Selective assassination

Selective Assassination is a policy of selecting targets, using arms, training personnel and cover-up strategies designed to justify assassination as the means to meet a political agenda.

Assassination has long been a weapon in asymmetric warfare and has been favored by many terrorist organizations, but the term "selective assassination" is generally used to describe government-sanctioned killings. Several totalitarian regimes have carried out selective assassinations, through state-run death squads, although such entities are illegal. Even so many governments have sanctioned it at times. The United States, for example, has a stated position that it does not engage in selective assassinations since it was revealed that it had unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, but it is widely assumed that the CIA carries out these type of operations taking advantage of the blurred definition of its secret activities. France was also widely thought to have used assassination in its post-colonial phase. Unofficial elements of UK forces were alleged to have colluded with Protestant extremists in Northern Ireland to eliminate members of the IRA, though no convincing link to government was proved. Israel famously carried out selective assassinations to avenge the massacre of its athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics by the organization Black September. Today, the Israeli government openly announces and carries out a policy of selective assassinations against Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists.

United States Legal and Policy Issues. The United States banned assassination with multiple Executive Orders, the latest being E.O. 12333. [Elizabeth B. Bazan, [ http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RS21037.pdf "Assassination Ban and E.O. 12333: A Brief Summary,"] Congressional Research Service, January 4, 2002] Military, law enforcement, intelligence and policy makers have discussed the targeted killings using various terms, including manhunting. Manhunting is the deliberate identification, capture or killing of senior or otherwise important enemy combatants, dubbed high-value targets, usually by special operations forces and intelligence organizations. According to a recent study, [Seth G. Jones, Martin C. Libicki, [http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG741/ "How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida"] , RAND, Jul 2008] since 1968, 40% of terrorist groups have met their end because local police and intelligence agencies arrested or killed key members. Manhunting is a challenging legal issue. Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Israel and the United States have labeled manhunting as "targeted killings" against "enemy combatants," thus constituting legitimate targets for military action. [Kristen Eichensehr, [http://www.harvardir.org/articles/1149/1/ "On the Offensive - Assassination Policy Under International Law,"] "Harvard International Review," From Leadership, Vol. 25 (3) - Fall 2003]

Israeli Targeted Killing. On December 14 2006 the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that targeted killing is a legitimate form of self-defense against terrorists, and outlined several conditions for its use. [ [http://elyon1.court.gov.il/Files_ENG/02/690/007/a34/02007690.a34.htm Summary of Israeli Supreme Court Ruling on Targeted Killings] Dec 14 2006] This decision, arrived at after four years of deliberation, may establish precedent for international law. Elyezer Shkedy, the recently retired Israeli Air Force commander, claims IAF operations only comprised 5% of targeted killings in 2003-4, while in 2007-8, IAF strikes comprised 50-70% of targeted killing operations. “Bystander fatalities” decreased from 50 of 100 Palestinians killed (1:1 ratio), to 1 in 25 (24:1 ratio). In the final months of 2007, 98 terrorists were killed with a single bystander fatality (98:1 ratio). While the IAF does not provide detailed data of these operations, [http://www.btselem.org/English/index.asp B’Tselem] (the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) communications director Sarit Michaeli acknowledges improvements in IAF accuracy. [Barbara Opall-Rome, “Israel: Airstrike Accuracy Doubled in 2 Years,” Defense News, Vol 23, No 21, May 26, 2008, www.defensenews.com]

ources

* US Government, "Selective Assassination as an Instrument of Foreign Policy", ISBN 1-58160-296-0
* George A. Crawford, "", ISBN 1-60441-332-8
* Nils Melzer, "Targeted Killing in International Law", Oxford University Press 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-953316-9

ee also

*Tyrannicide
*Death Squad
*State Terrorism
*Secret Police
*Operation Mongoose
*Manhunt (military)
*Manhunt (law enforcement)
*List of military strikes against presumed terrorist targets

External links

* [http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.15451/article_detail.asp Reviving the Assassination Option] , David Silverstein
* [http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ciidh/qr/english/chap11.html Selective Versus Mass Killing]
* [http://www.palestinecampaign.org/archives.asp?xid=146 Israel reafirms selective assassination option policy] , July 5, 2001
* [http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-negroponte2,0,2194980.story Torturers' confessions: Now in exile, these CIA-trained Hondurans describe their lives -- and the deaths of their victims] from Baltimore Sun, June 13, 1995

References