassination of a TOTUS

[Captain Hate]

LUN for the impact of Il Douche's charm initiative to Russia; like this is any great surprise.

[Appalled]

OK. Let me see if I understand this correctly.

The CIA was thinking about assassinating or capturing leaders of Al Qaeda with teams rather than drones. But they forgot to tell Congress about there being a program to think about it. Because Dick Cheney -- Darth Vadar to his friends -- told the CIA not to. And, because of this, Nancy Pelosi isn't really a misremembering fool, Dick Cheney is heading to the dock as a traitor to the Republic, and we need a second stimulus package.

Please tell me this is really the plot to the next Team America movie, and not the current state of play in the ongoing Police Action on Man-Made Disasters?

[Rick Ballard]

AP Regime pimps:

June retail sales rise more-than-expected 0.6 pct

Buried truth: Excluding autos, retail sales rose by 0.3 percent in June, lower than the 0.5 percent rise that economists had expected.

Current truth: US Retail Sales -1.7% First Week July Vs June

Mort Zuckerman in the WSJ: The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think

My read? Zuckerman is an optimist.

BTW- Tax deposits for the first eight days of July (21 deposit days in a month) were off substantially YoY and MoM. This is Q3 - I thought the credentialed morons agreed that Q3 was gonna mark the exit from recession? Oh well, there's still 55 business days left in the quarter. I'm sure the unicorns will appear soon.

[Extraneus]

There's still an awful lot of people who want to give Barack Hussein a chance

Not as many as there were a few weeks ago, Po. Check out the Strongly Approve trend...

[Rick Ballard]

Democrat Job Killer

Why would any small business (or large business, for that matter) consider expansion with thieving, tax cheating scum such as Rangel seeking higher tax rent? Rangel's reparations theft is understandable, considering his "base" but is he actually as stupid as those who vote for him?

[Ignatz]

The only scandal in this story is that in 8 years the CIA goldbricks couldn't get one guy with a gun to anyplace on earth to shoot one frickin terrorist in the head.

[matt]

do you want to meet people who don't have a clue and seem like Martians for hot dating and political discussion? Try Red/Blue Connection today.

[Jane]

Gee Appalled. I've never seen you so appalled.

[Sue]

Thank God we don't have to hear SC Justices talk very often. Sotomayor's voice gives me the same fingers on a chalkboard feeling that Al Gore's does.

[Jane]

She is absolutely incomprehensible.

[Rick Ballard]

She is absolutely incomprehensible.

Minor edit for the sake of clarity.

[PD]

"The 'Cap And Tax' Dead End

By Sarah Palin"

I'm expecting the administration to weigh in with "She probably had help writing it."

In contrast to Obama, who of course writes every word of his utterances himself and employs not a single staff writer.

[Rick Ballard]

She is absolutely incomprehensible stupid.

In furtherance of same. Bad coffee this morning.

[Rick Ballard]

Oh dear. Apologies.

[Sue]

"The writer, a Republican, is governor of Alaska.

Just in case anyone doesn't know that Palin is a republican.

[Will]

The scandal would be if they werent thinking about this type of action (kill Osama). The alternative is to capture and bring to US for trial. Surely Judge Ito and the OJ jury have some time to try him. Or maybe that Galveston jury that Deguerin got the acquittal from is available.

I always thought we might find out Bush preferred Osama alive and living in a cave afraid to show his head and that that might be the ultimate scandal.

[Appalled]

Jane:

There are times when the stupidity of the supposedly smart people just amazes me. This is one of those times. I don't think the Congressional Dems have a monopoly on stupid, but it is a little upsetting that they managed not to learn a thing between 1994 and today.

To the extent Obama concentrates on things other the economy, the bigger fool he is going to seem to be each time his Hill allies pull together pehaps the lamest defense of an over caffinated House Speaker on record.

[Ranger]

Well, it is important to note what is different about this program from what we are actually doing already. This program was about going into countries without the co-operation of the lcoal government. We capture AQ people with the co-operation of the local government quite a offten (at least we used to). That's how we got our hands on several of the people at GITMO right now, through joint operations with local governments.

The risks involved in doing it without local co-operation are that you open your agents up to criminal charges if the operation is ever publicly exposed. The agents are actually cimmiting a crime under local law if they don't get the approval of the local government before they act.

The closests we've come to actually doing this sort of thing that I am aware of is when we crossed into Syria to take out a safe house for Al Qaeda in Iraq and capture a key leader. That was a military operation, not a CIA job, so technically an act of war, not the commission of a local crime.

BTW, the fact that Panetta killed this program means that Obama was lying during the campaign when he said he would go after Bin Ladden if they found him anywhere in the world, even if the local government wouldn't co-operate.

[Parking Lot]

Can you imagine how much propaganda aid and moral comfort show trials would give to the enemy? It is a sickening thought.

[Dave (in MA)]

TOTUS committed suicide because he just couldn't take it anymore. One strawman too many. "There are those who would say..." jump*CRASH*.

[Sue]

Leahy is misquoting Sotomayor. He is lying about what she said.

[Thomas Collins]

So the Dems have killed a program that, if it could be implemented successfully, would be reasonably expected to substantially reduce civilian casualties. Bush and Cheney, although they never found a way to get this program in operation, were clearly more sensitive to minimizing civilian casualties than Ogabachavista.

[glasater]

BOTeleprompter tweets:

Big Guy worried about phantom screen issue after accident, but not an issue: he's used to not seeing anything on right side. #BOTeleprompter

[Old Lurker]

"Is anyone else sick of subsidizing the left? Our taxes pay for ACORN, PBS, Planned Parenthood,..."

Not to mention State, CIA, Congress, the Whitehouse...

[Instapundit an hour or so back had a link at the top of his blog to Sarah Palin's OP-ed in t he h]

FWIF, Instapundit an hour back had a link to Sarah Palin's Op-ed in the WaPo. It has now disappeared from his Instapundit Blog. I have never seen this ever happen before. I doubt censorship, but would love to know what has caused the disappearance of Sarah's very intelligent and timely comments.

[Dave (in MA)]

SARAH PALIN IS IN THE WASHINGTON POST: The ‘Cap And Tax’ Dead End. Guess she’s not vanishing into the Alaska wilderness . . . .

Posted at 3:28 am by Glenn Reynolds

Still there.

[Ranger]

Stuff at instapudit seems to come and go and re-arrange itself at its want. Not a regular event, but it's happened often enough for me to notice. I think its the blogging software he uses and how it interacts with PJmedia (but that's just a guess).

[Jane]

Appalled,

I'm on the radio in a half hour and I am going to do my best to quote that lovely passage. I will of course give you credit.

Is it okay is I say: "Dyed in the wool democrat" to describe you?

[Rob Crawford]

The closests we've come to actually doing this sort of thing that I am aware of is when we crossed into Syria to take out a safe house for Al Qaeda in Iraq and capture a key leader. That was a military operation, not a CIA job, so technically an act of war, not the commission of a local crime.

AFAICR, if that safe house was used as a base for attacks into Iraq, it wasn't even an act of war. Since Syria was not preventing the origination of violence from its territory into that of another state, it cannot claim to have been violated when the other state (or its agents) retaliates.

Had the attack been extended to targets not in the immediate area/acting in support of that safe house, then it would have been an act of war.

[clarice]

Great point, RANGER!!!!!!!
"BTW, the fact that Panetta killed this program means that Obama was lying during the campaign when he said he would go after Bin Ladden if they found him anywhere in the world, even if the local government wouldn't co-operate."

[Appalled]

I think a RINO (to use your language) is a better description. But since the last time I voted GOP was 2000, even that may be inquestion.

I am not a Dem.

[narciso]

Well, that's a given, seeing as one of the bases that house and direct the Predators from Pakistan were compromised sometime ago.

[Kenneth Anderson]

Kenneth Anderson here - thanks for the shoutout to my blog. Here's actually a more recent discussion of the targeted killing question:

http://kennethandersonlawofwar.blogspot.com/2009/07/nyt-cia-assassination-story.html

[RichatUF]

Wouldn't the case in Italy where a bunch of US officials: An Air Force officer, a couple of FBI agents, some CIA operators...sort of like a game of Clue: an air force officer, a car, and digital toll receipt records...got fingered by Italian authorities after they took out an al Qeada recruiter?

I forget the details but believe they were being tried in absentia and Italian authorities were making a fuss about the case?

[bad]

Sotomayor speaks as if everyone is a child.

[narciso]

That was more a simple rendition effort,that
went horribly off the boards.

[Ranger]

Yes, but my understanding is that this is exactly what the dispute here is. The US claims they operated with Italian Intel (and in fact there was an Italian police officer present when the CIA captured the guy). Italy denies that they co-operated, or even knew the operatin was going to happen, and therefore the CIA agents can be charged with committing a crime in Italy.

[Ranger]

BTW, found http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE55T3H420090630?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0>this interesting article on the the status of the Italian trial. It includes some very honest talk from the former CIA station chief about intel work:

Lady said Italian prosecutors had gone too far in trying to prosecute spies over the incident. He said most covert activity abroad is illegal and still every country authorizes it.

"I worked in intelligence for 25 years and almost no activity I did in those 25 years was legal in the country where it happened," Lady said.

"When you work in intelligence, you do things in the country in which you work that are not legal. It's a life of illegality ... But state institutions in the whole world have professionals in my sector, and it's up to us to do our duty."

[clarice]

Ranger I blogged your point, crediting you.

As for the Italian op..it seems to be stuck in a partisan brawl, too. We;d not have done it w/o Italian cooperation though I suspect it was very hush hush about that. Still our guys seem to have left a concrete trail.

[hit and run]

Ranger:
BTW, the fact that Panetta killed this program means that Obama was lying during the campaign when he said he would go after Bin Ladden if they found him anywhere in the world, even if the local government wouldn't co-operate.

FWIW, http://kennethandersonlawofwar.blogspot.com/2009/07/nyt-cia-assassination-story.html>here's the Obama campaign on that particular kerfuffle.

Obama's statement of policy--in his August 1 terrorism speech--dealt directly with high-level terrorist targets like Osama bin Ladin and Ayman al-Zawahiri, not the Pakistani government.

"There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

Obama has voted for hundreds of millions of dollars to support the Pakistani government's efforts to root out al Qaeda, and would prefer that Pakistan take action. But he will not stand by if he has actionable intelligence about high-level terrorist targets in Pakistan's northwest tribal regions: "But relying on Pakistan while we fight the wrong war in Iraq has not worked. Because of that policy, bin Laden and members of his inner circle who bear direct responsibility for the murder of 3,000 Americans are plotting new attacks. If Pakistan cannot or will not take out these high-level terrorist targets and we have actionable intelligence about where they are, then I would take action to protect the American people. I firmly believe that if we know the whereabouts of bin Laden and his deputies and we have exhausted all other options, we must take them out."

Granted, they go from there to discussing predator drones. But although the program never became an actual program, and although it may never have, and although its utility may never be known -- to me this looks like an Obama "I would do anything for love to get Osama, but I won't do that" moment administration.

That is, he really isn't willing to "exhaust all options", rather, he's just spewing exhaust.

[Rick Ballard]

British Airways Faces Green Death

So does Boeing. You have to read to the bottom (I suggest an antacid prior to starting) in order to understand the level of stupidity of the Jolly Green Job Killers.

[hit and run]

FWIW, here's the Obama campaign on that particular kerfuffle.

Egads...I put the Anderson link in both places above.

So FWIW for real...here's the link to the http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2008/02/20/john_mccain_derides_obama_as_o.php>Obama campaign's response

[clarice]

He said it quite clearly on Oct 7, too, hit:

July 14, 2009
Obama said he would, but now he won't
Clarice Feldman
Obama's CIA chief Leon Panetta has made clear that he ended a program initiated under the prior administration to capture and kill Al Qaeda leaders in countries not cooperating with our efforts to root out these scourges.

One has to assume that this act meets with his boss' approval. If so, as my friend "Ranger" notes, Obama was lying again:

He would go after Bin Laden if they found him anywhere in the world, even if the local government wouldn't co-operate.

Here's exactly what Obama said last October 7 in the debate with John McCain:

And if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out. We will kill bin Laden; we will crush Al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.

So according to candidate Obama we'd go into uncooperative countries and kill Bin Laden if Obama is elected. But now that he is elected and has appointed a new CIA chief to do the job, he won't.
Posted at 12:16 PM | Email | Permalink | | Share

[Ranger]

Ranger I blogged your point, crediting you.

Posted by: clarice | July 14, 2009 at 12:34 PM

Cool!

BTW, I still think we should put together a IRS 1040 DEM with a booklet the reprises all the Dems with tax cheat problems for next April 15th.

[clarice]

Do it and forward it to AT with a note I suggested you do that..

[Jane]

Appalled,

I paraphrased because I couldn;t find the quote. So I botched it.

[bad]

O/T Austin, TX has 1% in favor of paying for green energy.

LUN

[Rick Ballard]

Bad,

Kinda like signing up for the Premium Membership plan in an Involuntary Assisted Suicide Club.

[bad]

Austin is full of leftist, green loonies, Rick. If they don't wanna go there....

[bad]

What is Robin Ghiven's assessment of Sotomayor's fashion choices?

I'm so interested I'm not going to try to find out....

[Jane]

Hey guys I read recently something that said the First lady has 25 staffers - which sent Dick and Peter into a frenzy to prove me wrong - and I think they have.

DId anyone else see that article, and do you remember where it was?

[Pagar]

At No Quarter, Larry Johnson says he was wrong about Panetta.

Panetta’s Bullshit Whistle Blowing and Obama’s Culpability »

[narciso]

The immorality of this administration, is sometimes seen in small things like this LUN, linked from a Baghdad paper

[bad]

Jane, as I recall, there was an article listing staffers and their salaries.

[bad]

The LUN lists 22 staffers and says their source is canadafreepress.com

[DebinNC]

Here's a recent AT article about MO's highly paid staff.

[Jane]

Bad,

I love you!

[bad]

Lynn Sweet has a lot of links on the subject as well.

LUN

[Ranger]

Hmmm... wasn't Scary Larry a big Hillary! backer?

Is this another indication that there is a broad assault on Obama on the way from Hil eventually?

I've been thinking that when she finally unleashes, she will attack him from the center, saying she can't support a president so far out of the mainstream of America.

[JM Hanes]

What could be a more perfect fit for the narrative of Bush/Cheney malfeasance? Bush ordered assassinations. Cheney engineered the secrecy. Obama's administration Doesn't Do Torture! America Doesn't Do Renditions and Gulags! America Doesn't Do Assassinations! Oddly enough, Obama plans to veto any attempt to expand Congressional intelligence briefings and oversight, but lucky for the Prez, attacking a Unitary Executive is something the Democrats' America doesn't do anymore either.

[bad]

Luv you right back, Jane. Always ready to help prove Dick to be wrong. Of course, he makes it so easy.....

[bad]

WASHINGTON--The father of First Lady Michelle Obama is NOT, contrary to what the White House said earlier on Tuesday, buried in the ravaged Burr Oak Cemetery in the south suburban Chicago suburb of Alsip.

"There has been some confusion that has been cleared up. Fraser Robinson III was buried at Lincoln Cemetery NOT Burr Oak," said Camille Johnston, the communications chief for Mrs. Obama.

Asked how this confusion could happen, Johnston told me "Just confusion - they are a couple of blocks away from each other."

Thw tightly wrapped message from the WH....

[JM Hanes]

TM:

"I get that it is difficult, but why cancel it outright?"

I can think of at least one reason, right off the bat, based on a WSJ report noting that Ford banned assassinations by Executive Order in 1976,and that Bush issued a Finding which "authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts" in 2001.

It's not hard to imagine that the CIA officials who "brought the matter to Mr. Panetta's attention and had recommended he inform Congress," are looking to do some serious, preemptive ass covering these days. Given the current Dem vendetta, a Finding which doesn't trump an Executive Order must look like a crucifixion waiting to happen. I'd be surprised if this is the only "revelation" in the pipeline.

There's the rest of the story, of course. As a former "senior intelligence official" put it, Bush authorized the CIA to develop the "capacity" to "capture or kill al Qaeda chieftains," not to go out and do it. Another former official "said that he had been told" that Bush & Cheney "didn't support such an operation." An intriguing detail! "Eventually" Bush issued what appears to be subsequent finding, "which authorized the capturing of several top al Qaeda leaders, and allowed officers to kill the targets if capturing proved too dangerous or risky." [Empahsis mine.]

This is not exactly your Church Committee assassinations. When it comes to going after the Bush Administration, it's no wonder a Justice Department "spokesman" (can we say under the radar here?just stated that: "We have made no decisions on investigations or prosecutions, including whether to appoint a prosecutor to conduct further inquiry."

Who'd have guessed? We've got Obama and Holder saying they "don't favor" prosecutions of either the lawyers who wrote the "torture" memos or folks at the CIA who just "followed the legal guidelines." We've got Bush who never blessed assassinations that never happened, and Cheney keeping the lid on top secret brain storming over a program that never made it out of the starting gate. What's a Special Prosecutor to do?

I'd say this is just Obama delegating keep-hope-alive duties on the perp walk front to Holder.

[bad]

I'm sure the communications director is worth every bit of taxpayer money used for her salary...

OTOH, perhaps Michelle didn't remember where her father was buried.

[Caro]

The cemetery where one is buried, the hospital of One's birth...who cares?

[Rick Ballard]

"OTOH, perhaps Michelle didn't remember where her father was buried."

It might be because he continues to vote in multiple precincts. After all, he was a real Daley Democrat.

[narciso]

Sen Church probably had more conviction, than again we never made him President, Carter was bad enough, this current fellow
is 'going for the gold' in dysfunctional arrangements. Our system depends on hard and fast rules, to determine behavior, if everything is subjective there is no standard to determine behavior, except to consider inertia to be the best course of behavior. You forget JM the ingenuity of a Fizgerald to conjure crimes where there
are none, BTW, what did you think of the Op Ed

[bad]

It might be because he continues to vote in multiple precincts.

Such patriotism!!

[clarice]

jmh:"I'd say this is just Obama delegating keep-hope-alive duties on the perp walk front to Holder. "

Exactly--and so clumsily the scaffold is showing so even the peasants can see the angel in the clumsy passion play is not really flying.

[JM Hanes]

narciso:

I suspect even Fitzgerald would have to think twice about trying to ferret out presidential process crimes. The specifics of appointing a Special Prosecutor would get a lot more attention too, unlike Comey's hinky double dealing. Holder is a useful idiot, but the White House counsel (who seems to have his fingers in every pie) has probably told Obama just what a double edged sword he's playing with. Wouldn't want to set any precedents for exposing privileged documents to scrutiny! Wouldn't want to be in the hot seat down the road for corrupt practices which bankrupted the nation! Obama started buidling firewalls around executive privilege as soon as he crossed the White House threshhold.

Democrats in Congress have conveniently lost their taste for witch hunting, and I don't think Obama can afford to cross them, do you? They are certainly the least likely to believe him when he says Holder is calling the shots. They all have a vested interest in keeping the morass-we-inherited meme alive, though, whether as excuse or a distraction, so maneuvers like the Democrats' letter to Panetta won't be coming to end any time soon, and Holder probably won't ever take the possibility of investigations definitively off the table.

I'm not sure what editorial you meant?