BIN LADEN PHOTOS ORDERED DESTROYED
A newly-released email shows that 11 days after the killing of terror leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, Adm. William McRaven, the U.S. military’s top special operations officer, ordered subordinates to destroy any photographs of the al-Qaida founder’s corpse or turn them over to the CIA. The email was obtained under a freedom of information request by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch. The document, released Monday by the group, shows that McRaven’s order came 10 days after The Associated Press asked for the photos and other documents under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Typically, when a freedom of information request is filed to a government agency, the agency is obliged to preserve the material sought — even if the agency later denies the request. Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said Monday that the email “is a smoking gun, revealing both contempt for the rule of law and the American people’s right to know.”
Associated Press
The case of an American citizen and suspected member of al-Qaida who is allegedly planning attacks on U.S. targets overseas underscores the complexities of President Barack Obama’s new stricter targeting guidelines for the use of deadly drones.
Four U.S. officials say the terror suspect, whose name is being withheld, is in a country that refuses to allow U.S. military action, including by drones, on on its soil. And Obama’s new policy says suspected American terrorists overseas can only be killed by the military, not the CIA.
Two of the officials described the man as an al-Qaida facilitator who has been directly responsible for deadly attacks against U.S. citizens overseas and who continues to plan attacks.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the classified drone targeting program publicly. White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday he would not comment on specific operations..
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., complained last week that a number of terror suspects were all but out of reach under the administration’s new rules.
A senior administration official
said the president could make an exception to his policy and authorize the CIA to strike on a one-time basis or authorize the Pentagon to act despite the possible objections of the country in question. The Justice Department, the Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment.
The case has galvanized congressional opponents of Obama’s plan to transfer drones from the CIA to the Defense Department. Before the plan was announced, either CIA or Pentagon drones could go after terrorist targets, even if they were U.S. citizens. The CIA could also fly drones in areas where host countries might object. But by law, the Pentagon can only strike in war zones, in countries that agree to U.S. counterterrorism action or in lawless areas like parts of Somalia where that government’s security forces cannot reach. Even then only al-Qaida-linked suspects can be targeted.
“It is very clear that there have been missed opportunities that I believe increase the risk of the lives of our soldiers and for disrupting operations underway,” Rogers said last week.
U.S. officials said both Senate and House appropriators have blocked funding that would transfer the CIA’s stealth RQ-170 drone fleet to the Pentagon. Some lawmakers want the White House to first come up with a fix for targeting suspects in areas where the Pentagon is banned from operating — either by leaving some part of the CIA operation running or by granting the Pentagon authority to strike covertly despite the location — meaning they could legally deny the operation.
Lawmakers like Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., have also objected to the shift to the Pentagon, arguing that the CIA has more experience flying drones. U.S. officials say Pentagon chiefs defending their drone program in closed congressional session last week pointed out that the same cadre of Air Force pilots fly both the CIA and the Pentagon drones.
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