Woodward: Secret Ops Cut Iraq Violence

WASHINGTON -- The drop in violence in Iraq was due in large part to a special program the U.S. military used to kill terrorists, and not merely the troop surge, says Washington Post journalist and author Bob Woodward.

But the program has to remain secret or it would "get people killed," Woodward said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

"It is a wonderful example of American ingenuity solving a problem in war, as we often have," Woodward said.

In "The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008," Woodward revealed the military-developed capabilities to locate, target and kill leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgents, CNN said.

Woodward would offer no specifics on the program, however, pointing out that he was told outright by the senior military leaders he could not report it.

"I would somewhat compare it to the Manhattan Project in World War II," he told King, according to a transcript published by The Associated Press. "It's a ski slope right down in a matter of months, cutting the violence in half. This isn't going to happen with the bunch of joint security stations or the surge."

Woodward said he "would love" to offer details, but that DoD and White Officials were clear: "They said -- it wasn't a matter of request. They said you can't write about this. This will get people killed," he told king. "This [program] accounts for a good portion -- there's a debate about what proportion -- but a good portion of our success."

National security adviser Stephen Hadley, in a written statement on Woodward's book, acknowledged the strategy but disputed Woodward's conclusion that the surge of 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq wasn't the primary reason for the decline in violence.

"It was the surge that provided more resources and a security context to support newly developed techniques and operations," Hadley said via e-mail.