The Obama administration is nearing completion of a detailed counterterrorism manual that is designed to establish clear rules for targeted-killing operations but leaves open a major exemption for the CIA's campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan, U.S. officials said.
The carve-out will allow the CIA to continue pounding al-Qaida and Taliban targets for a year or more before the agency is forced to comply with more stringent rules spelled out in a classified document that officials have described as a counterterrorism "playbook."
The document, which is expected to be submitted to President Barack Obama for final approval within weeks, marks the culmination of a yearlong effort by the White House to codify its counterterrorism policies and create a guide for lethal operations through Obama's second term.