CIA paid Blackwater to hunt al-Qaeda

Published on Thursday 20 August 2009 22:01

OFFICIALS at the CIA hired contractors at private security company Blackwater USA in 2004 as part of a secret programme to kill top members of al-Qaeda.

Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the US spy agency with planning, training and surveillance.

The CIA spent several million dollars on the programme, which did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects. It has now been scrapped by the Obama administration.

The fact the CIA used an outside security company for the programme was one major reason that Leon Panetta, the man Barack Obama appointed CIA director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress the agency had withheld details of the programme for seven years.

It is unclear whether the CIA had planned to use the contractors to capture or kill al-Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance.

US spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said the thought of bringing outsiders into a programme with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.

Officials said the CIA did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for the programme but had individual agreements with company officials, including the founder, Erik Prince, a politically connected former member of the US Navy Seals and heir to a family fortune.

Blackwater USA, which has changed its name to Xe Services and is based in North Carolina, has received millions of dollars in government contracts in recent years, growing so large that the Bush administration said it was a necessary part of its war operation in Iraq.

It has also attracted controversy. Blackwater employees hired to guard US diplomats in Iraq were accused of using excessive force on several occasions, including shootings in Baghdad in 2007 in which 17 civilians were killed. Iraqi officials have since refused to give the company an operating licence.

Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, declined to provide details about the cancelled programme, but he said Mr Panetta's decision on the assassination programme had been "clear and straightforward", adding: "Director Panetta thought this effort should be briefed to Congress, and he did so. He also knew it hadn't been successful, so he ended it."

Officials said that an internal CIA review had concluded that Mr Panetta's predecessors had not believed they needed to tell Congress about the programme because it was not far enough developed.

But the House intelligence committee is investigating why politicians were never told about the programme. According to current and former government officials, former vice president Dick Cheney told CIA officers in 2002 that the spy agency did not need to because it already had legal authority to kill al-Qaeda leaders.

One US official said Mr Panetta did not tell members of Congress that he believed the CIA had broken the law by withholding details about the programme from Congress. Rather, the CIA director said he believed the programme had moved beyond a planning stage and deserved congressional scrutiny.

The official added: "It's wrong to think this counter-terrorism programme was confined to briefing slides or doodles on a cafeteria napkin. It went well beyond that."