Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries

[City Lights]

Source: NYTimes

Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries

By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: November 9, 2008

WASHINGTON — The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.

These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.

In 2006, for example, a Navy Seal team raided a suspected militants’ compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, according to a former top official of the Central Intelligence Agency. Officials watched the entire mission — captured by the video camera of a remotely piloted Predator aircraft — in real time in the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorist Center at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia 7,000 miles away.

Some of the military missions have been conducted in close coordination with the C.I.A., according to senior American officials, who said that in others, like the Special Operations raid in Syria on Oct. 26 of this year, the military commandos acted in support of C.I.A.-directed operations.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/washington/10military.html?partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

[Mari333]

1. anyone surprised?n/t

[Newsjock]

2. Another item for the agenda

... of Dennis Kucinich's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

[LakeSamish706]

3. Gee, I think that some of these countries might have something to say about....

Bush giving orders where he has no right to.

[marmar]

4. The damage in need of un-doing is gi-normous....

n/t

[Sgent]

5. What's the problem?

Even Barack said he would go after Al Queda in Pakistan if they wouldn't get him.

[Traveling_Home]

6. Time to STOP the Leaks - ain't gonna be Bush's House no more nt

[WayneSMT]

7. There is going to be fallout on this

So all of those countries that were saying we were doing things that we were not supposed to be doing in their country and then we lambasted those same countries in the UN and called them liars- were right and they were telling the truth.

This kinda feels somewhat like the occasion when you have a strong feeling that your significant other is fooling around, but you deny that and don't check out a few things.

Then people in the neighborhood, that you really don't know, tell you that your significant other is fooling around on you and they are secretly laughing behind your back, and yet you still deny that there might even be anything remotely going on and you can explain to yourself a million different things that prove that your significant other is NOT fooling around on you and you call your neighbors liars to their face and stomp off in self righteous indignation.

Then one morning you forget something at home so you run back during lunch and surprise, surprise you catch your significant other, who really has been fooling around on you, in bed, with your best friend.

Oh, and all the while, your best friend has been telling you not to worry. You are right it is just your neighbors lying to you for no reason, they are just trying to make trouble. Matter of fact, they aren't your neighbors or your friends, since who needs friends like that, those kinda friends just tell you stuff that upsets you, and the only reason they say that kinda stuff is that they think they are better then you.