Re: failure of CIA to take out Omar - I was just looking at Executive Order 12333, issued on Dec. 4, 1981, which would be Reagan, which states as follows:
>>Executive Order 12333--United States intelligence activities
Timely and accurate information about the activities, capabilities, plans, and intentions of foreign powers,
organizations, and persons and their agents, is essential to the national security of the United States. All reasonable and lawful means must be used to ensure that the United States will receive the best intelligence available. For that purpose, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the United States of America, including the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, and as President of the United States of America, in order to provide for the effective conduct of United States intelligence activities and the protection of constitutional rights, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Part 1
Goals, Direction, Duties and Responsibilities With Respect to the National Intelligence Effort
1.1 Goals. The United States intelligence effort shall provide the President and the National Security Council with the necessary information on which to base decisions concerning the conduct and development of foreign, defense and economic policy, and the protection of United States national interests from foreign security threats. All departments and agencies shall cooperate fully to fulfill this goal.
<snip><snip><snip>
2.11 Prohibition on Assassination. No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.<<
cia.gov
There it is in black and white - the CIA, NSA, etc. is supposed to gather intelligence, not kill people. My understanding is that the CIA was watching Omar's headquarters when the US started the attack and Omar and his family were fleeing, and they asked a lower level JAG who was duty officer to ok shooting Omar, and he interpreted the law to prohibit assassination as prohibiting the CIA from shooting Omar. I can't find the story now - that's just how I remember it.
Maybe they could have gotten around it by defining "assassination" so that it did not mean using a sniper or whatever to kill someone during wartime - the executive order doesn't define assassination. It seems to me that what was contemplated was assassination - killing by stealth or secret means.
BWDIK? |
