Were Bush/Cheney executive assassination teams used on political enemies at home?

[Karmadillo]

This story is based on a MinnPost.com report here.

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/013891.php

Wednesday :: Mar 11, 2009
Of Course They Ran Hit Teams

by Deacon Blues

Seymour Hersh put it out there last night, in a matter-of-fact way in response to a question at a University of Minnesota forum:

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh dropped a bombshell on Tuesday when he told an audience at the University of Minnesota that the military was running an "executive assassination ring" throughout the Bush years which reported directly to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

I am not surprised in the least. Get real folks, if Obama was told that JSOC had a shot at Bin Laden or the Taliban leadership, he's going to green-light that operation, regardless of how many civilian collateral damage deaths there are.

I'm not going to go off on some Bush/Cheney hating rant here, because after the last eight years we all know how they dealt with opponents abroad and here at home. Sure, there was a hit team or teams running out of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and even the Agency, charged with killing terrorist leaders or even heads of state from objectionable countries. There still are. The JSOC has been around a long time, charged with the work of finding and eliminating foreign military or terrorist threats when possible. And we've all heard stories about the Agency killing foreign leaders who don't dance to our tune. There is nothing new here, except possibly that for the last eight years these things were done outside of any formal channel or notification process, managed by the Veep and colored by his worldview.

<edit>

But also don't be fooled into thinking that an administration which equated domestic political opposition to terrorist threats, didn't also use these teams or those of private contractors to suppress political threats here at home.

Raise your hand if you still think that Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash caused by ice.

[Occam Bandage]

1. Paul Wellstone died because his pilots were incompetent and allowed the plane to stall out.

The captain had been reprimanded for allowing his co-pilots to do everything while he spaced out. The co-pilot had been fired from his previous job for failing to keep his hand on the throttle during takeoffs, risking stalls. The final radar readings of Wellstone's plane showed it approaching stall velocity shortly after takeoff.

What's 2+2? 4, but only because Dick Cheney made it 4.

[Thor_MN]

9. Perhaps you were thinking of some other crash, because they were landing.

The NTSB did fault the pilots for failing to go around after they missed their approach. They were off course and waited too long to lower the landing gear. They tried to make it work, dropped the speed low enough to lower the gear, made some incorrect turns, stalled and crashed.

They took off from St. Paul and crashed near Eveleth, making "shortly after takeoff" about 160, 170 miles.

[terisan]

2. ...and Mel Carnahan. nt

[Baikonour]

3. I still question Ken Lay's death. n/t

[Occam Bandage]

5. I question Ronald Reagan's. nt

[AndyTiedye]

6. Best New York Post Cover EVER:

[Gman]

7. Cliff Baxter was the most suspicious

suicided with ratshot to the back of the head. Died in Sugarland, TX, home to Tom Delay. The Harris County ME never got to the body. THe Sugarland PD declared it a suicide.

[unkachuck]

4. anthrax letters?....n/t

[yourout]

8. Benazir Bhutto?

Michael Connell

[seemslikeadream]

10. Raise your hand if you still think that Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash caused by ice.

W. R. GRACE

[seafan]

11. I never forgot this story: State Dept. Worker Found Dead Outside Agency (Nov. 7, '03)

State Dept. Worker Found Dead Outside Agency, November 7, 2003


Update: Mystery surrounds Nov. 7 death of State Dept. official, November 25, 2003



These were the times of John Bolton running roughshod over State when the intel on Iraq *didn't match* the neocons' vision.

[Botany]

12. Michael Connell and Ray Lemme

Cheney should have no contact w/ the CIA

[rufus dog]

13. I'm not a tin foiler

But the Tillman death never seemed plausible.

[Botany]

14. 3 shots in the head from 10 meters

1 burst from a m-16

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. Yes, and that is why John Kerry and Barack Obama are dead. n/t

[bottomtheweaver]

16. Obama's grandmother and Kerry's first wife are dead.

Biden's too. Just saying.

[no_hypocrisy]

17. A couple of examples jump out at me.

J.D. Hatfield, author of Fortunate Son, a biography of * that included his use of cocaine. "Suicide" by a shot in back of the head.

The computer expert who died in the plane crash in Ohio who was essentially the only one who understood the WH e-mail that was supposedly "deleted".