U.S. Planning World-wide Assassination Units
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Rumsfeld wants to involve special forces in covert operations to capture or kill Al-Qaeda members wherever they may be
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WASHINGTON
,
August 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The U.S. is planning
to use elite military units to track and kill Al-Qaeda members around
the world, a
U.K.
daily newspaper reported Tuesday, August 13.
The
Independent said that the radical plan breaks with tradition
and “raises major questions
of
U.S.
compliance with international law.”
Quoting
senior
U.S.
government officials, the paper said
that U.S. Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, wants to involve special
operations forces in covert operations to capture or kill Osama bin
Laden and his lieutenants, no matter where they might be.
Traditionally,
covert operations of this kind have been carried out by the Central
Intelligence Agency, something that has generated enormous
controversy, even without the participation of the military, said the
Independent.
However,
the paper said Rumsfeld was dissatisfied with the speed with which the
CIA can move after it receives intelligence about an Al-Qaeda
operative and believes the military could act more swiftly and more
efficiently.
According
to the New York Times says the Pentagon thinks it can overcome
the legal obstacles to such a policy by arguing that assassinations
are part of “preparation of the battlefield” in the open-ended war
on terror.
The
notion of endless war is highly controversial, even within the
Administration, and it is not clear whether the definition can pass
muster with Congress, with international law or with public opinion,
said the Independent.
The
paper added that the CIA itself has been trying to overturn a
long-standing ban on assassinations in its own covert operations, but
that a major attraction of military assassination option might be that
it gets around the CIA’s legal difficulties.
“Nobody
has greater legal leeway to kill people than the military during
wartime,” it said.
The
discussion whether to give Special Operations forces missions to
capture or kill individual Al-Qaeda leaders may at some point conflict
with the presidential ban on assassinations, said Australian daily
newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald.
At
least one Pentagon official said discussions were under way with
intelligence agencies on how to co-ordinate new arrangements among
them and Special Operations forces, the paper said.
The
Herald quoted a number of Pentagon and Administration officials
saying that a central goal of stepping up Special Operations missions
would be to seek out terrorist leaders themselves in their safe houses
or as they traveled the world to co-ordinate attacks or seek havens.
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