billwalker, In my opinion they were definitely used in Iraq, though Im not sure that is the only place.They were probably recruited from all walks of life including the armed services for their "extraordinary skills",I am sure they were not dressed as military.Most likely they were blended in with the contractors like Blackwater.The collateral deaths were all the civilians casualties you can read about if you search "Security contractors in Iraq, or Blackwater" Blackwater was a no-bid contractor for the government whose license to operate in Iraq was pulled after several atrocities were committed by there operatives. They changed their name to XE to get away from the stigma.Cheney was in up to his neck in this.

You guys remember the 2 British Special Forces caught in Iraq, dressed as Arabs and packing heavy artillery/explosives?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RBXerP0p3Q

Cheney said he was going to rely on "the dark side." I guess torturing people into admitting false crimes, and generally acting like an out of control mafia Don, were what he had in mind.

Out a CIA officer, shoot a friend in the face, show up at Langley to intimidate CIA analysts, tell Pat Leahy to "go fuck himself," wiretap the phones and e-mails of millions of Americans, funnel billions of dollars of contracts to former company Haliburton...

You can bet that's not even the full story. He could have not only allowed 9/11 to happen, but actively partake in its planning, execution, and coverup.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO-9LQDFE2Y

Dondi, this is a great post but what am I supposed to do about it? This is what is so depressing. I left this post - averted my eyes - because it was just so beyond anything I could do. But then I wanted to come back and talk about it in case someone has some good ideas about what I could do. I'll bet that is exactly how 98% of americans feel about reading something like this. It is frustrating because I don't want this to happen but I am powerless to prevent or stop it. Congress is out of control, beyond control of the people that elected them. Our congresspeople are funded by corporations and just don't give a shit as long as they are re-elected.

First off, I know nothing about these particular allegations. Anything I might say on that would be pure speculation.

What I have long suspected is that the area generally covered under 'waterboarding' is among the LEAST of the problems Mr. Cheney and his cohorts face. The discussion of that particular narrow issue never FELT right to me: It had the feel of Brer' Rabbit begging not to be thrown into the briar patch. I've had the sense that Cheney was not unduly bothered (perhaps even RELIEVED) to see the hounds braying off down the waterboarding trail.

"A Republican committee member told Who Runs Gov's Greg Sargent it was something they hadn't heard before."

I like Sargent, but for fargs sake, couldn't he follow up with the question "well, have you heard Hersh's allegations of an assassination unit?". Whatever the rep's reaction, it would have been illuminating...

Bury it, and fast. Give all the participants cushy desk jobs and guarantees of blanket pardons, and walk away.

If this was true, it certainly wouldn't make America look good, would it?

So it didn't happen.

Don't be so sure these guys were used exclusively overseas. There were a lot of convenient deaths right here in America (cough - James Hatfield - cough), not to mention England (cough - Dr. David Kelly - cough).

BLUNDERDICK RUNS AMOK

Blunderdick permitted no incoming calls on his Killers (for) Anonymous Nations Assassination-Related Doers or ( K.A.N.A.R.D.) extension he used to direct dial death from his underwear drawer inside a breathtaking but killer white house basement on Transylvania Avenue. Deliberately falsifying his Hoolygunn stock ratings on the Cow Bones Industrial, he no longer claimed enough from war profits to merely give away rumors, snide asides or sinister sneers. When his hellfire shellicopter flew hurriedly away without him, he became disoriented, called up the Seemore Hearse Company and spilled Widdledub’s perplexing beans all over the flashing Chrystal dashboard.

Fbomb You-Betcha, sitting in the driver’s seat, laughed up a stormy Monday while even the old black ravens clucked their approval from the hill. At the end of the day, Blunderdick’s ex-hired guns had lost their sense of honor and direction but forthwith re-formed into a hit parade going south. The Rentagun Papers landed like written history in the streets around the secret state sponsored event where uninsured and homeless people hunkered voiceless at the gates, waiting for a reliable train of thought from the now older newest President of the (formerly known as) War on Errors.

Emptywheel has been blogging on this for some time. Keep up the pressure! :)

I think I'm going to sit on the fence of this one. Or maybe way over there where the fence is in view, but I'm on the far side of it.

Conspiracy theories are all well and good, but I'm going to wait for less hearsay and more actual proof on this. Looking through the links, there's a lot of hinting and insinuating, but little else.

Pardon me if I don't express any outraged emotions. I've been reading Jane Mayer's book, The Dark Side and wouldn't you know, a few days ago I was reading about these very same assassination squad ran out of the VP's office no less.

Page 36
"The proposed finding included the inauguration of secret paramilitary death squads authorized to hunt and kill prime terrorist suspects anywhere on earth"

And it goes into more depth with names to boot and Cheney being the focal, power center of the entire operation.

Interesting speculation and very possibly true Don. I can think of several other possibilities that might have the "oversight" committee shocked however. For example, that the NSA program really DID scoop up EVERYBODY'S communications (which would include the Congress). Or that TIA (Total Information Awareness) was implemented (which would include Congress). Actually, TIA was at least partially implemented with CAPPS II (Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System)

In my experience, the biggest displays of outrage from our elected representatives is when THEIR rights and privileges have been infringed upon (searching their offices or intercepting their communication for example). They seem to get MUCH less agitated when "we the people" are infringed upon.

"Water boarding and torture"

1. Waterboarding IS -- got that? -- IS torture.

2. If it was reported by Hersh -- as it was -- then members of Congress, especially these, doubltess knew about it already. What they likely wouldn't know would be whether it had been used within the US. Wellstone and family?

Then there's the guy whose private plane went down when he was getting ready to be deposed about voter fraud in Ohio.

Paul Wellstone, anyone?

If something like this actually occurred (and I am a skeptic), the way to uncover it is to follow the money. I do have an idea where to look...

Two years ago, when Cheney was talking about being a 4th branch of government, I was searching for how the Vice President's Office was described in the federal budget (it's under the appropriation for the Executive Office of the President). I found something even more interesting. There was an unusual provision included in the 2006 realignment of the federal appropriations structure and repeated in the FY 2007 budget - a clause that might give the Vice President access to $15,000,000 of our tax money to "respond to changing national needs and priorities":

2006 Administration-requested financial restructuring initiative
Extend the general provision for limited transfer authority ... to provide for a 10-percent transfer authority among all of the following accounts: The White House, Special Assistance to the President and Official Residence of the Vice President, Office of Management and Budget, United States Trade Representative, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Council on Environmental Quality, and Office of Science and Technology Policy. Transfers from the Special Assistance to the President and the Official Residence of the Vice President account are subject to the approval of the Vice President.

You can find the full text of the change in the FY 2006 Budget Change and the language the Vice President was operating under a few years ago in the FY 2007 Federal Budget for the Executive Office of the White House.

The change was described in 2006 as follows:

"This initiative provides enhanced flexibility in allocating resources and staff in support of the President and the Vice President, and permits more rapid response to changing national needs and priorities."

As I understand it, this law allows redistribution of 10% of the total funds appropriated to within any of six budget accounts (dollar figures below are the appropriations for FY 2007):
• Special Assistance to the President and the Official Residence of the Vice President = $4M
• Office of Management and Budget = $76M
• United States Trade Representative = $42M
• Office of National Drug Control Policy = $23M
• Council on Environmental Quality = $3M
• Office of Science and Technology Policy = $5M
These six budget accounts total $153M , meaning that 10% (or $15,300,000) can be redistributed freely among any of these accounts. One possibility is that $15.3M could be transferred to the account for "Special Assistance to the President and the Official Residence of the Vice President", an account which has the special provision that "transfers from the Special Assistance to the President and the Official Residence of the Vice President account are subject to the approval of the Vice President." Perhaps that's benign - the Vice President just wishes to have legislative authority to make sure that no one takes away the funds for roof repairs in the Vice Presidential residence. But if there are not controls on how the funds from this appropriation are spent, the Vice President could have a slush fund of up to $15,000,000 to spend.

Can anyone else shed more light on these funds? Since these were taxpayer funds, there is a legitimate right to understand how they were spent.

This is all begining to read like a Robert Ludlum political thriller, which makes me inclined to believe it.

Not that you need it Dondi but I hereby render unto you the Knightly Blog of the Day award, for this here TPMCafe Site given to all of you from all of me.

Great post and great comments, so many of them!!!

wwstaebler, many here have been poking at the stone trying to get us to look, Quinn,Tom Wright, Zipperupus, and others saying these things have gone on for years.Im sure you see in the above responses what is a common thought to most of us, "Yes, but I dont want to see that." You so correctly point out the Bush and Cheney by their boldness drug it above ground and forced us to look the monster in the face.So bold Cheney was that he snidely said,"so what". Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said after bombing Pearl Harbor,"I think all we have managed to do is wake a sleeping giant." So here is what to you Dick Cheney, I think you have managed to wake a sleeping giant. Thanks Wendy