JSOC as VP Cheney's Personal Assasination Squad

[afchic]

Just saw this through another source. I just about spit iced tea all over my computer monitor, through my nose. Christ, the things people will spin to get a story.



Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh dropped a bombshell on Tuesday when he told an audience at the University of Minnesota that the military was running an "executive assassination ring" throughout the Bush years which reported directly to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The remark came out seemingly inadvertently when Hersh was asked by the moderator of a public discussion of "America's Constitutional Crisis" whether abuses of executive power, like those which occurred under Richard Nixon, continue to this day.

Hersh replied, "After 9/11, I haven’t written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet."

Hersh then went on to describe a second area of extra-legal operations: the Joint Special Operations Command. "It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently," he explained. "They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. ... Congress has no oversight of it."

"It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. "Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us."

Hersh told MinnPost.com blogger Eric Black in an email exchange after the event that the subject was "not something I wanted to dwell about in public." He is looking into it for a book, but he believes it may be a year or two before he has enough evidence "for even the most skeptical."

Stories have been coming out about covert Pentagon assassination squads for the last several years. In 2003, Hersh himself reported on Task Force 121, which operated chiefly out of the Joint Special Operations Command. Others stories spoke of a proposed Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group.

As Hersh noted in Minnesota, the New York Times on Monday described the Joint Special Operations Command as overseeing the secret commando units in Afghanistan whose missions were temporarily ordered halted last month because of growing concerns over excessive civilian deaths.

However, it appears that Hersh is now on the trail of some fresh revelation about these squads and their connection to Vice-President Cheney that goes well beyond anything that has previously been reported.

[Kyobanim]

He's read too many Vince Flynn books

[afchic]

Originally Posted by Kyobanim

He's read too many Vince Flunn books

Hey now, I like Vince.

[Gypsy]

Three words, dude. Heavy duty tinfoil.

[Kyobanim]

Yeah, Vince does have a way with words

[trent]

I think he watched the Unit too much. I also blame Tom Clancy.

[SITH]

Originally Posted by afchic

Hersh stated. "Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief,

Is this normal protocol for units to "check in" with the either of those entities?

[Pete]

Originally Posted by SITH

Is this normal protocol for units to "check in" with the either of those entities?

If I told ya I'd have to report you to "the unit" and we all know what happens then.

And if you don't know and I told you........

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by SITH

Is this normal protocol for units to "check in" with the either of those entities?

Wow, do you have stones or what?

You do know that members of JSOC are reading this don't you?
I know we've got some members of JSOC on this board......

Do I heard little birds inbound???? (You know you cannot actually hear their little birds when they're inbound...)

Sleep tight.

[Untoward]

Link

Sy Hersh went on Wolf Blitzer a few days ago and back peddled into less fantastical territory where he made sure to differentiate what he KNOWS (not much) from what his opinion on covert action is.

[TOMAHAWK9521]

I knew this would come out sooner or later. I confess that I and a fellow team mate had the distinct honor of working with one of these hit squads back in their early years. This was in A-stan back in 2002. As you can tell just from the looks on their faces, these are all stone-cold killers, the lot of them. I'm here to tell you, I still have nightmares from witnessing the horrific abominations this lethal hodgepodge of diminutive assassins inflicted upon the enemy.

[Slantwire]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

I know for a fact the one on the far right with the pink scarf over the head is the most lethal of them all.

Really? I thought she was just a decoy for the ninja lurking behind her.