The mysterious strikes targeting multiple Ecuadorian fishing boats near the Galápagos Islands this year were carried out as part of a covert CIA program, The Washington Post has learned.
While many details about the agency’s involvement were not clear, one person with knowledge of the matter said the strikes were part of a “covert action” program, a type of secret operation overseas that is approved by the president but where the role of the U.S. government is not publicly acknowledged. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity.
No agency or government has claimed responsibility for the incidents, including the disappearance in January of a fishing vessel and eight of its crew members.
The CIA’s involvement adds a new and secretive dimension to the Trump administration’s otherwise highly publicized campaign against alleged drug traffickers at sea.
If it's true that there was a Presidential finding justifying a covert CIA program, there is no legal recourse. The CIA is authorized to break any foreign or international law under those circumstances, nor can the troops be prosecuted if they were transferred to CIA command for the duration of the action. So it's legal under US law -- the law supports covert programs as long as they're outside the territorial USA and authorized by a Presidential finding. All other laws are allowed to be violated under that section of our law.
This is how the Bin Laden assassination -- er, I mean, 'targeted killing' -- was legal. It violated Pakistani law completely, as well as Pakistan's territorial integrity and sovereignty and probably our treaty obligations. However, the SEALs who carried it out were officially CIA employees for the hours when operating under this law, and the CIA was authorized by a Presidential Finding.
So that is actually the plot of the novel and move summarized by the Wiki link above: the President and CIA Department of Operations is running a covert program dropping bombs on people and deploying snipers, while CIA Department of Intelligence doesn't know about it because they don't need to know about it.
Notice the ending: all hero Jack Ryan can do is testify to Congress about it. Nobody can do anything else.
Congress could impeach of course. I’ll pause while you stop laughing.
I said this would once have been a blockbuster story, and obviously Clancy assumes in his novel that the testimony to House Oversight would have some sort of serious consequences. How quaint an artifact of that age!
That movie is from 1994. The Monica Lewinsky story broke in 1998. I remember people still believed that such public revelation of Presidential wrongdoing was going to end Clinton's career. I vividly recall a roundtable discussion involving some of the biggest news anchors, and they agreed that if the story was true he'd have to resign.
NOPE! Suckers. The Party had the votes, so no consequences.
That ball has rolled down hill to here, where they can just do the plot of the novel and laugh at Congress from across town. Nobody else can do anything at all. Nobody has standing to sue, and no laws were violated -- the law specifically authorizes this. Arguably it is forbidden by international law, but that's just a phrase that means nothing because it's unenforceable especially against the President of the United States. The Party has the votes to block impeachment. No consequences will befall anyone even if it's completely true.
Too bad, in a way. I recall it was a pretty good movie, but the newly anticlimactic ending kills a lot of the plot.
No comments:
Post a Comment