The CIA hired the Blackwater security firm in 2004 to help find and kill al Qaeda leaders, US media said Thursday, citing intelligence officials. The programme, on which the Central Intelligence Agency spent several million dollars, was cut before launching any missions and the hiring of an outside company was a major reason that CIA director Leon Panetta moved to cancel it, the New York Times said.
Shortly after learning about the secret programme in June, Panetta pulled the plug and briefed lawmakers on details of the programme, of which they had not been informed since 2001. Citing government officials, the Times said the CIA had separate agreements with top Blackwater executives for the outsourcing, as opposed to a formal contract with the whole firm.
The State Department cut ties with Blackwater following allegations of abuse in Iraq. The North Carolina-based company renamed itself Xe after the Iraq government banned it in January over the killings in Baghdad's Nisur Square on September 16, 2007. It had been given "operational responsibility" for the al Qaeda programme.
According to the Washington Post, which noted the covert effort was cancelled before any missions were conducted. Before the programme ended, however, the private security firm had already been awarded "millions of dollars for training and weaponry," according to the Post. "Outsourcing gave the agency more protection in case something went wrong," said an unnamed intelligence official close to the programme, quoted by daily.
Lawmakers from the majority Democratic Party have accused former vice president Dick Cheney of abusing his power by ordering the CIA to withhold information from Congress about the programme. Panetta told members of Congress that Cheney ordered the agency not to share details of the programme with legislators, according to Senate Intelligence Committee head Dianne Feinstein, who in July described the programme as "outside the law."