Cheney 'ran secret black ops unit inside the CIA for eight years'

ALLEGATIONS that former US vice-president Dick Cheney ran a secret "black ops" unit inside the CIA for eight years without informing Congress have increased pressure on the White House for a full investigation of alleged abuses of power by the Bush administration.

The unit was so secret that even the former CIA director George Tenet did not control its activities, according to reports yesterday.

Sources said Mr Cheney, considered by some to have been the power behind the throne of the Bush administration, set up the unit in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for an as-yet undisclosed mission.

The existence of the unit itself was confirmed last week in a leaked letter from CIA director Leon Panetta to selected members of Congress.

In the letter, Mr Panetta said that despite being appointed by president Barack Obama to his job some five months ago, he only learned of the unit's existence in late June, and took immediate action to close it down.

Speculation is rife that the unit was trained for the assassinations of foreign leaders suspected of aiding terrorists.

Such a claim was made earlier this year by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who said he had evidence of an "executive assassination ring" under the direct control of the White House and which bypassed Congress, the joint chiefs of staff and the defence secretary.

Assassination was outlawed in the 1970s following post- Watergate revelations of CIA assassinations and "dirty tricks" operations in Vietnam.

If Mr Cheney is found to have withheld knowledge of the unit – whatever its purpose – from Congress, that could open him to legal action.

"That's a serious breach," said Democrat senator Kent Conrad. "This is a question of whether something was not given to the elected members of Congress which is regulated by law."

Among other questions that will be asked is how the CIA managed to conceal from its own boss, Mr Panetta, the existence of a unit inside its own headquarters for so many months.

The CIA itself would not comment on the nature of the unit. "It's not agency practice to discuss what may or may not have been said in a classified briefing," said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano.

Democrat speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi clashed with Mr Panetta earlier this year when she said she and other members of a congressional oversight committee were kept in the dark about CIA "waterboarding" torture at Guantanamo Bay.

In response to Ms Pelosi's allegations, Mr Panetta told CIA employees on 15 May that it was not CIA policy to mislead Congress.

Now, in a sharp escalation of the spat, seven Democratic representatives have written to Mr Panetta asking if he wants to reconsider his opinion "in the light of your testimony".

Mr Obama made the alleged abuse of power by the Bush administration a central theme of last year's presidential election.

But as he tries to implement controversial economic stimulus and healthcare reform laws, a traumatic inquiry into the previous administration's activities seems to be a battle he wants to delay.