The CIA in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret programme to locate and assassinate top operatives of al-Qaeda,according to current and former government officials. Executives from Blackwater which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq helped the spy agency with planning,training and surveillance. The CIA spent several million dollars on the programme,which did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects. The fact that the CIA used an outside security company for the programme was one major reason that Leon E Panetta,the new CIA director,called an emergency meeting to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the programme for seven years,the officials said. It is unclear whether the CIA had planned to use the contractors to capture or kill Qaeda operatives,or just to help with training and surveillance. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work. But government officials said the thought of bringing outsiders into a programme with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations. Officials said that the CIA did not have a formal contract with Blackwater,instead had individual agreements with top company officials,including company founder Erik D Prince,a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals. Blackwaters work on the programme actually ended years before Panetta took over the agency. Blackwater USA,which has changed its name to Xe Services,has received millions of dollars in government contracts,growing so large that the Bush administration said that it was a necessary part of its war operation in Iraq. Blackwater employees hired to guard US diplomats in Iraq were accused of using excessive force on several occasions,including shootings in downtown Baghdad in 2007 in which 17 civilians were killed. The House Intelligence Committee is investigating why lawmakers were never told about the programme. According to officials,former Vice-President Dick Cheney told CIA officers in 2002 that the spy agency did not need to because the agency already had legal authority to kill Qaeda leaders.
