The CIA spent tens of millions of dollars to hire a controversial private security firm to seek out and assassinate al-Qaeda leaders, The New York Times reports. Four years ago, the spy agency contracted Blackwater USA, which gained national attention for its aggressive tactics in Iraq and New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to help with planning, training and surveillance. However, the Times reports, the CIA got very little for the millions it spent, since Blackwater never successfully captured or killed any terrorist suspects. “The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.’s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years,” the Times writes. “It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.” Blackwater officials denied having a formal contract with Blackwater for an assassination program, but acknowledged that it had “individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune.”

After a trial that lasted nearly two months, five African-American men were convicted Tuesday of plotting to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower and FBI offices in an ill-fated attempt to trigger an al-Qaeda-led rebellion against the U.S. government. Following two prior mistrials, the Miami jury agreed with prosecutors that five of the so-called “Liberty City Six” had conspired to inflict terrorism. Read more.