Legal Strategy Backed a Secret CIA Program to Kill Al-Qaida Leaders
The Bush administration has maintained that a secret CIA program to kill leaders of al-Qaida was legal, despite an executive order banning assassinations.
Details of the secret program were never revealed to congressional intelligence committees, raising a second legal question about whether the withheld information violated a national security law requiring briefings. The administration contended disclosure wasn’t necessary for two reasons, the New York Times reports.
First, Congress had already given the CIA broad authority after Sept. 11. Second, the program was never carried out. The new CIA director, Leon Panetta, halted the program last month soon after he learned of it, according to the Times.
The nature of the secret program was disclosed yesterday by the Wall Street Journal. Earlier reports said Vice President Dick Cheney had ordered the CIA to keep the program a secret, raising the ire of congressional Democrats who were never told of its existence.
An executive order issued by President Ford in 1976 bans assassinations, but it does not apply to the killing of enemies in war, the Times says. The Bush administration maintained that al-Qaida has a goal of attacking the United States, making it no different from a battlefield enemy. The story says the Obama administration is advocating the same view.
