Was it really a secret that we wanted to kill al-Qaeda operatives? You didn’t need a codebook to pick up the hint in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union: “All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let’s put it this way — they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.”
In a 2005 radio address, he was more direct: “In response to attacks on our home soil, we have captured or killed terrorists across the Earth.”