Yemen Killing Based on Rules Set Out by Bush

The lethal missile strike that killed a suspected leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen was carried out under broad authority that President Bush has given the C.I.A. over the past year to pursue the terror network well beyond the borders of Afghanistan, senior government officials said today.

The president was not asked to authorize the specific decision to fire the missile that killed the suspected Qaeda leader, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, the officials said. But Mr. Bush had been advised that the C.I.A was pursuing Mr. Harethi.

Under the rules that Mr. Bush had approved, his personal approval for specific operations was not required. He had delegated operational control over Predator strikes against Al Qaeda to his military and intelligence team. Officials would not identify the officials who did approve the strike.

The decision to approve the missile launch was made by "very senior officials" below the level of the president who had been closely monitoring the surveillance of Mr. Harethi and his associates, the officials said. They were seeking an opportunity to kill Mr. Harethi in a setting that would minimize the chance of unintentional casualties.

The missile strike represented a tougher phase of the campaign against terror and moved the Bush administration away from the law enforcement-based tactics of arrests and detentions of Qaeda suspects that it had employed outside Afghanistan in the months since the fighting there ended.

Instead, the officials said, the missile strike demonstrated that the United States was prepared to employ deadly force against individual suspects in countries like Yemen, where Al Qaeda is believed to have regrouped in recent months.

At the same time, the State Department's spokesman today reiterated American opposition to "targeted killings" of Palestinian militants by Israeli forces. The spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, rejected comparisons with Israel's practice against Palestinian militants, saying circumstances were not comparable.

The missile strike did not violate the longstanding ban on the assassination of political leaders because none of the men were regarded as leaders under the law, current and former officials said. Government officials have said since Sept. 11 that the assassination ban does not apply to Al Qaeda.

The possible risks of the Bush administration's more aggressive approach were immediately apparent. Today, the State Department announced that the American Embassy in Yemen would be closed for a security review.

The Yemenis were killed on Sunday when a Hellfire air-to-ground missile launched by a pilotless Predator aircraft struck the car in which six men were riding in barren stretch of desert outside Sana, the capital. All the men were killed, including the intended target, Mr. Harethi, a suspected senior Qaeda leader in Yemen and a suspect in the bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in October 2000.

It was unclear how the target was identified, but the Predator's video can identify certain details such as the number of people in the car.

Although Mr. Harthi's name was not widely known publicly, intelligence and law enforcement officials had been tracking his movements for months, one official said.

The official would not describe the evidence linking Mr. Harthi to the Cole attack, but said his involvement was a widely accepted within intelligence and law enforcement circles.

Although investigators wanted to question Mr. Harethi about the Cole bombing, the C.I.A. did not seek input from or consult law enforcement officials prior to the Yemeni operation, a senior law enforcement official said. But today law enforcement officials said there were few complaints.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/06/international/middleeast/06YEME.html?pagewanted=all&position=top