Hmmm.... Something's fishy

Why would assassination teams targeting Al Qaeda, as everyone's now reporting, need to be hidden from Congress? Why would CIA chief Leon Panetta cancel such a program almost instantly upon being made aware of it?

As described thus far, why was this deemed so damn secret? What's the element that's so shocking? Nukes? Were the targets more than just Al Qaeda folks? Were they prepping to work inside the US?

From the WaPo piece,

Senior White House officials said President Obama was briefed on Panetta's decision after returning to Washington early Sunday from an overseas trip. The officials said the White House was not consulted before Panetta canceled the program. They declined to elaborate.

Whatever it was, it was bad enough that Panetta canceled it immediately and on his own.

Later: Add this little bit from the CNN version.

Efforts to contact Cheney for reaction were unsuccessful.

After jumping on TV to defend anything regarding Bush policies, Cheney took himself out of pocket on this one? You'd think he'd jump to associate himself with a program that, as described, sounds popular, and yet he doesn't.....

Later Still: From the LATimes version, a description that might suggest a fear over diplomatic fallout,

But officials said that as recently as a year ago CIA executives discussed plans to deploy teams to test basic capabilities, including whether they could enter hostile territory and maneuver undetected, as well as gather intelligence and track high-value targets.

But that wouldn't seem to explain the seemingly toxic reactions of those who really knew the program.

Plus, if it was just this simple "strike team" description, I'm not sure that Dem Congress members would be putting themselves out on a limb hollering like this.

It just doesn't add up. It seems like there's gotta be some big, atrocious element we're not getting.