Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:50:49 GMT
Seymour Hersh says an 'executive assassination ring' in the US military was in direct contact with the Bush administration's second-in-command.
Hersh, an esteemed investigative reporter, quite unintentionally dropped the bombshell during a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday that centered on Nixon-style abuses of executive power by succeeding US leaders.
According to Hersh, former Vice President Dick Cheney condoned and was informed about the operations carried out by the alleged covert unit, which he dubbed an "executive assassination ring."
In response to a question by the event's moderator on instances of intelligence activities in grey areas of the law, like the Watergate scandal -- which encompass a range of abuses of law including campaign fraud, political espionage and improper tax audits that eventually led to the resignation of the 37th US president, Richard Nixon, -- Hersh explained two cases of active operations throughout the Bush administration.
"After 9/11, [the CIA] was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state; without any legal authority for it," the legendary reporter replied.
Hersh, an esteemed investigative reporter, quite unintentionally dropped the bombshell during a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday that centered on Nixon-style abuses of executive power by succeeding US leaders.
According to Hersh, former Vice President Dick Cheney condoned and was informed about the operations carried out by the alleged covert unit, which he dubbed an "executive assassination ring."
In response to a question by the event's moderator on instances of intelligence activities in grey areas of the law, like the Watergate scandal -- which encompass a range of abuses of law including campaign fraud, political espionage and improper tax audits that eventually led to the resignation of the 37th US president, Richard Nixon, -- Hersh explained two cases of active operations throughout the Bush administration.
"After 9/11, [the CIA] was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state; without any legal authority for it," the legendary reporter replied.
Seymour Hersh won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1970 for exposing the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War.
Referring to a New York Times article published on Tuesday that mentioned the Joint Special Operations Command, Hersh explained that it was yet another "special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently."
"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.
With an almost unlimited authority under Bush, "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," the Pulitzer Prize winner mused.
In an emailed statement Hersh later said he had not planned to touch on his new unpublished findings, saying it would take a few years to gather the required proof and substance.
"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.
With an almost unlimited authority under Bush, "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," the Pulitzer Prize winner mused.
In an emailed statement Hersh later said he had not planned to touch on his new unpublished findings, saying it would take a few years to gather the required proof and substance.
Sy Hersh: "Executive Assassination Ring" ... JSOC in Beirut
Security sources in Lebanon have confirmed that about the time of the "May 7" skirmishes, scores of JSOC operatives were present at the US Embassy in Awkar, .... but that the plans to invest them "were killed by the civilians in the Adminstration.".... "Via Truthout, here"...ongoing covert military operation that he called an "executive assassination
ring.""Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ..."Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths. "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."It's complicated because the guys doing it are not murderers, and yet they are committing what we would normally call murder. It's a very complicated issue. Because they are young men that went into the Special Forces. The Delta Forces you've heard about. Navy Seal teams. Highly specialized....."
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