CIA agents get licence to kill

From Elaine Monaghan in Washington

PRESIDENT BUSH has expanded the CIA’s powers by giving agents a licence to kill up to 25 terrorist suspects, including Osama bin Laden, without obtaining presidential approval first.

The decision leaves intact a 25-year-old presidential ban on political assassinations imposed after a string of killings during the Cold War, but it shows how the War on Terror has challenged America’s aversion to disposing of foreign enemies in covert actions.

Mr Bush’s decision gives the CIA specific, written permission to kill the terrorist leaders covertly, if capture is considered impractical and civilian casualties could be minimised, according to a report in The New York Times.

Targets alongside bin Laden include Ayman al- Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda leader’s deputy, other prominent members of al-Qaeda and affiliated groups. The President is not required to approve additions to the list, but the evidence against anyone targeted must be clear and convincing, the report said.

The CIA has recently developed more advanced technology that makes attempts at targeted killings more likely to succeed. An unmanned agency drone fired a Hellfire missile at a carload of al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen last month, killing all six of them, including a US citizen.

The new policy is likely to face criticism from Democrats. Pat Schaeffer, a party strategist, gave warning that the Bush Administration needed to be very careful about giving the CIA more independence.