Monday, Dec 16, 2002
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The previously undisclosed CIA list includes key Al-Qaeda leaders like Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as other principal figures from the Al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups, says the New York Times. The U.S. President, George W Bush, has provided written legal authority to the CIA to hunt down and kill the terrorists without seeking further approval each time the agency is about to stage an operation. The names of about two dozen terrorist leaders have recently been on the lethal-force list, officials said. ``It's the worst of the worst.'' Some officials said the terrorist list was known as the ``high-value target list.'' However, spokespersons for the White House and the CIA declined to discuss the list or issues involving the use of lethal force against terrorists, the paper said. Despite the authority given to the agency, Mr. Bush has not waived the executive order banning assassinations, officials were quoted as saying. The presidential authority to kill terrorists defines operatives of the Al-Qaeda as enemy combatants and thus legitimate targets for lethal force. Mr. Bush, the paper said, issued a presidential finding last year, after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, providing the basic executive and legal authority for the CIA to either kill or capture terrorist leaders. Initially, the agency used that authority to hunt for the Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, which also forms the basis for the CIA's attempts to find and kill or capture Osama and other Al-Qaeda leaders during the war in Afghanistan. The creation of the secret list, the Times said, is part of the expanded CIA effort to hunt and kill or capture the Al-Qaeda operatives far from traditional battlefields, in countries like Yemen. Mr. Bush is not legally required to approve each name added to the list, nor is the CIA required to obtain presidential approval for specific attacks, though officials said Mr. Bush had been kept well informed about the agency's operations. In November, the CIA killed an Al-Qaeda leader in a remote region of Yemen. A pilotless Predator aircraft operated by the agency fired a Hellfire antitank missile at a car in which the Al-Qaeda leader, Salim Sinan al-Harethi, also known as Abu Ali, was riding. Harethi and five other people, including one suspected Al-Qaeda operative with U. S. citizenship, were killed in the attack. Intelligence officials told the Times that the presidential finding authorising the agency to kill terrorists was not limited to those on the list. Mr. Bush has given broad authority to the CIA to kill or capture operatives of the Al-Qaeda around the world. But officials said the group's most senior leaders on the list were the agency's primary focus. The list is updated periodically as the intelligence agency. — PTI
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