CIA: US Must Be Able to Enter Foreign Airspace Without Prior Notification

The US must be able to proceed with foreign operations as necessary, including invasion of foreign countries airspace without notifying local governments, said CIA Director John Brennan.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US president must maintain the ability to proceed with foreign operations as necessary, including invasion of foreign countries airspace without notifying local governments, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan said in a speech at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday.

"The president must maintain the ability to take action as appropriate," Brennan stated. "There are circumstances where I know that the commander in chief is going to continue to exercise his responsibility to do what is necessary, and sometimes that is going to be going into foreign airspace without the prior consent of the government."

The CIA director recalled that in 2011, President Barack Obama authorized an operation to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan without any consultations with the Pakistani government.

Bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan as a result of a US special operation following a ten-year manhunt. The manhunt was initiated in part as a response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States that killed some 3,000 people.