CIA Hired Firm for Assassin Program

or
Another Tale of Outsourcing Gone Bad

When the CIA found out that IT couldn't organize assassination teams, it decided the way around that loophole was to HIRE assassination teams.

A secret CIA program to kill top al-Qaeda leaders with assassination teams was outsourced in 2004 to Blackwater USA, the private security contractor whose operations in Iraq prompted intense scrutiny, according to two former intelligence officials familiar with the events.

The North Carolina-based company was given operational responsibility for targeting terrorist commanders and was awarded millions of dollars for training and weaponry, but the program was canceled before any missions were conducted, the two officials said.

{snip}

"Outsourcing gave the agency more protection in case something went wrong," said a retired intelligence officer intimately familiar with the assassination program.

Because hiring mercenaries to do your dirty work is the American way.

(h/t to bob s)