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President Broadens Anti-Hussein Order : CIA Gets More Tools to Oust Iraqi Leader (Bob Woodward, June 16, 2002, Washington Post)

President Bush early this year signed an intelligence order directing the CIA to undertake a comprehensive, covert program to topple Saddam Hussein, including authority to use lethal force to capture the Iraqi president, according to informed sources.

The presidential order, an expansion of a previous presidential finding designed to oust Hussein, directs the CIA to use all available tools, including:

* Increased support to Iraqi opposition groups and forces inside and outside Iraq including money, weapons, equipment, training and intelligence information.

* Expanded efforts to collect intelligence within the Iraqi government, military, security service and overall population where pockets of intense anti-Hussein sentiment have been detected.

* Possible use of CIA and U.S. Special Forces teams, similar to those that have been successfully deployed in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Such forces would be authorized to kill Hussein if they were acting in self-defense.

The administration has already allocated tens of millions of dollars to the covert program. Nonetheless, CIA Director George J. Tenet has told Bush and his war cabinet that the CIA effort alone, without companion military action, economic and diplomatic pressure, probably has only about a 10 to 20 percent chance of succeeding, the sources said.

One source said that the CIA covert action should be viewed largely as "preparatory" to a military strike so the agency can identify targets, intensify intelligence gathering on the ground in Iraq, and build relations with alternative future leaders and groups if Hussein is ousted.

Just as the administration responded to the 9-11 attacks with all deliberate speed--shocking the Europeans who buy the caricature of President Bush as an immature gunslinger by waiting until forces were in place before commencing attacks--so it seems that action in Iraq is proceeding in a patient and thorough fashion. Time for another Weekly Standard editorial demanding immediate action, eh? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 16, 2002 6:01 AM