US justifies Syria, Pakistan raids

A country should have the right to attack another if it is harboring a potential terrorist threat, the US homeland security chief said in remarks appearing to justify recent US raids in Pakistan and Syria.

Laying out what amounts to a broadened definition of self-defense, Michael Chertoff said international law should accommodate a country's need to deter a possible threat abroad even if it meant taking pre-emptive action.

His remarks, at a discussion on democracy held in the British parliament, follow recent secret raids by U.S. forces into Pakistan and Syria that were justified using a similar rationale and drew condemnation from those countries.

"International law must begin to recognize that part of the responsibility of sovereignty is the responsibility to make sure that your own country does not become a platform for attacking other countries," Chertoff told an audience on Thursday night.

"There are areas of the world that are ungoverned or ungovernable but nevertheless technically within the sovereignty of boundaries. Does that mean we simply have to allow terrorists to operate there, in kind of badlands, where they can plan, they can set up laboratories, they can experiment with chemical weapons and with biological weapons?" he said.

His remarks, challenged by some members of parliament in the audience, follow comments made by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Tuesday in which he said Washington would hold countries fully accountable for their actions.

Gates' remarks, made to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, included a warning that the United States should modernize its nuclear arsenal as a hedge against "rogue nations" such as Iran and North Korea.