Stop That Man--He Didn't Do Anything!

The nervous nellies on the left are in high dudgeon again, fueled by a non-revelation revelation from the New York Times. And who is the nefarious villain behind the plot? The Prince of Darkness, grim, we tremble not for him, his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure, four little words shall fell him: "Look, it's Dick Cheney!"


The New York Times, which seems to know more about spy programs than all our agencies put together, discovered another secret counterterrorism program which was designed to train hit squads to bump off top Al Qaeda leaders. Now I assume you're all horrified by such a concept, but apparently there are those who would beg to differ. Isn't it against the law to pick off terrorist leaders? Well, no, actually. It's an executive order which can be rescinded with the stroke of a pen, but let's not get bogged down in details.

So what has the New York Times' panties in a bunch? CIA Director Leon Panetta last month killed the program after he confidentially told the two Congressional Intelligence Committees about the sketchy details. The leaks didn't get out to the Times for a couple of days, but that's not what the Gray Lady is having a hissy fit over. The Evil One, former Vice President Cheney, may have told the CIA not to disclose the program to Congress. Can you imagine such a thing? Never mind that the program was never actually set up, let alone activated, and that it was abandoned before it ever got past the initial talking stages and the routine non-assassination training of a few overseas allies who might, maybe, have been brought into the program later. This is a blot on America's goodness, and it must be avenged.

Token conservative Debra Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle put it very nicely: "After all, why bankroll an intelligence agency if you can't use it to kill an enemy against whom America is fighting a war?" Logic like that falls on deaf ears at the New York Times, as well as dyspectic Congressional Democrats. The inestimable Senator Dick Durbin of Lyinnois has argued that there should be--wait for it--an investigation!

First of all, there's no evidence, other than the New Yorks Times' unnamed sources' say-so that V. P. Cheney ever told the agency any such thing. It's all right for the Times to have secrets, just not our intelligence agencies. All this indignation is just more lefty political grandstanding. The New York Times reported on December 15, 2002, that there was a program which contained "a list of terrorist leaders the Central Intelligence Agency is authorized to kill." Isn't that seven years ago? It would seem that Senator Durbin, along with 98% of Americans, and its own staff, do not read the New York Times.

The current Times article went on to report that the covert program "never became fully operational, involving planning and some training that took place off and on from 2001." OK. And other Times stories added that CIA Director George Tenet killed the program in 2004, his successor, Porter Goss revived the program, but it never became operational, even when Michale Hayden, and later Panetta, took over as CIA chief."

Saunders goes on to say that the AP has reported that the House Intelligence Committee is laying the groundwork for a formal investigation. "If so, the committee might start by probing how it is that Intelligence Committee members didn't know about a plan that had been reported on the front page of the New York Times." I would add that the second question should be "How is it that the New York Times didn't know about a story that was printed on the front page of the New York Times? And did the Times' unnamed sources get their information from the 2002 New York Times story?"

The 2002 story also has another gem. "In the case of the presidential finding authorizing the use of lethal force against members of Al Qaeda, Congressional leaders have been notified as required (emphasis added), the officials said." In other words, the best Mr. Cheney could be investigated for is allegedly telling the CIA not to tell Congress about a program that Congress had already been told about. If you're confused, you're not the only one.

Who is the real goat in all this silliness? Norman Panetta. He rushed to tell two Committees, confidentially, that he had discontinued a non-operational operation which had been cancelled much earlier as reported by the New York Times, and was rewarded (as he should have known he would be) by a leak coming out of one of those Committees.

Saunders' final words are very apt: "The message to Agency staff may be unintended, but it is clear--If there's anyone left at CIA headquarters who wants to defeat Al Qaeda, that person would be well-advised to hire a lawyer first. Or maybe a shrink."