White House picks secret ops chief

Tue Jan 4, 2011

Former US counterterrorism ambassador Michael Sheehan has reportedly been offered the top Pentagon job overseeing Washington's secret operations.

According to the Associated Press, two senior US officials have reported that Sheehan will help coordinate America's campaign of clandestine operations and drone strikes from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Yemen.

The White House has not announced the selection yet.

If Sheehan accepts, he will become assistant secretary of defense for special operations -- one of the most important civilian jobs in America's covert war.

The post is currently held by CIA veteran Michael Vickers, who has been nominated for the Pentagon's top intelligence job.

Sheehan, who has had several overseas assignments in Panama, El Salvador, South Korea, Somalia and Haiti, is seen as the best candidate for the controversial post.

Veteran US diplomat Richard Holbrooke had recommended Sheehan as "the person I would most want at my side when trying to stop terrorists," before his death last month.

Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, former US President George W. Bush issued a classified order authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to kill or capture so-called al-Qaeda terrorists around the globe.

The measure soon grew into the largest CIA covert action program since the height of the Cold War.

Since then, the CIA has exercised its authority frequently, carrying out covert military operations in countries such as Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

These clandestine tactics have been strongly condemned both at the United States and abroad.

However, despite the local and international outcry President Barack Obama's administration has expanded Washington's covert war across the globe.

Covert operations may include sabotage, assassinations and support for coup d'état.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158547.html.