The US Central Intelligence agency is considering carrying out secret missions aimed at killing individuals the United States designates as terrorists according to a report in today’s Washington Post.
The CIA believes it has the authority for covert, targeted killing missions based on classified memorandums written by the Bush and Clinton administrations, the newspaper reported.
The Bush administration believes the missions would not violate previous executive orders banning assassination, the Post reported.
It would be the first time the CIA considered covert killings since the 1970s, when the agency abandoned the tactic in the wake of a series of assassination scandals and subsequent presidential directives designed to rein in the agency, according to the newspaper.
In the wake of the suicide attacks in New York and Washington, Bush has signed a broad finding that directs attacks against Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. Clinton had authorised covert action against al Qaeda starting in 1998.
The CIA is reluctant to accept the new authority, the Post reported. But the agency believes it is capable of hunting down and killing U.S. enemies.
US officials are debating details of the new finding, including the question of how many of bin Laden's associates could be targeted for elimination, according to the newspaper.
The killings might not be publicly acknowledged, but the CIA wants to make sure that there will be a paper trail inside the government that puts responsibility for the decision clearly on elected officials, the Post said.