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==Reagan Administration==
On February 1, 1986, Ronald Reagan issued a policy, "The National Program for Combatting Terrorism".<ref name=NSDD207>{{citation
 | title = National Security Decision Directive 207: The National Program for Combatting Terrorism
 | date = February 1, 1986
 | author = Ronald Reagan
 | url = http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsdd/nsdd-207.htm
}}</ref> As an operational agency to carry out aspects of the program, he authorized, at the same time, the Central Intelligence Agency's Counterterrorist Center, headed by Dewey Clarridge, a CIA operations officer who advocated an preemptive strategy against terrorists.  Reagan also issued a Presidential Finding to authorize covert action; when Robert Gates briefed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he described the discussion of when operational teams could kill a terrorist as "almost theological."  They agreed they could kill a terrorist in the act of driving a bomb at a barracks, but were far less clear if they could do so when he was assembling a bomb. These issues of rules of engagement have been an issue ever since.<ref name=Coll>{{citation
 | author = Steve Coll
 | publisher = Penguin | year = 2004
 | title = Ghost Wars: the Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001}},pp. 139-141</ref>