Washington, D.C.
The Bush administration has authorized the CIA to assassinate two dozen of the world’s most dangerous terrorists, The New York Times reported this week. Bush considers terrorist leaders to be enemy soldiers on a global battlefield, so killing them, he said, would not violate a 1976 executive order banning political assassinations. Government agents said their “high-value hit list” includes Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, along with other key figures in al Qaida and allied terrorist groups. “It’s the worst of the worst,” one official said.
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