Legal Commentary

House May Probe CIA al-Qaida Hit Program

By Jeralyn

It turns out the classified CIA program that Leon Pannetta disclosed last week which had been ordered kept from Congress by Dick Cheney had to do with hit squads on al-Qaida.

Today's news is the House is laying groundwork for hearings.

The House Intelligence Committee has asked the CIA to provide documents about the now-canceled program to kill al-Qaida leaders, congressional officials said Tuesday. The agency spent at least $1 million on the eight-year program before it was terminated last month, one congressional official said. Intelligence officials say the operation never progressed beyond a planning stage.

The C.I.A. says it will cooperate with the House. [More...]

The House Intelligence Committee will try to establish how much was spent on the effort, whether any training was conducted, and whether there was any officials traveled in associated with the program, a committee official said. Those factors would determine whether the program had progressed enough to warrant congressional notification, the official said.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 14, 2009 (boomark / email).