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Pentagon Has Secret New Strategy for Taking on Terrorists
(US News) Linda Robinson - On March 3, with little fanfare, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, signed a comprehensive new plan for the war on terrorism. Pentagon officials say the still-secret document outlines a strategy that examines the nature of the antiterror war in depth, lays out a detailed road map for prosecuting it, and establishes a score card to determine where and whether progress is being made. The terrorist threat against the U.S. is now defined as "Islamist extremism" - not just al-Qaeda. The Pentagon document identifies the "primary enemy" as "extremist Sunni and Shia movements that exploit Islam for political ends." The U.S. is now targeting some two dozen groups - a significant change from the early focus on just al-Qaeda and its leadership. Concluding that the conflict cannot be fought by military means alone - or by the U.S. acting alone - the plan outlines a multipronged strategy that targets eight pressure points and outlines six methods for attacking terrorist networks.