WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA hired private contractors at Blackwater USA in 2004 as part of a secret program to kill top-level members of al-Qaida, The New York Times reported.

The newspaper, citing unidentified current and former government officials, said the CIA spent several million dollars on the program, with Blackwater executives helping with planning, training and surveillance. The program did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects, the Times said in a report posted on its Web site late Wednesday.

The officials told the newspaper that the CIA’s use of an outside company for the program was a major reason that CIA Director Leon Panetta informed Congress in June that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years. The House Intelligence Committee said last month it will investigate
whether the CIA broke the law by not informing Congress promptly about the secret program.

Blackwater, a North Carolina company now known as Xe Services, has come under heavy criticism for its alleged role in a September 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

It was unclear whether the CIA had planned to use the contractors to capture or kill al-Qaida operatives or just to help with training and surveillance. Government officials said bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations, the Times reported.