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Wanted: Dead or Alive. That was the phrase used by U.S. President George W. Bush on Sept. 17 to characterize how much the United States wants Osama bin Laden.
If, as Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "all roads lead to Osama bin Laden," are there any speed bumps on that road as the United States tries to apprehend the chief suspect?
There are. Some are international agreements such as the laws of war, and the 1899 and 1907 Hague and the 1949 Geneva Conventions.1 For example, prisoners of war (Bush said this is a war even though his allusion on Sept. 17 was to the justice system), although not entitled to the guarantees and protection of the laws of the nation capturing them, must be treated humanely. The Fourth Geneva Convention is designed to regulate the effect of war and its aftermath on civilians in zones of hostilities and prescribes rules to mitigate hardship and suffering of civilian populations, both during hostilities and after a ceasefire or truce.
Constraints also have been imposed by former U.S. presidents. In February, 1976, President Gerald Ford signed an executive order (EO 11905) which, among other provisions, directed that no U.S. government employee could "engage in or conspire to engage in political assassination" (Section 5(g)). Ford's EO was superceded by President Jimmy Carter's EO 12036, which tightened restrictions on intelligence agencies. The ban on assassinations was continued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, (EO 12333, Sec 2.11) and extended to apply specifically to intelligence agencies. The ban remains in effect today.
The ban has been challenged legislatively each of the last two years by Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga. The "Terrorist Elimination Act of 2001" (H.R. 19), introduced Jan. 3, would nullify the sections of the Ford, Carter, and Reagan EOs prohibiting assassinations or any conspiracies to engage in assassinations.
It must be understood that continuation of the ban does not mean that any action that might cause the death of a known terrorist cannot be initiated. Self-defense is probably the prime circumstance. Moreover, while care must always be exercised to avoid casualties among non-belligerents from attacks on military facilities and their support structures, such strikes can be timed to coincide with the expected presence of senior enemy personnel at a target.
With regard to Osama bin Laden, in 1998, after the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Africa, President Bill Clinton issued a "presidential finding" authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to initiate covert operations overseas to foil and, where possible, prevent terrorism by bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Bush reportedly extended and greatly enlarged this authority after September 11 in a new presidential finding oriented more toward offensive rather than defensive actions. The CIA is to receive some one billion additional dollars for covert anti-terrorism activities against al Qaeda and has been directed to coordinate more closely with the U.S. military, particularly special operations forces.
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