Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

U.S. Weighing Assassination In Terror Fight
New York Daily News ^ | 12/17/01 | AP

Posted on 12/17/2001 1:51:24 AM PST by kattracks

U.S. military and government officials are secretly debating whether the U.S. war on terrorism should include plots to assassinate terror leaders before they can strike America, it was reported yesterday.

The Bush administration is also said to be considering a covert plan to send U.S. troops to help topple Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

The assassination issue has been discussed very delicately by key officials, Newsweek reported.

Officials at National Security Council meetings never use the word assassination directly — and don't discuss targeting specific individuals, the magazine says.

Instead, the talk is of whether to take out "command and control" outposts or strike "strategically decisive blows" against heads of terror cells.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Newsweek the CIA has been "given the go-ahead by presidential order to untie their hands and take the shackles off" in the fight against terrorists.

Nevertheless, says Shelby, "As far as sending in a hit team to take these guys out, I don't know about that."

But a Pentagon official said many in Washington see that as "inevitable."

"Terrorist organizations are not about buildings. They are not about weapons. They are, at their core, about human beings," the official said, "and usually not that many."

Meanwhile, The New Yorker reported that a new war plan for Iraq is now the subject of furious debate within the Bush Administration.

Iraqi opposition forces, led by the Iraqi National Congress, have "given the Bush administration an updated war plan, which calls not only for bombing but for the deployment of thousands of American Special Forces troops," says writer Seymour Hersh.

The plan also would involve neighboring Iran, which supposedly has agreed to allow opposition forces and U.S. troops to enter Iraq from its borders.

One defense analyst said the American success in Afghanistan would be used as a model for the Iraq campaign.

"They believe they have found the perfect model, and it works," the analyst told the magazine. The model is bombing, a modest insertion of Special Forces, plus an uprising."




TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-30 last
To: kattracks
Of course, we should. There shouldn't even be a discussion about it. Who are they discussing it with, liberals? Traitors? It's a matter of self-defense. End of story.

But not only the terrorists themselves should be individually targeted, but also their families who encourage and honor them (terrorists don't arise in a vacuum), their friends, their classmates, their business associates, their neighbors, their mullahs and others at their mosques, where this insane, primitive hatred of westerners is encouraged, taught, preached, nurtured, disseminated, aided, abetted and glorified. We have to turn terrorists into pariahs in their homes, instead of heroes, by out terrorizing them and their loved ones by orders of magnitude.

It's war now. You don't win by wringing your hands over the corpse of political correctness.

21 posted on 12/17/2001 8:07:35 AM PST by LibWhacker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: matamoros
Rulers have always been afraid to do unto other rulers, even though they are the ones who truly deserve to be punished. In ancient times, the aristocracy were allowed to go relatively unpunished when a city fell, the citizens were raped, robbed and sold into slavery.

I couldn't agree more. In Desert Storm, we considered it moral to kill thousands of Sadam's grunts while leaving him to his pleasure palaces. Insane.
22 posted on 12/17/2001 9:07:40 AM PST by Belial
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: veronica
Targeted killings WORK.

Then don't use newspeak, and call them what they are: assassinations.

War was never a gentleman's game, no matter what the armchair generals say. Go for the throat and don't put a candy-coating on the bloody corpses.
23 posted on 12/17/2001 9:10:57 AM PST by Belial
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: BellStar
Why do we publish this stuff.

So that the al Queda terrorists here and elsewhere know that we're going to kill them. That's a very good thing for them to know. It's the only thing they understand.

24 posted on 12/17/2001 10:06:52 AM PST by angkor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: blam
< " I'm guessing that 'heads of states' are still off the table for asassination." >

Right! That's the way I like to play the game.....they use real bullets I get to shoot blanks.

Like post #11 by " weikel " ......"tack em & whack em". ;^)

25 posted on 12/17/2001 10:15:46 AM PST by G.Mason
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: kattracks
"I'll weigh it"

Feels like 250 grains to me!!!
26 posted on 12/17/2001 10:45:48 AM PST by glaseatr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kattracks
U.S. military and government officials are secretly debating whether the U.S. war on terrorism should include plots to assassinate terror leaders before they can strike America, it was reported yesterday.

Secret? Just shut up and do it.

27 posted on 12/17/2001 10:55:13 AM PST by putupon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kattracks
What a worthless, no-news article:

"U.S. military and government officials are secretly debating whether the U.S. war on terrorism should include plots to assassinate terror leaders before they can strike America, it was reported yesterday."

Yesterday? How 'bout every day since before Kennedy and Castro?

"The Bush administration is also said to be considering a covert plan to send U.S. troops to help topple Saddam Hussein in Iraq."

No spit. So did Bush, Sr. and even Billy.

"The assassination issue has been discussed very delicately by key officials, Newsweek reported."

Bull. Why would they need to discuss it "delicately." I'm guessing Dubya's and Dick's conversations are more in the vein of "major league Clymer" and "big-time," when they're in private.

"Officials at National Security Council meetings never use the word assassination directly — and don't discuss targeting specific individuals, the magazine says."

Of course not at official NSC meetings -- too many potential embarrassing leaks. But I'll bet Rummy has some choice, memorable, colorful ways of discussing targeting specific individuals.

"Instead, the talk is of whether to take out "command and control" outposts or strike "strategically decisive blows" against heads of terror cells."

Again, bull. This from the administration whose head once again this weekend said, "I don't really care. Dead or alive, it doesn't matter to me. "

(Ya gotta love our team!)

28 posted on 12/17/2001 10:58:24 AM PST by TheHeterodoxConservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kattracks
SEND ME, SEND ME!
29 posted on 12/17/2001 1:34:11 PM PST by japaneseghost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: calvarys
Calvarys-unsual name for a Palestinian-but by their blather you shall know them. Are you a young human bomb apprentis or one of those who live to a ripe old age in the Palestinian breeding stables, siring young men for the sole purpose of blowing themselves up as soon as they are old enough to walk into a group of unsuspecting Israelis and detonate themselves?
30 posted on 12/17/2001 1:58:44 PM PST by F.J. Mitchell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-30 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson