Evil In The Cross Hairs

Earlier this fall, regional military commanders around the world were instructed, in general and bland terms, to analyze the terrorist threats in their region and to submit options to deal with the most dangerous of them. Their responses were due by the end of November, a deadline that has slipped a month. The options were to include not just military steps but diplomatic, financial and legal ones. Inevitably the regional commanders in chief (CINCs) have had to consider how they will find, target and take out terrorist leaders. NEWSWEEK has learned that one of the CINCs, Pacific commander Adm. Dennis Blair, has told colleagues that he is concerned about preparing "target folders" aimed at specific individuals. Blair is said to be worried about getting the military drawn into a murky and morally dubious world. When NEWSWEEK asked Blair to comment on his reported concerns, his spokesman, Cmdr. John Singley, carefully but pointedly replied, "The CINC believes you raise a serious issue, but he feels it is one for Defense Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld to best address." Last week, in an interview with Rumsfeld, NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymouth said to the Defense secretary, "You are said to have instructed the regional commanders to prepare actual plans as to how to kill Al Qaeda leaders." Rumsfeld, in his usual brusque way, replied: "This is not true. The person who's got this story is in need of adult supervision." A senior Pentagon official later offered a more nuanced elaboration: no one in the Pentagon or the regional commands, said the official, has yet drawn up a plan of action. However, targeting individuals is "in my opinion, inevitable," he said. "Terrorist organizations are not about buildings; they are not about weapons; they are, at their core, human beings. And usually not that many."

Administration officials make no bones about trying to kill or capture bin Laden and his top lieutenants any way they can. Talking to reporters last week, Rumsfeld stated: "If they surrender, they may come out alive. If they don't surrender, they may not... It's kind of their choice. I, personally, would like to see people surrender. I, personally, would like to see us get our hands on them and be able to interrogate them and find out about the Al Qaeda networks all across the globe." There is a risk, say Pentagon officials, that bin Laden will slip across the border to Pakistan. Smugglers' trails wind through the snowy peaks. The tribesmen in the wild, lawless mountain region are generally sympathetic to bin Laden. On the other hand, they may be eager to gather the $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Small teams of American and British commandos are hunting for bin Laden. They carry thermal-imaging devices and night-vision scopes that allow them to snoop in all weather at all times. Delta Force snipers also carry a .50-caliber rifle with a round so powerful it can take out a car, as well as a man. The ground forces have high-tech eavesdropping devices to overhear bin Laden's walkie-talkie conversations with his lieutenants. There were reports last weekend that bin Laden's distinctive voice had been detected by the electronic sleuths. (U.S. reconnaissance assets include a plane called the RC-135 Rivet Joint, which can easily pick up short-range radio broadcasts.)

If he gets out of his cave alive, bin Laden could try to strike south, hugging the border all the way to Iran. But he will have to hope that he does not run into one of the U.S. Marine patrols that are starting to move up from Camp Rhino in the south near Kandahar. A NEWSWEEK reporter with the Marines was recently told that no provision was being made to take and hold prisoners of war. (The policy was reversed later in the week and crude pens were set up.) The reporter asked a leatherneck what he would do if he and his men captured a Qaeda fighter. Take him prisoner? The grunt responded with a laugh, "Prisoner?" By law, American soldiers cannot shoot an enemy soldier who clearly surrenders. Nonetheless, the Marines interviewed by NEWSWEEK said that they were in no mood to take prisoners. In front of Charlie Company at Camp Rhino, a sign declared: CAMP JUSTICE FOR AMERICA. A document called "the New Constitution" read: "We the people of the United States of America are going to kick your a--." Would the Marines step in to stop executions of Taliban or Qaeda soldiers by the Afghan forces? "That's a tough question," replied Marine Maj. Jim Parrington. "We are not going to put ourselves in a position to observe that."

Americans have long preferred to look the other way when it came to assassination and other shadowy practices. From time to time, American spies or Special Forces have employed foreign surrogates to do what the Soviets used to refer to as "wet work." A recent example is revealing: in December 1995, in central Bosnia, a group of Croat soldiers at a roadblock opened fire on a car full of mujahedin, Arab fighters who had come to support the Muslim cause. Such killings were not unusual in Bosnia, even among forces formally on the same side, but this one was different. Only a week before, an American military officer had spoken with the Croat soldiers who opened fire on the car. Interviewed by NEWSWEEK's Colin Soloway, the officer would not reveal what he said at the meeting, but with a wink he added that one of the men in the car had been a Libyan wanted for his role in the truck bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. Recently a Bosnian news magazine quoted a former Bosnian counterintelligence officer who said that a U.S. officer had contracted the Croats to assassinate the Libyan terrorist. (American authorities justified the assassination under a little-known 1993 "lethal finding" signed by President Bill Clinton that gave permission to target terrorists.)

Carrying out assassinations--or indeed any kind of military operation--in a foreign country is an exceedingly delicate operation. Host countries do not look kindly on American hit squads roaming their cities. Generally speaking, U.S. allies prefer to use their own police and intelligence forces to round up and, if need be, eliminate terror suspects. Recently, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines rejected an offer by President Bush to send U.S. Special Forces to work with Filipino police to target and capture terrorists from the Abu Sayyaf group, which is at least loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda. U.S. Green Beret teams are now in the Philippines, but solely as unarmed advisers.