CIA - One Helluva Killing Machine

The drone strikes it operates are the most important counterterrorism tool the Obama administration uses, battering a relatively small section of Pakistan so intensely that in 2010 they struck an average of once every three days. Osama bin Laden is dead as the result of a military operation the CIA commanded, highlighting the unprecedented coordination between CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). In the words of the head of CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, its central nervous system for counterterrorism: “We are killing these sons of bitches faster than they can grow them now.”

9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean judged Tenet’s admission “one of the most appalling comments we heard.” But as it turned out, Tenet’s timetable was prescient. A remarkable Washington Post story explores the rejuvenated CIA, which one veteran calls “one hell of a killing machine.” Full article.