WASHINGTON — White House counterterror chief John Brennan has seized the lead in choosing which terrorists will be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure for both military and CIA targets, officials said.
The effort concentrates power over the use of lethal U.S. force outside war zones within one small team at the White House.
The process, which is about a month old, means Brennan’s staff consults with the State Department and other agencies as to who should go on the target list, making the Pentagon’s role less relevant, according to two current and three former U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. One senior administration official contended that Brennan’s move adds another layer of review that augments rather than detracts from the Pentagon’s role. The Pentagon can still carry out its own internal procedures to make recommendations to the secretary of defense, the official said.
The CIA keeps its own list of targets, though it overlaps with the Pentagon’s. It never included the large number of interagency players the Pentagon brought to the table for its debates.
Brennan’s effort gives him greater input earlier in the process, before making final recommendation to President Barack Obama.
Under the new plan, Brennan’s staff compiles the potential target list and runs the names past agencies such as the State Department at a weekly White House meeting, the officials said.
Previously, targets were first discussed in meetings run by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was Adm. Mike Mullen at the time, with Brennan just one of the voices in the debate. Brennan ultimately would make the case to the president, but a larger number of officials would participate in the discussion.
The new Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, has been more focused on shrinking the U.S. military as the Afghan war winds down and less on the covert wars overseas.
With Dempsey less involved, there is an even greater need to draw together different agencies’ viewpoints, some in the administration believe, showing the American public that al-Qaida targets are chosen only after painstaking and exhaustive debate.
Some of the officials who carry out the policy are equally leery of “how easy it has become to kill someone,” one said. The U.S. is targeting al-Qaida operatives for reasons such as being heard in an intercepted conversation plotting to attack a U.S. ambassador overseas, the official said. Stateside, that conversation could trigger an investigation by the Secret Service or FBI.
The CIA and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.
Brennan gave a landmark speech last month describing the Obama administration’s legal reasoning behind the drone program. The choice of targets, he said, is weighed by whether capture is possible versus the level of threat the person presents to Americans. Such targets, he argued, are not civilians, but akin to targeting Japanese or German commanders in World War II.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 05/22/2012