Cheney: head of "executive assassination ring"?

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has dropped another bombshell, claiming that Dick Cheney was running an “executive assassination ring” which reported directly to him during the Bush years.

“After 9/11, I haven’t written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state,” Hersh said. “Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet.”

According to Hersh, the Joint Special Operations Command, part of the special operation community set up independently, is responsible for carrying out such acts. The journalist said that they do not report to anybody, though in the Bush- Cheney days they reported directly to Cheney.

“It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on,” Hersh said. “Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us.”

Still, it seems that not everyone believes in Hersh’s finds.

“Hersh has made a living of making fantastic claims that don't quite live up to the hype,” said Bill Roggio from The Weekly Standard. “Chalk this one up as another Hersh fantasy.”

Roggio said that “like in any good tale” the Joint Special Operation Command does participate in actions against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups’ leaders.

Bill Roggio, however, dismissed Hersh’s assumption that JSOC does not report to anyone, including the U.S. Congress.

“JSOC is a component command of the U.S. Special Operations Command, which reports to the Secretary of Defense,” he said. “JSOC, like the CIA, certainly falls under Congressional oversight.”