arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)
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Bush gives CIA green light to kill Saddam by guardian(posted by Guido) Monday June 17, 2002 at 03:39 PM |
The CIA and US special forces have been given authority to use "lethal force" to capture or kill the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. Details emerged yesterday of an intelligence order signed by President George Bush instructing the CIA to conduct covert operations aimed at toppling the Iraqi leader.
The order, signed earlier this year, adds to increasing evidence that the US is planning an all-out assault to remove the Iraqi leader, who forms part of President Bush's so-called "axis of evil".
Government officials refused to comment on the order, but the Senate majority leader Tom Daschle confirmed that Congress had been consulted about the move.
The order, an expansion of a previous presidential finding designed to oust Saddam, was reported by the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, one of the men who uncovered the Watergate scandal.
President Bush has directed the CIA to use all available resources. These include increased support to Iraqi opposition groups and forces inside and outside the country in the form of money, equipment, training and intelligence.
The CIA is also increasing efforts to collect intelligence from within the Iraqi state and population.
The order also allows for the use of CIA and special forces similar to those deployed in Afghanistan since September 11 who would be authorised to kill the Iraqi leader if they were acting in self-defence.