Al Qaeda: 'Got to Take That Shot'.

Newsweek International, January, 2006

Byline: Sami Yousafzai, Mark Hosenball and Zahid Hussain (Mark Hosenball Quindlen Krovatin Rana Foroohar Michael Hastings Devin Gordon Elise Soukup Daniel McGinn)

U.S. officials don't want to act rashly--especially in remote Pakistan, where U.S. forces are not supposed to be operating. But, says former White House counterterror official Roger Cressey, "you've got to take that shot." So when a U.S. surveillance team got a tip that Al Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar were at a house in a village in the Bajur tribal region, they pulled the trigger. An unmanned Predator drone tracked the guests, then fired six missiles, destroying three houses and killing at least 18 people.

U.S. counterterror officials...

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