CIA assassination plans assigned to contractor

WASHINGTON – The secret CIA program to kill top al-Qaida leaders with assassination teams was outsourced in 2004 to Blackwater USA, the private security contractor whose operations in Iraq prompted intense scrutiny, according to two former intelligence officials familiar with the events.

The North Carolina-based company was given operational responsibility for targeting terrorist commanders and was awarded millions of dollars for training and weaponry, but the program was canceled before any missions were conducted, the two officials said.

The assassination program – revealed to Congress in June by CIA Director Leon Panetta – was initially launched in 2001 as a CIA-led effort to kill or capture top al-Qaida using the agency’s paramilitary forces. But in 2004, after briefly terminating the program, agency officials decided to revive it under a different code name, using outside contractors, the officials said.

“Outsourcing gave the agency more protection in case something went wrong,” said a retired intelligence officer familiar with the assassination program.

The contract was awarded to Blackwater, now known as Xe Services LLC, in part because of its close ties to the CIA and because of its record for carrying out covert assignments overseas, the officials said. The security contractor’s senior management has included high-ranking former CIA officials, including Cofer Black, the agency’s former top counterterrorism official, who joined the company in early 2005, three months after leaving the CIA.

The plan to kill top al-Qaida leaders was thrust into the spotlight in July, shortly after Panetta briefed members of two congressional panels about the program. Panetta told House and Senate leaders that he had only recently learned of the program and, upon doing so, had canceled it.

The CIA declined to comment Wednesday about Blackwater’s alleged involvement in the program. Efforts to reach Blackwater for comment late Wednesday were unsuccessful.