CIA used Blackwater hitmen to kill \terrorists\

Source: PRESS TV, 20-08-2009

A probe into the activities of security firm Blackwater has revealed a joint secret plan with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to kill international \'terrorists.\'

A recent report published by The New York Times on Wednesday points to outsourcing of assassination attempts by the US intelligence service, which involved efforts made to murder \'terror suspects\' believed to be linked to militant group al-Qaeda.

The report indicates that the CIA sealed clandestine deals with Blackwater Worldwide in 2004 in order to trace and kill high-ranking commanders of the militants in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CIA had earlier made pacts with the security provider to help train armed forces with undercover assignments.

The multimillion-dollar covert contracts had enabled the North Carolina-based group to execute its military tactics generally accepted as \'excessively\' forceful.

Blackwater has continued its missions to provide security for CIA headquarters in the US battlefront on the so-called war on terror after changing its name to Xe Services LLC.

The move came after the security contactor was caught shooting randomly at close range in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in 2007, which drew international condemnation.

The report adds that Blackwater also inked other classified contracts with CIA which have remained undisclosed.

Under the previous US administration, CIA outsourced its spy activities, making agreements with affiliate firms in a bid to capture or assassinate suspected operatives, the report adds.

After taking office earlier this year, Leon E. Panetta, CIA\'s current chief, raised the alarm on the agency\'s undercover activities that were seen as a direct breach of US laws.

He acknowledged that the agency had misled Congress for seven years about the intelligence operations done in collaboration with its associates.

The current US administration under President Barack Obama, has barred Xe Services LLC from carrying guns in Iraq while a considerable number of former CIA authorities continue to work in collusion with the notorious security provider.