Let's understand: CIA wanted to kill Al Qaedans and Cheney thought idiots in Congress would blab and distort its meaning.

http://tinyurl.com/n24yml
AP sources: Tenet canceled secret CIA hit teams By PAMELA HESS and ADAM GOLDMANWASHINGTON – As CIA director in 2004, George Tenet terminated a secret program to develop hit teams to kill al-Qaida leaders, but his successors resurrected the plan, according to former intelligence officials.Tenet ended the program because the agency could not work out its practical details...Porter Goss, who replaced Tenet in 2005, restarted the program, the former officials said. By the time Michael Hayden succeeded Goss as CIA chief in 2006 the effort was again flagging because of practical challenges... the former officials said. By the time Michael Hayden succeeded Goss as CIA chief in 2006 the effort was again flagging because of practical challenges.CIA Director Leon Panetta drove the final stake into the effort in June after learning about the program. He called an emergency meeting with the House and Senate Intelligence committees the next day, informing lawmakers about the program and saying that as vice president Dick Cheney had directed the CIA not to inform Congress about the operation. ****What was the emergency, one wonders except to hoke up support for Pelosi in her absurd claim that CIA lies to Congress (and that she was NOT lying)? Panetta trying to turn "rat" on Cheney is also funny since the program never was real and, in any event, the reasonable concern that Congressional fools would publicize and distort the program seems amply borne out. Killing Al Qaedans at close range would seem to lessen the collateral damage done by assassinating with Predators and other drones. ****The CIA declined to comment on the officials' comments...the idea never quite died because it was a capability — the details of which remain classified — that the CIA wanted in its arsenal. But as time wore on, the official said, its need became less urgent....the CIA's reliance on foreign intelligence services and on drone-launched missile strikes proved over time to be less risky yet effective in targeting al-Qaida chiefs for death or capture. President George W. Bush authorized the killing of al-Qaida leaders in 2001.
According to one congressional official, the agency spent more than $1 million over the eight years that the CIA considered launching the hit teams. The official would not detail the exact amount or how it was spent.****That averages to $125,000/year, or about the cost of two part-time CIA low-level staffers to keep looking at the possibility.****The House Intelligence Committee is laying the groundwork for a possible investigation of the program and its concealment from Congress. In late June it asked the CIA to provide documents about the now-canceled program to kill al-Qaida leaders....Panetta has at the same time ordered a thorough internal review of the program.The committee will try to establish how much was spent on the effort, whether any training was conducted and whether any officials traveled in association with the program, a committee official said. Those factors would determine whether the program had progressed enough to require congressional notification. ****The oxymoronic...**** House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, is expected to decide as early as this week whether to press ahead with a full investigation.