The program was outsourced to contractors to “put some distance” between the effort and the U.S. government.

I know al Qaeda isn’t going to win a lot of popularity contests—but isn’t it extremely creepy that we seem to have contracted out some assassin work? I like to tell myself that whatever weird and nefarious stuff the CIA used to be involved in, it’s probably exaggerated and mostly over now. I worry I’m wrong on both accounts.

The CIA has long hired contractors for this express purpose. I believe those contractors have generally been individuals. Hiring a company like Blackwater just seems wrong, although I generally have no problem with the CIA hiring outsiders to do “bad things”.

Back in the day we had a program called the American Black Chamber. It was housed in a brownstone in New York City, and the people in the Black Chamber basically surveilled all the international communications of foreign governments in the US. This was a very Good Thing. It saved many lives and assisted the disarmament talks after World War I. Unfortunately the program was shut down when Secretary of State Henry Stimson said “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.”

Of course they do. Stimson later became Secretary of War. He read everyone’s mail. Because that’s how you win.

So the modern analogy (since SIGINT is now a settled issue): is it better to send an entire division into Tora Bora to fight, die and ultimately let Bin Laden get away, or is it better to send in two guys to shoot him in the forehead while he’s transiting between caves?