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

[DogPoundPup]

Source: NYT

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?ref=washington

[merwin]

1. Can they do that without ANY congressional say?

Even just Pelosi and the top ranking Senators...

[GeneralCobra]

2. Bush Doctrine

Ya. It's called the Bush Doctrine. It's not really a secret.

[Ian David]

3. I much prefer conducting secret special-ops over destroying and occupying entire countries.

If we had snuck a few SEAL teams into Iraq and Afghanistan, to get Saddam and bin Laden, things might have worked out a whole lot better.