ARTICLE: "Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda In Many Countries: Outside The War Zone; Authorized Since 2004 to Hit Across Borders of 15 to 20 Nations," by Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, 10 November 2008.

This story is column one lead, like it's a revelation, but seriously, did anyone not think there was a piece of government paper somewhere that gave the military a get-out-of-ICC-jail card.

I know some observers (of the wise, blogosphere kind) view this sort of thing as absolute proof of the vast imperial conspiracy and what not, but all this tells me is that everyone in the bureaucracy likes a signed piece of paper.

The list basically defines the perceived current theater: Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, etc.--or one stretching from the FATA down through the Horn.

Again, hardly news to anyone following the long war.