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Boucher flatly refused to discuss anything related to Monday's killing in Yemen
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WASHINGTON,
November 6 (IslamOnline
& News Agencies) - The United States said Tuesday, November 5, it
was closing its embassy in Yemen to the public indefinitely amid fears
it may become a target for an attack in retaliation for the U.S.
killing of a top al-Qaeda operative.
The
decision to close the embassy to the public came as U.S. Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz implicitly confirmed the United
States carried out a missile strike in Yemen that killed a top
al-Qaeda leader and five other al-Qaeda suspects.
In
an interview with CNN, Wolfowitz called it a "very successful
tactical operation."
"One
hopes each time you get a success like that not only to have gotten
rid of somebody dangerous, but to have imposed changes in their
tactics and operations and procedures," he said.
Earlier,
senior U.S. officials declined to directly confirm reports that the
Central Intelligence Agency was responsible for the killings but
linked the heightened security at the Sanaa Embassy to the deaths.
The
top al-Qaeda operative killed in the blast has been identified by
Yemeni authorities as Ali Qaed Sunian al-Harithi, also known as Abu
Ali, who is believed to be responsible for the 2000 bombing of the
U.S. destroyer Cole.
Yemeni
authorities did not say what caused the explosion but U.S. media
reported that the vehicle was hit by a Hellfire missile fired from a
CIA drone aircraft as it traveled in Yemen's northern province of
Marib, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Sanaa.
The
CIA has refused to comment on the reports.
On
Tuesday the United States paradoxically said it still opposed Israel's
policy of targeting Palestinian fighters for assassination despite its
decision to use the same tactic in Yemen.
"Our
policy on targeted killings in the Israeli-Palestinian context has not
changed," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
He
flatly refused to discuss anything related to Monday's killing in
Yemen of Abu Ali and the other five suspected al-Qaeda members but
like other would not deny widespread reports that they had been the
targets of a missile from a CIA unmanned aircraft.
"As
far as the events in Yemen, I have nothing for you on that,"
Boucher told reporters, repeating the phrase several times when
pressed on the matter at a State Department briefing.
The
spokesman also refused to entertain any comparison between Israel's
"targeted killing" policy and what happened in Yemen but he
implied that Washington did not equate the two.
Washington
has been highly critical of Israel's selective assassination of
Palestinian fighters and as such appears to have opened itself up to
charges of applying double standard in the Yemen matter.
But
Boucher, using carefully chosen language, sought to refute such
allegations by crafting what appeared to be a second category for
targeted killing, operative outside the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"If
you look back at what we have said about targeting killings in the
Israeli-Palestinian context, you will find that the reasons we have
given do not necessarily apply in other circumstances," he said.
"The
factors that we cited for our opposition to targeted killings were
particular to that set of circumstances," Boucher said.
He
maintained that Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, which continue to
hold prospects for a negotiated settlement despite setbacks and the
need to create an atmosphere of progress, were the chief elements that
defined those circumstances.
Although
he refused to discuss the incident in Yemen, Boucher was clearly
laying the groundwork for an argument that different rules applied to
the U.S.-led war on terrorism -- aimed now at Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaeda network -- for which there is no prospect of a peaceful
resolution.
The
Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday, November 6, that the Bush
administration entered a "murky area of international law",
with the Yemeni attack.
The
paper said that the answer to whether or not the U.S. violated
international law with this strike depends on whether or not the
Yemeni government acceded to the strike.
“But
the attack clearly placed the Bush administration outside the bounds
of actions recent U.S. administrations have acknowledged taking to
defend American interests overseas,” said the paper.
It
quoted a former Pentagon counsel as saying: “Where we have refrained
from doing this in the past, it's been the judgment of the U.S. that
killing our enemies abroad is a very foolish thing to do."
The
counsel, Alfred P. Rubin, also said: “We decided a long time ago
that this was not a wise thing to do.
"It
was not consistent with our vision of where the world should be going.
But now we apparently have changed our minds," said the LA Times.
According
to the paper, the “United Nations Charter forbids a nation to
intervene in the internal affairs of a country with which it is not at
war.
"So
unless Yemen agreed to the strike by the CIA drone, the United States
acted in violation of the U.N. Charter.”
It
added that there is a more crucial question at hand which is the
definition of war.
“The
Bush administration says that it is engaged in a worldwide war against
terrorists that is far more than rhetorical, and that it views attacks
on suspected terrorists as military strikes against combatants,”
said the Los Angeles Times.
The
paper quoted Suzanne Spaulding, former executive director of the
National Commission on Terrorism, a former lawyer for both the CIA and
the Senate Intelligence Committee, and chair of the American Bar
Association's standing committee on law and national security, as
saying that “it shows they are not looking at this in a law
enforcement context but in a military one. And in a military conflict,
you shoot to kill the enemy."
“But
the United States is not at war with Yemen. In seeking out and killing
its avowed enemies anywhere it finds them without arresting, charging
and trying them first, critics of such a strike say, the U.S. mirrors
the Israeli government, which has been criticized for carrying out
"extrajudicial executions" in response to terrorist
attacks,” said the LA Times.
"If
we go down this path, we might find ourselves in the same position
that Israel is in.
"We
can target terrorists too if we like. But I don't think it's brought
very much peace to the Middle East, and I don't think it's going to
bring very much peace to the U.S. either," the paper quoted Rubin
saying.
“M.
Cherif Bassiouni, professor of international law at DePaul University
in Chicago, who headed the U.N. commission investigating war crimes in
the former Yugoslav federation, said the most appropriate comparison
would be if a U.S. drug agent killed a narcotics trafficker rather
than arresting him and putting him on trial,” said the paper.
Bassiouni
said that any relatives of those killed in Yemen might be able to sue
U.S. officials who approved or participated in the attack under the
Alien Tort Claims Act, it added.
However,
the paper said that the U.S. has in recent years also targeted
countries with which it was not at war, citing the example of the 1998
destruction of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan after the Clinton
administration claimed that it was involved in chemical-weapons
production.
Meanwhile,
two dailies said Wednesday, November 6, that the U.S. missile strike
in Yemen was carried out with the approval of that country's
government and under broad authority given by the White House.
Quoting
a U.S. official with knowledge of the attack, The Washington Post said
a CIA-controlled Predator drone (unmanned) aircraft fired the missile
that killed six al-Qaeda suspects traveling in a vehicle in eastern
Yemen.
The
Predator, the official told the Post, was operated under a
presidential finding that authorized covert actions by the CIA against
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The
attack, the daily said, was "carried out with the cooperation and
approval" of the Yemeni government, adding that Yemeni officials
privately told reporters their intelligence agents were watching and
communicating al-Harithi's movements to U.S. intelligence.
The
New York Times, quoting senior administration officials, said U.S.
President George W. Bush granted the CIA broad authority over the past
year to hunt down al-Qaeda members anywhere in the world.
