Amid the high alert following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a small CIA unit examined the potential for targeted assassinations of al Qaeda operatives, according to the three former officials. The Ford administration had banned assassinations in the response to investigations into intelligence abuses in the 1970s. Some officials who advocated the approach were seeking to build teams of CIA and military Special Forces commandos to emulate what the Israelis did after the Munich Olympics terrorist attacks, said another former intelligence official.

“It was straight out of the movies,” one of the former intelligence officials said. “It was like: Let’s kill them all.”

straight out of the movies. No, more like straight out of real life. The Israelis decided to go after the people that murdered their athletes in Munich. It sounds as if Bush and Cheney were considering the same thing.

Sounds like a good idea to me!

Republicans on the panel say that the CIA effort didn’t advance to a point where Congress clearly should have been notified.

…

Senior CIA leaders were briefed two or three times on the most recent iteration of the initiative, the last time in the spring of 2008. At that time, CIA brass said that the effort should be narrowed and that Congress should be briefed if the preparations reached a critical stage, a former senior intelligence official said.

if the preparations reached a critical stage. Reading between the lines, that makes it sound as if the preparations HADN’T reached a critical stage during the Bush administration.

Sounds like a judgement call to me. Given the likelihood that some Dem staffer would have leaked to Pincus or Priest or Risen or Lichtblau, I’d say it was a good call.

If the Dems want to have this fight, bring it.

Obama can play to his Daily Kook base all he wants to, it will only help our side.

“One of the points I had in every one of the briefings was to make sure they understood the scope of our activity ‘They’ve got to know this is bigger than a bread box,’ I said,” said Hayden, who also previously headed the National Security Agency.”

That almost sounds like he’s trying to get some wiggle room, like I told them about programs but they should have know they were bigger or whatever, that sounds less convincing.

Also has Cheney made a statement yet?