NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams

We have three reports. NBC’s Rosiland Jordan is at the White House; Washington Post reporter and NBC News analyst Dana Priest is in our Washington bureau; and NBC’s Preston Mendenhall is in Moscow.

First to Rosiland Jordan and the latest effort to track down members of al Qaeda.

ROSILAND JORDAN: More than three years after 9/11, U.S. officials say not only are they getting better at tracking terrorists, but at making sure they can’t ever strike again.

Another take-down of an al Qaeda operative, this time with a rocket fired from a Predator drone like this one. Sources tell NBC News the target was in northwestern Pakistan. A man called Haitham al Yemini.

WALID PHARES (Terrorism Expert): He was known as the bomb maker, the man who taught generations of al Qaeda cadre how to fix those bombs.

JORDAN: Pakistani sources tell NBC News the attack occurred only Sunday morning, near the town of Mirali. It’s part of a joint U.S.-Pakistani offensive against al Qaeda and Taliban members in that region, the same offensive that recently brought down al Qaeda’s No. 3 man, Abu Faraj Al Libbi.

Officially, U.S. intelligence is refusing to talk about it. NBC News counterterrorism analyst Roger Cressey.

ROGER CRESSEY (NBC News Counterterrorism Analyst): There are ongoing operations; we’re still developing intelligence through our reconnaissance over the potential target. And obviously we’re looking for other opportunities to strike.

JORDAN: For its part, Pakistan is denying Haitham was even in the country, or that a U.S. Predator was flying over its territory.

SHEIKH RASHID AHMED (Pakistani Information Minister): If something happens in Kabul or somewhere else that we don’t know – As far as Pakistan is concerned, nobody was killed here.

JORDAN: But NBC News Military Analyst William Arkin says that’s not the way it really works.

WILLIAM ARKIN (NBC News Military Analyst): This is a joint operation, and so I just completely reject the notion that somehow the United States is out here operating without the complete cooperation of the Pakistani government at the highest levels.

JORDAN: That said, analysts say Pakistan has to deny its role for political reasons, a point made during Tom Brokaw’s recent interview with Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf.

PAKISTAN PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: I think presence of any foreign troops is not looked very favorably in Pakistan.

JORDAN: This from a leader who has become one of the U.S.’s closest allies in the war on terror, but at great risk to his own life.

Also at risk – the lives of U.S. military and intelligence officials who are involved in these kinds of operations, which may well be the reason, John, why they’re not talking much about this latest attack.

SEIGENTHALER: Rosiland Jordan. Thanks. Now to Washington Post reporter and NBC News national security analyst Dana Priest. She joins us tonight from our Washington bureau.

Dana, what do we know about how often the CIA uses these Predators in places like Pakistan?

DANA PRIEST: (NBC News National Security Analyst; Washington Post Reporter) Well, the first time the CIA killed an al Qaeda operative was in November of 2002 – Abu Ali Harethi was killed while he was driving his car in the desert in Yemen.

Killed with him was a naturalized U.S. citizen who was part of that Lackawanna, New York group who had admitted to training in Afghanistan with al Qaeda.

Since then, the Predator has really become a mainstay for U.S., the CIA in particular, up on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. And the U.S. military routinely uses it in Iraq, not only to collect battlefield – real time battlefield – intelligence, but also to shoot targets when they think it’s necessary.

And, finally, last year, the administration began using aerial vehicles over Iran to collect information on Iran’s nuclear program and its air defenses.

SEIGENTHALER: So, Dana, what kind of authority does the CIA need to launch a strike?

PRIEST: Well, it has the authority that it needs. Shortly after 9/11, the president signed a secret presidential finding that gave the CIA authority to write new guidelines for when they would use armed Predators to kill suspected terrorists. That was approved by the White House and the Justice Department.

The CIA maintains a list of so-called ‘high value targets’ that it’s particularly interested in. And it – the new guidelines gives the CIA the ability to push the decision on when to pull the trigger, if you will, down to the lower level, sometimes the field level.

The CIA director does not have to sign off, nor does the president. And this is all meant to give the CIA more flexibility against al Qaeda.

SEIGENTHALER: Dana Priest. As always, thanks very much.