Letnik 9/2, september 2007 - Slovenska vojska

NESLIŠNO OROŽJE: RAZVIJANJE OBVEŠČEVALNEGA SODELOVANJA V ...
and lethal as the bomb subsequently dropped, the bullet subsequently fired or the
arrest eventually made. Intelligence work – the careful, clandestine collection,
analysis and vetting of sensitive information from human and technical sources
– has to date proven to be a powerful weapon in fighting terrorism.
As with Zarqawi’s elimination at the hands of Special Forces and intelligence
operators, considerable publicity and commentary also surrounds the killing of
Abu Ali al-Harithi and his al-Qaeda companions, victims of a well-executed
hellfire missile strike allegerdly launched from a CIA Predator drone in Yemen
in November, 2002 (Bowers, 2002). The episode might well serve as a textbook
example of paramilitary covert action or targeted killing by an intelligence service,
but contains other, more subtle, lessons as well. It is noteworthy, for example, that
al-Harithi’s death was brought about not only through the deadly application of
UAV technology, but by international cooperation between intelligence services.
Press reports strongly suggest that the al-Harithi targeted killing does not stand
alone; other terrorists have suffered the same fate.
If public accounts and unattributed sources are to be credited, intelligence
operations have in fact since 2001 played a key role in eliminating or capturing
al-Qaeda and other Islamic fundamentalist terrorists internationally. The first
U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte made the following
remark during his 2006 official testimony: “Collaboration with our friends and
allies around the world has helped us achieve some notable successes against
the global jihadist threat. In fact, most of al-Qaeda’s setbacks last year were the
result of our allies’ efforts, either independently or with our assistance….We have
eliminated much of the leadership that presided over al-Qaeda in 2001, and USled
counterterrorism efforts in 2005 continue to disrupt its operations, take out
its leaders and deplete its cadre” (Negroponte, 2006). Similarly, Pulitzer-Prizewinning
journalist Dana Priest asserted in 2005 that joint intelligence work “has
been responsible for identifying, tracking and capturing or killing the vast majority
of committed jihadists who have been targeted outside Iraq and Afghanistan since
the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to terrorism experts” (Priest, 2005). The
criticality of intelligence service activity and interaction continues; the planned
but thwarted 2006 attack on several airliners leaving Heathrow appears to have
involved, at one point or another, intelligence work conducted by the services of
Great Britain, the U.S. and Pakistan, at a minimum. The Secretary of Homeland
Security, Michael Chertoff, noted soon after that event that “British authorities, in
partnership with the United States and our allies, were able to disrupt the recent
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