Hersh: 'Executive assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney

We could search ATS for a list of all the odd deaths surrounding the Clinton administration but this is a Bush/Cheney bashing thread so we should stick to that. Everyone knows that Bush/Cheney invented assassination, war, poverty, crime and hurt feelings.

Back to the point, this doesn't surprise me at all if true and has been an ongoing practice since out Country was founded.
I think it's kinda funny that any post aimed at the former administration just gets some people around here foaming at the mouth.

reply to post by Myendica


There were a few deaths that raised eyebrows with the Clintons. Most gave the impression of being more of a way to hide their shady real estate deals and other criminal activity more so than any world take over agenda.

Good call, QA! Am I not mistaken? Dick shot somebody, who then later apologized for "getting in front" of Dick's bullet?

Isn't that similar to the surviving 9/11 victims apologizing to the Bush Administration for having to work that day?


Obviously this man was scared of something...


- Strype

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."

Here is what bothers me,

"it may be a year or two before he has enough evidence?"

When making an accusation like this why not get you evidence first?

NO, first we go around lecturing at the University level, plant the seed.

What if the evidence never surfaces, you still accomplish what you set out to do.

What is it that he is setting out to do?

This is interesting, I think we should look into it ourselves.

www.newyorker.com...

Task Force 121

Mission

TF121's primary mission is the apprehension of "High Value Targets" or HVTs: key figures in organizations involved in the War on Terror, such as Osama bin Laden, Mullah Mohammed Omar and other senior leaders of Al Qaeda, Taliban and high ranking officials of the former Iraqi Regime.

The task force has been organized in such a way that it has a close relationship with intelligence personnel (CIA operators are an integral part of the unit) and has timely and unhindered access to any relevant data gathered by intelligence assets in the area. Such an option is invaluable to any Special Operations team, and especially so to one whose primary mission is hunting elusive fugitives whose hideouts change frequently and randomly.

Many TF121 groups are assigned Special Forces CIRA (Communications Intelligence Reconnaissance and Action) operators with expertise in relevant fields. These operators work closely with the intelligence agencies tied to TF121 and work to pinpoint and identify HVTs aggressively.

[edit] Achievements

Despite problems that often plague combined-services task forces, it appears that TF121 has managed to attain some of their most high-profile objectives. On July 21st, 2003, Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay were killed in a firefight with TF20 operators and soldiers from 101st Airborne. On the 13th of December, 2003, Operation Red Dawn netted HVT #1, Saddam Hussein himself after a highly successful raid where rapid intelligence flow and decisiveness won the day. Within hours of intelligence narrowing down the target to two possible locations, TF121 was able to coordinate the raid with 600 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade combat team and Hurricane Troop from 1/1 Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 1st Armored Division.

en.wikipedia.org...







[edit on 083131p://bThursday2009 by Stormdancer777]

Senior Bush Administration officials are frustrated that Mr. Hussein is on the loose and still exerts influence in Iraq. At a minimum, officials say, Mr. Hussein's mere survival is inspiring attacks on American troops and Iraqi security forces; some officials believe he is playing a role in coordinating and directing the violence by his loyalists.

''Capturing Saddam Hussein or killing him would be very important,'' Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last week during a speech in Washington. ''So we do need to catch him and I think we will.''

Doesn't look like they were trying to hide the fact they were out to possibly kill Saddam.
query.nytimes.com...

The creation of the task force also reflects a desire by senior administration officials and top military officers to ensure that the American commitment in Iraq does not detract from the hunt for leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban who went underground after the war in Afghanistan. Some are believed to be plotting a fresh wave of terror attacks against the United States from the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.

During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency, whose officers routinely traveled and lived with Special Operations units. The new task force receives information from the government-wide intelligence community and, like the two previous missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, has C.I.A. officers attached. However, nothing in the mission of the new task force would compel the C.I.A. to halt any of its own operations against terrorists.

While it is unclear whether President Bush, or the newly-formed Iraq Stabilization Group at the National Security Council, were directly involved in the decision to create the new force, senior administration members have said in the last two months that capturing or killing Mr. Hussein would change the dynamic of the American occupation.

Do you think this is some new tactic when it comes to war?

Great post OP. Things like this have been going on for many years now. It was never really in your face like it was with the Bush administration. They sure did boast about it quite a bit.

It isn't so much the individuals that are involved, it's the power behind them that's the problem.........and it's pure evil. Whether it was Nixon, Bush,Cheney,Clinton, or Bush Sr.(just to name a few) they are all just puppets in a sick play. Anyone with rational thought knows that Bush Sr. was involved in the assassination of JFK. Any past US President that went against the evil scheme was assassinated or an attempt was made.The message was simple, you play ball or you meet your maker.

This all points to a philosophy that I live by, much like the yen and yang, left or right, up or down and good or bad. Say you have two dog's, one is meaner than hell, and the other is saint sent from heaven. Which ever dog you nourish and take care of grows the strongest. The powers that be obviously likes to feed the bad dog. I try to feed the good dog.

No matter how complicated they try to make things it's really that simple.The majority of the people(if not all) put in a position of power are bad dogs. But believe me when I tell you......this is all about to change.




[edit on 12-3-2009 by Zeus2573]

[edit on 12-3-2009 by Zeus2573]

[edit on 12-3-2009 by Zeus2573]

reply to post by questioningall


Well I guess we now know who was sent to take out the DC Madam (Deborah Jeane Palfreyand)and Fort Detrick Scientist Bruce Ivins who was in charge of the Anthrax that was mailed to Senators after 9/11.

I wonder how many more died to keep their dirty little secrets.

"Compartmentalized"
That word has done great things for them hasn't it?

[edit on 12-3-2009 by arizonascott]

Hey guys

This stuff still goes on today. I have a good friend who does this. He doesn't do the executions. But he grabs the people and transports them to the preferred location. They torture them, extract info, then dispose of them.

Most of his work happens in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Most of the guys he works with are current or former Delta. He said those guys are ice cold. And they do what they do with no supervision or permission from the governments of the countries they operate in. They fly over as civilians and then extract and pull out as quick as they can. This happens monthly.

After authoritatively and wrongly claiming the United States would go to war to halt Iran's nuclear program six times during the Bush administration, The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh is back at peddling conspiracy theories. His latest: Former Vice President Dick Cheney personally ran an "executive assassination ring."

"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."

Like every good tale, there is some truth to it. The Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, does participate in the black operations hunt for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups' leaders. This is done in conjunction with the CIA's Special Activities Division. There is little secrecy about this, just read Jawbreaker or this article by Bob Woodward from back in November of 2001.

But to claim that JSOC does not "report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office," or that "Congress has no oversight of it" is just false. JSOC was established in 1980 after the failed mission to rescue the hostages at the U.S. embassy in Iran. JSOC is a component command of the U.S. Special Operations Command, which reports to the Secretary of Defense. JSOC, like the CIA, certainly falls under congressional oversight.

Hersh has made a living of making fantastic claims that don't quite live up to the hype. Chalk this one up as another Hersh fantasy.

www.weeklystandard.com...

The Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, does participate in the black operations hunt for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups' leaders. This is done in conjunction with the CIA's Special Activities Division.


There is little secrecy about this, just read Jawbreaker or this article by Bob Woodward from back in November of 2001.

Interesting

JSOC was established in 1980 after the failed mission to rescue the hostages at the U.S. embassy in Iran.

Oh he left that part out, now I don't trust him.

Everyone as an agenda, trust no one.



[edit on 113131p://bThursday2009 by Stormdancer777]

HERSH HAS REPEATEDLY USED UNRELIABLE SOURCES

* "The Samson Option" contains, "many inaccuracies...( there is) a single paragraph in which Hersh misspells the name of the subject, gets the wrong date for the events he describes and misquotes the person he is writing about" (Near East Report, Jan. 6, 1992; Forward Dec. 13, 1991) The Jerusalem Report (Nov. 7, 1991) called the Samson Option "unreliable" and a "sham."

* Just before the Samson Option was published, the London Sunday Times sent its top investigative reporter, Peter Hounam meet with Hersh and Ben-Menashe. In their conversation, Ben-Menashe "was caught in a lie" about a major aspect of his claims. Hounam said to Hersh, "Look this guy is hoaxing you. You've got to do something about it." Hounam later commented, "It's a mystery to me that they went ahead and published that book, knowing that so much of the material is wrong." (New Republic, March 16, 1992)

* Another one of Hersh's source's [for The Samson Option] ...was a con man named Joe Flynn who admitted deceiving Hersh in exchange for money. After Flynn was exposed, Hersh said he regretted not checking his facts more carefully. 'Certainly being the victim of a hoax is not pleasant', noted the Washington Times (Nov. 21, 1991) 'especially for a such a fancy Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative journalist as Mr. Hersh.' (Near East Report, Jan. 6, 1992)

* Regarding Hersh's book "The Price of Power: Kisssinger in the Nixon White House" Martin Peretz editor-in-chief of "The New Republic", has written that "there is hardly anything [in the book] that shouldn't be suspect (The New Republic Sept. 12, 1983)

* Former Attorney General John Mitchell, a major source for Hersh's book "The Price of Power", said that "almost every episode or statement on Kissinger ascribed to him by Hersh [was] "a distortion, an exaggeration, a misinterpretation, or an expletive-deleted lie" (National Review June 24, 1983)

HERSH HAS COMPARED ISRAEL TO THE NAZIS AND MADE OTHER STATEMENTS SHOWING ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS

* Hersh's Israel-bashing is so egregious "it gives yellow journalism a bad name." (Jerusalem Post March 6, 1992)

* "Hersh has apparently been fixated on bashing Israel since at least 1982, when he spoke at Hiram College" and "compared Israeli attitudes toward Palestinians to American views toward the Vietnamese and the Nazis' policy toward Jews." (Near East Report, January 6, 1992)

* "Hersh has in general adopted the anti-Israel, world-view complete with dark whispers about the Israel lobby in Washington... [Hersh goes so far as to imply that] Kissinger was himself a part of the Jewish lobby - an idea that has not previously occurred to anyone involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict." (Commentary September 1983)

HERSH ADMITTED LYING ABOUT ASPECTS OF IRAN-CONTRA

* Hersh "apologized to former National Security Council aid Howard Teich for mistakenly saying he knew profits from Iran arms sales went to the Contras." (U.S. News and World Report March 9, 1987)

HERSH'S QUESTIONABLE INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUE

* Concerning Hersh's interviewing techniques, Martin Peretz editor-in-chief of "The New Republic", has written that while Hersh claims to conduct many interviews for his research, it is difficult "to figure out what is an authentic interview and what is not. Hersh is known for the fast and threatening, even browbeating, phone call." (The New Republic Sept. 12, 1983)

jonathanandestherpollard.net...

You know it is a dangerous world we live in, it is getting harder and harder to find the TRUTH, I guess we need to dig and be discerning.

Meaningless without evidence.

Give us some of the names of the dead, the method and date of their "execution" or how about some of the killers identities and a taped confession.

Pretty soon the liberals are going to have to get over their collective cases of BDS and start looking at what THIS government is up to.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
So this begs the question...if the Mugabes, the Kim Il-sungs, and the bomb-makers are still running around, just who was Cheney liquidating?

(begin sarcasm mode) Uhm... from what I can see here in Dallas, it was the wives of guys who were doing drugs and had a history of domestic abuse, members of various inner city gangs, a number of bystanders and partygoers, the occasional homeless person, and a few children. At least, that's who ended up being assassinated around here. (end sarcasm mode)

They must have been the Worst Assassins Ever. People that he loathed and who loathed him are still alive and their families are fine, most of the foreign leaders (as you point out) are fine, and even the scientific community wasn't mowed down wholesale in America.

I have not been impressed with the "rawstory" site. Some of the news is good, but too much of it is apparently bogus. I read what this guy claimed and I think he's full of hot air.

Stormdancer 777 and Retseh


Give up trying to convince these people that there is nothing to this story, I have been trying to point out the fact that what he says happened is from a Dan Brown book and that he hasn't provided one bit of proof, not even a page that is all blacked out except for Cheney's name.

No, one just has to mention Bush/Cheney did something illegal, no matter how out there it is and common sense goes out the window and wild conspiracy posts follow.

Kind of sad really.

I can't say that I am surprised at all. Isn't this the same guy who shot his hunting buddy in the face and then the buddy apologized?

Seems to me if Cheney gets upset... PEOPLE DIE! Or at least get shot in the face with birdshot.

Originally posted by Zerbst

Originally posted by walman
What if one of the people on the target list was responsible for genocide in Rwanda?

Or what if one was a general in the PLA who ordered the execution of monks in Tibet?

Or what if one was a disposed Russian official who was blackmailing our government with very sensitive information that he threatened to sell to Iran?

Or what if one was a billionaire banker who was running a deep-cover child prostitution ring throughout Eastern Europe that there was not enough evidence to bring down?

Or what if...

...what if some of these men legitimately deserved what they got?


Just something to think about.

Democracy and the legal bureaucracy have their shortcomings and imperfections. Perhaps it is not up to arm-chair judges to decide whether or not such operations were warranted.

[edit on 11-3-2009 by walman]

...

You know damn well if these murders were ever told truthfully, none would be celebrated for their necessity. These secret, illegal killings are to eradicate the roadblocks of the secret agendas. Proof of this is obvious due to them being secret and illegal. What need is there to kill someone illegally when their killing is justifiable? If you are making excuses for the ones that have already deceived you, you're kidding yourselves and you know it. They all use power corruptly. You know it and I know it.

How do you know it?

And how do you know if I know it?

"Proof of this is obvious due to them being secret and illegal."

...It can be argued just the same that proof of their necessity to go above the law is that the law came short because of its limited stretch (which I argue is good and necessary) and countless loopholes.

But I don't claim to know either way. I am only trying to balance the conversation here with some reason contrary to the swell of responses from those who oppose this.

It seems so obvious that I am not at any sort of shock.

To tell you the truth, I would be hard pressed to find that the majority of our country see this claim as false. Everybody knows it in the back of their head, but everyone also thinks it is "terrorist" they are killing. Who knows about that though.

Once you have no more enemies, the greatest threat is yourself.

For someone as well known as the Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist Hersh, he is certainly delving into speculative journalism here.

His words from the article:

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."

So he talks as if it is a fact to impress an audience but then after the fact admits he does not have enough evidence. That would also explain why he names no names in regard to who was in fact assassinated.

His speculation is likely true but as he did with his work on the Vietnam War he has a tendency to put the cart before the horse so to speak. In reality, until he has the evidence it is nothing more than an informed guess as to actual events.

I remember where the My Lai Massacre was concerned his rush to judgment did nearly as much harm as his exposure of the event did good. I hope he is not making these statements based on a political bias. Let's not forget those driven to spit on brave men returning from a war they did not cause and call them Baby Killers. That is the type of thing Hersh revels in inciting.

I believe he is correct and I also believe all Presidents have such activities going on and I mean ALL Presidents including Obama. However disturbing this is to some, he is wrong to use it to smear one President when in fact he knows it applies to every President we have ever had I'll bet.

I think in the back of our minds, we all know that a President needs this to protect this countries interests and safety, but we don't need to have it out front in the spotlights.

[edit on 3/12/2009 by Blaine91555]

I just can't help myself, I just have to add this photo........................

now............. does this guy........... look like he could head an assassination group? hhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm

let's think about it.......

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/80230ad70161.jpg[/atsimg]

This story has already made it to one of Norway`s biggest newspaper.

Story on Dagbladet.no

So, I can't bait anyone into an intelligent discussion about the Journalist and what he actually said? OK, fine I'm sure the Press in other countries will do as intended and help him launch his future book in a storm of speculation without any facts attached.

When he names names of the assassinated with citation, I'll take an interest. Until then he was blowing hot air to hear himself speak.

Anyone have a list of those assassinated and when and where? Would a credible Journalist run the story without that attached? Of course not.