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.
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