Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Politics

Bush defends order to kill Iranian operatives

By Washington Post
Published January 27, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday defended a Pentagon program to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq, saying that U.S. troops would use all necessary measures to protect themselves and Iraqi civilians.

"It makes sense that if somebody's trying to harm our troops, or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them," Bush said.

But Bush and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates both said U.S. troops would not cross Iraq's border with Iran under the program, and the president said he is still committed to resolving the dispute over Iran's nuclear program diplomatically.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said U.S. troops must defend themselves in Iraq but contended the president needed congressional approval for any program that could "escalate this conflict" with Iran.

Last fall, Bush gave the military secret authorization to kill or capture members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, including members of a Guard unit known as the Quds Force, and any Iranian intelligence operatives suspected of arming or supporting Shiite militias in Iraq.

The policy is based on the theory that Tehran will back down from its nuclear ambitions if the United States hits it hard in Iraq and elsewhere, creating a sense of vulnerability among Iranian leaders. But the policy has attracted some skeptics inside the Bush administration and the intelligence community, who say they are concerned Iran could respond with escalation. The director of the CIA, Michael Hayden, counseled the president to consider that Iran could undertake its own program to kill or kidnap U.S. personnel in Iraq or neighboring Afghanistan.

Bush said it is "not accurate" that his goal is to widen a confrontation between the two countries.

"We're going to continue to protect ourselves in Iraq and at the same time work to solve their problems with Iran diplomatically, and I believe we can succeed. The choice is the Iranian government's choice," he said.

The president said his administration is making progress on the diplomatic front, citing a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls on Iran to halt much of its nuclear program and return to negotiations. Iran has rejected the resolution.

In Tehran, the chairman of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaoddin Boroujerdi, said Bush's policy amounts to "terrorist" action that violates international law.

Gates said U.S. troops were not "simply going to stand by and let people bring sophisticated IEDs (improvised explosive devices) into the country that can disable an Abrams tank."

"But as we've said before, we think we can handle this inside the borders of Iraq and the operations are limited to inside the borders of Iraq," he said.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 00:29:21]