The article says Obama approves the targets. So right there, accountability, Obama is 'owning' it.
Better maybe, but when the kill list is secret and the reasons are secret that's not exactly "accountability"
The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
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Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
#32I like to think of the current structures that define and drive of our 'civilization' as a legacy design that is very difficult to replace, sort of like PC and Von Neumann-ish architecture, or a giant Perl codebase.
I think that in this technological era, secret government (or private) killings, war, domination of resources by force, etc., is completely inexcusable. I think that the structures are unfortunately supported by primitive Social Darwinist belief systems.
I am actually optimistic that when violence and violence suppression really becomes an information technology (i.e., a non-wealthy person can run a program/device that fabricates and launches his own swarm of protective robots) that will lead to a more equal distribution of resources and generally less violence and coercion. May sound far-fetched, and maybe it is.. but things are so fucked up, I have to hope for some science-fictiony sounding solutions.
Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
#33"The administration then awarded Blackwater (which is now called Academi) a $250 million contract to perform unspecified services for the CIA." Your tax dollars at work.
I thought they had changed their name to Xe services. What sort of name is Academi for a private mercenary company?
For a long time, they did run a lot of training as their primary business, too. (US Training Centers, in NC, is one of the best firearms/combat training centers in the world. They also make excellent reactive target systems.)
Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
#34Just another reason that withdrawing "official" military from Iraq is a farce of the same level as declaring victory.
We don't officially torture prisoners (anymore), but unaccountable private contractors can run wild, hidden from all that pesky human rights oversight.
Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
#35The book on Blackwater written by the journalist Jeremy Scahill has a lot of interesting background on Prado. Also, "American Desperado" ( great book , also by Evan Wright) talks about some of Prado's interesting involvement in drug importation into Florida in the 1980s. Sounds like an interesting guy, but probably not someone you want to meet in a dark alley. Edit: The Scahill book is http://www.amazon.com/Blackwate…
> Sounds like an interesting guy, but probably not someone you want to meet in a dark alley.
True, but definitely someone to whom you want to entrust the President's most extreme authority.
Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
#36[deleted]
Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
#37The book on Blackwater written by the journalist Jeremy Scahill has a lot of interesting background on Prado. Also, "American Desperado" ( great book , also by Evan Wright) talks about some of Prado's interesting involvement in drug importation into Florida in the 1980s. Sounds like an interesting guy, but probably not someone you want to meet in a dark alley. Edit: The Scahill book is http://www.amazon.com/Blackwate…
That's an interesting expression. What kind of people would you LIKE to meet in a dark alley?
Perhaps someone with a projector that could show entertaining films against the brick walls on either side of us.
Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
#38It's almost ridiculous how some people get so indignant about CIA; I can almost feel their spittle as they shout at their computer screens. At the same time, people get equally outraged when terrorists kill people and then want to blame CIA for their failings.
It's a bad world. I am not sympathetic to the plight of those who associate with terrorists (even if they themselves haven't committed a terrorist act) and find themselves it Gitmo or dead. Are mistakes made? Of course, CIA has a long history of public f'ups, however their degree of success is noteworthy, though often unheralded. Bin Laden was found because of CIA, the Iranian and North K nuke programs have been slowed and countless people AREN'T dead because of CIA. The Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Bloc was hastened due to CIA and Reagan forcing the issue by spending the Soviets into insolvency because of the arms race. Kennedy, Johnson and Clinton were avid weilders of covert action -- it's not a political party issue.
On the British side, MI6 is right there with CIA. The old Deuxiéme Bureau as well as German Intelligence is highly active in the black operations side of geopolitical affairs. This isn't peculiar to America, though in America, we have a (mostly) free press and a scandal-hungry populace that tends to sensationalize missteps or failures.
Let's not through the baby out with the bathwater. I'm far more worried about getting blown up on the PATH train than ending up in CIA (or their proxy's) crosshairs.
Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
#39It's almost ridiculous how some people get so indignant about CIA; I can almost feel their spittle as they shout at their computer screens. At the same time, people get equally outraged when terrorists kill people and then want to blame CIA for their failings. It's a bad world. I am not sympathetic to the plight of those who associate with terrorists (even if they themselves haven't committed a terrorist act) and fin…
I agree with your overall sentiment. However, you're not portrating the enemy nuke programs in a way that I think is appropriate. In actuality, US leaders allowing adamantly anti-western nations to make so much progress towards acquiring nukes is probably the biggest national security failure in US history, and an act of utter and complete cowardice of the highest degree.
Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit
#40Well, to be fair, every government uses or at least has plans for these kind of tactics. KGB/FSB, Mossad, MI6, DGSE, otehr variations of a DSS agency - you've got to be very naive to believe they don't conduct covert operations and planned assassinations themselves or through third parties. It's only shocking when it comes to light (or maybe because it comes to light, when it shouldn't?)...
There is an Epic Level difference between a government agency who is ultimately responsible for their conduct to their citizens, one way or another having a secret assassination program, and a government paying a 3rd party to carry out assassinations. One particular way in which this is different, is that the CIA can't go out and decide that it (as an organization) wants to freelance for other nations or organization…
They're not moonlighting for the Zetas or the Russian mob because if they were, they'd lose billions of dollars of CIA money.