US officials insisted on Sunday the US could use all means to defend itself against possible attacks, although they were tight-lipped about a published report that the CIA planned secret missions to target individuals identified as "terrorists."
The CIA declined comment on a Washington Post report saying the agency felt it was authorized for covert "targeted killing" missions based on classified memorandums written by the Bush and Clinton administrations.
White House chief of staff Andrew Card told Fox News Sunday he could not any details of the CIA's activities.
"I can tell you that we're leaving no stone unturned in seeking out the terrorists and preventing terrorism from striking this country," he said.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to confirm the details of the article, but told reporters: "There is no question but that the United States of America has every right ? of self-defense."
Given the difficulty in combating attacks on American soil, Rumsfeld said the US had the right to take its battle to the known hiding places of extremist networks.
"The problem with terrorism is that there is no way to defend against a terrorist at every place and every time, against every conceivable technique," he told reporters on Sunday.
"Therefore the only way to deal with a terrorist network is to take the battle to them, and that is in fact what we're doing. And that is, in effect, is self-defense of a preemptive nature."
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel had no comment on the Washington Post report.
The newspaper said the Bush administration believed missions targeting individuals linked to attacks on the US or its interests overseas would not violate earlier executive orders banning assassination, the Post said.
It would be the first time the CIA considered covert killings since the 1970s, when the agency abandoned the tactic in the wake of a series of assassination scandals and subsequent presidential directives designed to rein in the agency, according to the newspaper.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 airliner hijack suicide attacks in New York and Washington, Bush has signed a broad "finding" that directs attacks against Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.
Clinton had authorized covert action against al-Qaeda starting in 1998, but none of the plans was ever implemented.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat