Boston Reminder - NYT 2009: Leon Panetta “Aware” CIA Involved in Deadly Truck Bomb

"The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal's world-wide news box lead with, and everyone else fronts, the deadly day in Baghdad, in which a series of coordinated attacks killed 95 people and injured more than 500. Most of the dead were casualties of the two massive truck bombs that hit the foreign and finance ministries in heavily guarded areas of downtown Baghdad. It was by far the deadliest attack since June 30, when U.S. troops withdrew from urban areas, and the WSJ says it might have been the deadliest day in Iraq in more than a year. The Iraqi government quickly blamed al-Qaida in Iraq and followers of former President Saddam Hussein for the attack.

The NYT says that one of the main reasons why Leon Panetta, CIA's director, informed Congress of the agency's assassination program was that he found out about the involvement of the private contractor. The Post explains that the program itself was launched in 2001, but it was revived under a different code name in 2004 using the outside contractor. The NYT states that while the CIA has used private contractors for a variety of controversial efforts, including interrogation, many were uncomfortable about using a private company for assassination-related work. Au contraire, says the Post, it was precisely because they were using a private contractor that the CIA allowed itself to restart the once-moribund program. "Outsourcing gave the agency more protection in case something went wrong," a source tells the paper."

via - CIA hired private contractors to take part in its al-Qaida assassination program. - Slate Magazine.

Source: [link to www.slate.com]

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