Blackwater Assassins

The lead story in today’s New York Times is titled, “Outsiders Hired as C.I.A. Planned to Kill Jihadists.” It describes the use of the Blackwater firm in a C.I.A. program to hunt down and kill senior members of Al Qaeda. According to the article, this is the major reason that the C.I.A.’s director, Leon Panetta, revealed the program to the Congressional Intelligence Committees. According to prior accounts, former Vice President, Dick Cheney, specifically ordered the C.I.A. not to do so.

The article describes the project as a targeted killing program and raises major issues with hiring an outside organization, including legal ramifications and accountability. The C.I.A. had been banned from carrying out assassinations by an executive order by then-President Gerald Ford, but the Bush administration tried to skirt the ban by defining Al Qaeda operatives as soldiers in a war against the United States.

In my opinion, this revelation only adds to the mounting evidence piled up against the Bush administration about its illegal seizure of authority in violation of the Constitution and the balance of powers it enumerated. How ironic that the current protestors against healthcare rail about the Constitution when it was ultimately their favorite President who was really in violation.

This story will continue to develop as The New York Times continues its investigation. Thank God for a free press as the true bulwark protecting our democracy.