四 川 铁 FourRiverIron

I suspect the founders would be surprised to find that the government they created now has the CIA assassinating people around the world that they consider "bad guys"

No trial, not nothing, just a government bureaucrat declares them to be scum and sends off a CIA assassination team to kill them.

Source

Post-9/11, CIA switches focus to killing targets

by Greg Miller and Julie Tate - Sept. 2, 2011 12:00 AM

Washington Post

WASHINGTON - Behind a nondescript door at CIA headquarters, the agency has assembled a new counterterrorism unit whose job is to find al-Qaida targets in Yemen. A corresponding commotion has been under way in the Arabian Peninsula, where construction workers have been laying out a secret new runway for CIA drones.

When the missiles start falling, it will mark another expansion of the paramilitary mission of the CIA.

In the decade since the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks, the agency has undergone a fundamental transformation. Although the CIA continues to gather intelligence and furnish analysis on a vast array of subjects, its focus and resources are increasingly centered on the cold counterterrorism objective of finding targets to capture or kill.

The shift has been gradual enough that its magnitude can be difficult to grasp. Drone strikes that once seemed impossibly futuristic are now so routine that they rarely attract public attention unless a high-ranking al-Qaida figure is killed.

But framed against the upcoming 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks - as well as the arrival next week of retired Gen. David Petraeus as the CIA's next director - the extent of the agency's reorientation comes into sharper view:

- The drone program has killed more than 2,000 militants and civilians since 2001, a staggering figure for an agency that has a long history of supporting proxy forces in bloody conflicts but rarely pulled the trigger on its own.

- The CIA's Counterterrorism Center, which had 300 employees on the day of the attacks, now exceeds al-Qaida's core membership around the globe. With about 2,000 on its staff, the CTC accounts for 10 percent of the agency's workforce, has designated officers in almost every significant overseas post and controls the CIA's expanding fleet of drones.

- Even the agency's analytic branch, which traditionally existed to provide insights to policymakers, has been enlisted in the hunt. About 20 percent of CIA analysts are now "targeters" scanning data for individuals to recruit, arrest or place in the crosshairs of a drone. The skill is in such demand that the CIA made targeting a designated career track five years ago, meaning analysts can collect raises and promotions without ever having to leave the targeting field.

Critics, including some in the U.S. intelligence community, contend that the CIA's embrace of so-called kinetic operations has diverted the agency from its traditional espionage mission and undermined its ability to make sense of global developments such as the Arab Spring.

Human-rights groups go further, saying the CIA now functions as a military force beyond the accountability that the U.S. has historically demanded of its armed services. The CIA doesn't officially acknowledge the drone program exists, let alone provide public explanation about who shoots and who dies and by what rules.

"We're seeing the CIA turn into more of a paramilitary organization without the oversight and accountability that we traditionally expect of the military," said Hina Shamsi, the director of the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

CIA officials defend all aspects of the agency's counterterrorism efforts and argue that the agency's attention to other subjects has not been diminished. Fran Moore, head of the CIA's analytic branch, said intelligence work on a vast range of issues, from weapons proliferation to energy resources, has been expanded and improved.

"The vast majority of analysts would not identify themselves as supporting military objectives," Moore said in an interview at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Counterterrorism "is clearly a significant, growing and vibrant part of our mission. But it's not the defining mission."

Nevertheless, those directly involved in building the agency's lethal capacity say the changes to the CIA since Sept. 11 are so profound that they sometimes marvel at the result. One former senior U.S. intelligence official described the agency's paramilitary transformation as "nothing short of a wonderment."

"You've taken an agency that was chugging along and turned it into one hell of a killing machine," said the former official, who, like many people interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity. Blanching at his choice of words, he quickly offered a revision: "Instead, say, 'One hell of an operational tool.' "

The engine of that machine is the CTC, an entity that has accumulated influence, authority and resources to such a degree that it now resembles an agency within an agency.