A 2004 Bush administration directive provided authorization for secret U.S. military raids of al-Qaeda sites around the world, including in nations with which the United States was not at war, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 28).
The order, signed by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with the backing of President George W. Bush, has enabled special operations forces and other units to carry out fewer than 12 raids in Pakistan, Syria and other countries.
In one case, Navy SEALs launched a 2006 strike on a suspected al-Qaeda base in Pakistan’s Bajaur region, one former high-level CIA official said. CIA counterterrorism officials used a camera-equipped unmanned aerial vehicle to supervise the operation from their agency’s Virginia headquarters.
However, the administration has halted up to 12 such missions since 2004, due to a dearth of proof to justify the attacks, unacceptable dangers to the missions or risks of strained international ties, according to high-level military officers (Schmitt/Mazzetti, New York Times, Nov. 10).