REMOVING THE KID GLOVES: REPEALING THE US PROHIBITION ON

ASSASSINATION

AMERICAN MILITARY UNIVERSITY

INTL 414 – Intelligence and Assassination

Professor Marc Neerman

Jim Garrett

25 November 2014

Jim Garrett

I. Introduction

The US Government’s prohibition on assassination as a tool of US statecraft is

detrimental to our national security. This paper argues that the US Government should repeal the

ban on assassination. The argument lies in the following principles. The United States already

employs an assassination program under the guise of politically correct language. Assassination

causes fewer casualties than open war and is therefore Just War compliant. Other nations

recognize assassination as a necessary weapon to protect their national security. It is significant

that readers understand an open assassination policy would benefit the United States by

increasing our credibility, pre-empting attacks on US assets or retaliating proportionally rather

than entering into local, regional, or international conflicts. Also readers must understand that

assassination is an acceptable practice for national security assurance by nations around the

globe, not a vilified act that is conducted solely by the United States.

Executive Order 1233 Section 2.11 states: “no persons employed or acting on behalf of

the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination” and

Section 2.12 states “No agency of the Intelligence Community shall participate in or request any

person to undertake activities forbidden by this Order” (Bazan 2002, 1). The US Government’s

attempt to use such a program while it maintains a prohibition on assassination undermines our

international credibility. The fact that the United States employs assassination under a politically

correct cover shows that our government recognizes the necessity of killing certain persons to

enhance national security.

There is no single recognized definition of either targeted killing or assassination.

Definitions of targeted killing presented by Philip Alston, Thomas Hunter, and Gary Solis all

agree that targeted killings are “intentional killings” of specific individuals ordered by

Jim Garrett

government authorities (Neerman 2014). All assassinations are “political and the target is of

some significance” (Neerman, WeeK 1: History & Definitions of Assassination 2014).

However, as Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand

it yourself” (Good Reads n.d.). Spies, a children’s introduction to the world of intelligence and

espionage, defines assassination missions as having the goal to “remove a person considered to

be a threat to national security” (Gifford 2004, 16).1 The US targeted killing program

intentionally targets significant terrorists; threats to our national security. The attempt to fool the

world into believing that we do not conduct assassination by using a different phrase undermines

our credibility.

II. America’s Assassination Program

The United States recognizes that killing a person that “is a clear and present danger to

the cause of freedom may be necessary” (CIA n.d., 6). The US Government attempts to bypass

the ban on assassination by terming its assassination program ‘targeted killing’. Every president

since the signatory President Gerald Ford bypassed the prohibition. President Reagan ordered an

airstrike on Colonel Qaddafi’s compound in Libya in 1986 and George H.W. Bush ordered the

bombing of the Iraqi Presidential Palace in 1991 (Schorr 2001). In January 2000 when the

National Security Council directed “the CIA to find a means to locate, identify, and document”

Osama Bin Laden for the ultimate goal of supporting a military strike of which cruise missile

strikes were acceptable. (Crumpton 2012, 148, 155).

1 Spies is produced by the Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt textbook publisher, and is part of the Kingfisher Knowledge Series for 4th-8th grade classes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt n.d.).

Jim Garrett

“The House and Senate passed joint resolutions S.J.Res. 23 and H.J.Res. 64, authorizing

the President to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or

persons, in order to prevent any future international terrorism against the United States by such

nations, organizations or persons” two days after the 11 September 2001 attacks (Bazan 2002, 6).

The GREYSTONE (GST) program rooted in the powers given to the President by the joint

resolutions, allows CIA “operatives to engage in lethal activity against Al Qaeda members in just

about any part of the world” (Bobich 2007, 1133). The CIA drafted new legal parameters

“necessary to absolve the CIA from any liability based on the ban against assassinations” to

create the GST program (Bobich 2007, 1129).

III. Assassination and Just War Theory

Assassination supports the Just War Theory of proportionality by limiting the scope of

targeting to select individuals. Military and political leaders bear responsibility for completing

their missions in support of their tactical, operational, or strategic goals while preserving the

lives of those who serve in the armed forces. The Global War on Terrorism resulted in 59,120

US military casualties (killed and wounded) as of 25 November 2014 (Defense Casualty Analyis

System 2014). According to international humanitarian law leaders must ensure that in the

course of war greater evils than those that caused the war do not occur. (Catholic Answers n.d.).

The Global War on Terror sparked by the killing of 2,977 Americans on 11 September 2001

killed as many as 354,000 people as of April 2014 (Costs of War Organization 2014). The

targeted killing program since 9/11 has led to 1,147 killings as of 24 November 2014 (Ackerman

2014). The use of unmanned aerial systems to conduct the kinetic strikes prevented the loss of

American lives while removing threats to national security as well as civilians that might be

caught in the crossfire of a ground battle.

Jim Garrett

The lethal engagement of Al Qaeda leaders such as Osama Bin Laden, Chief of

Operations Mohammed Atef, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed might have derailed 9/11. The

9/11 Commission stated that to conduct 9/11 Al Qaeda required “leaders able to evaluate,

approve, and supervise the planning and direction of a major operation” (National Commission

on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States 2014). The death of Al Qaeda leaders is credited as

causing a “creative stagnation” in the organization and removed decades of combined senior

level institutional knowledge from the organization (Simcox 2012).

Deaths of senior Al Qaeda leaders since 2001 severely weakened the organization’s

image. Critics of the program argued that killing the Al Qaeda leaders make them martyrs,

which is true. However, Al Qaeda’s inability to avenge the deaths of their martyrs shows the

world Al Qaeda is weakening. Whereas once Bin Laden held together jihadists from across the

Muslim world the post-Bin Laden era has seen the ascendency of the Islamic State of Iraq and

Syria and the waning of Al Qaeda. The death of Anwar al-Awlaki temporarily disrupted

production of its major international outreach magazine Inspire. The replacement editors

admitted there was belief that the magazine would die with its creator, and that Awlaki was

significant for his ability to inspire English speakers to terrorism, including Major Nidal Hassan

(Ibrahim 2012, 4, 6, 54-58).

IV. Assassination is Utilized World Wide

The US Government should not fear revulsion from the international community if it

repeals the ban on assassination. National governments recognize that assassination of terrorists,

insurgency leaders, foreign political leaders, vocal opponents of their establishments, and even

traitors is necessary for national security.

Jim Garrett

The Russian Federation is famous for assassination. The Committee for State Security

(KGB) executed several assassination missions to silence anti-Soviet personalities during the

days of the Soviet Union. Expatriates living in Western nations such as Lev Rebet and Stephan

Bandera of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were targeted for their vocal resistance of

the Soviet Union (Trento 2001, 181). The Soviet Union even created two special installations

that produced technical weapons and poisons for assassinations, carried out as part of “liquid

affairs” or known in the United States as wet work (CIA 1964). The Russian Federation

currently utilizes assassination as part of counterterrorism operations in Chechnya. The Russian

security services assassinated Omar Ibn al-Khattab in April 2002 and utilizes search and destroy

units “as necessitated by Russia’s fight against terrorism” (Alston 2010, 4, 8).

Israel confirmed a in November 2000 that a policy exists justifying the lethal targeting in

self defense due to the Palestinian Authority’s unwillingness or incapability to prevent terrorist

attacks in Israel (Alston 2010, 6). Israel established four cumulative conditions that must be met

in order to lethally target an individual. The US should adopt two of those conditions as part of

the basis for a replacement assassination policy. First the security service targeting the

individual bears the responsibility with identifying the target and justifying the person is a threat

to national security. Second, “collateral harm to civilians must meet the international

humanitarian law requirement on proportionality” (Alston 2010, 7).

Assassination is not only the providence of the United States, Israel, and the former

Soviet Union but also is a tactic of African and South American leaders. Colonel Qaddafi

ordered all Libyan exiles to return home or face liquidation in April of 1980 (Plate and Darvi

1981, 273). The Libyan secret police murdered several expatriates around the world to prove the

threat was not idle (Ibid). Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina jointly ran Operation

Jim Garrett

Condor, a regional security program that included assassinations (Dinges n.d.).

V. Repealing the Assassination Ban

The government should repeal the assassination ban and institute an assassination policy

as part of statecraft. The US President may rescind an assassination ban by executive order

(Bazan 2002, 5). If the President is unwilling to change the order Congress can pass a bill by 2/3

majority to override the Executive Order (This Nation n.d.).

The government should incorporate assassination into its covert and clandestine

activities. Those eligible for covert assassinations include leaders or representatives of entities at

which the United States is not currently at war with but those whose continued existence presents

a grave risk to the national security of the United States, our allies, or persons convicted of

crimes against humanity.2 Those targeted as part of covert programs would require that the

Intelligence Community present an assassination request to the President to receive a Presidential

Finding and that the Congressional intelligence committees in the House and Senate are notified

to review the Finding, therefore ensuring that Congress can withhold public funds if they feel the

action is not in the best interests of their constituents (Daughtery 2004, 63-64). Those eligible

for overt assassination would be the planners, facilitators, and perpetrators of hostilities or

treacherous acts against the United States.3 Overt assassinations should follow the pattern of the

GST program wherein the executive office maintains a high-value target list which the CIA is

authorized to hunt down and kill without seeking further approval from the executive branch

(Bobich 2007, 1129).

2 Examples of such individuals would include bellicose politicians, terrorists of organizations such as Hezbollah we do not currently lethally engage, and guerrilla or political leaders that may commit atrocities against their own populace or that of another nation. 3 Examples include terrorists of organizations we currently prosecute such as Al Qaeda, and generals, ministers of defense, and executives of nations of which we engage in war, and traitors to the United States.

Jim Garrett

Base standards must be met for targeting an individual. First, the agency or service

recommending assassination must be able to directly link the individual’s actions to a national

security threat either by planning, logistics, financing, or direct participation of an act against the

United States. Second, assassination of foreign leaders only is approved at the executive level if

the US Government would be willing to go to war to remove the person from power or the nation

is already at war. 4

Third, the targeting of Americans is limited to those who are actively

engaged in activities that present grave danger to the national security of the United States,

where a capture mission is unlikely to succeed, unacceptable risk would be posed to law

enforcement or military personnel assigned to capture missions, or collateral damage would be

too extensive, and the target is either acting on behalf of foreign government or non-state actor,

or in acts of insurrection, or to prevent imminent domestic terrorism. Fourth, the assassination

must be carried out in a manner that reduces collateral damage to a minimum. Fifth, only covert

targets should be selected that if the US Government’s role is discovered the US would be

willing to go to war. Lastly, the covert assassination does not contradict other US laws or the

publicly stated foreign policy.5

VI. Conclusion

The US Government should repeal its assassination ban. The targeted killing program

undermines the US Government’s credibility. Surgical leadership removal of known threats

could prevent attacks and wars. Other nations recognize that assassination is necessary to remove

threats to national security. Assassination is a common practice to remove threats to national

security rather than risk the lives of security forces, military personnel, and civilian casualties.

4 A nation or organization discovering that the US was involved with killing its leaders may very well resort to war in retaliation. 5 While not an assassination attempt the US covert Iran-Contra affair was illegal and in violation of the Boland Amendment which defunded American support of the Contras (The Iran-Contra Report 1987).

Jim Garrett

REFERENCES Ackerman, Spencer. "41 men targeted but 1,147 people killed: US drone strikes – the facts on the

ground ." The Guardian. November 24, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-

us-drone-strikes-kill-1147 (accessed November 26, 2014).

Alston, Philip. Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions--

Addendum: Study on targeted killings.” United Nations General Assembly, Human Rights Council,

Fourteenth session, Agenda item 3, Promotion and protection of all human rig. Geneva: United Nations,

2010.

Bazan, Elizabeth B. Assassination Ban and E.O. 12333: A Brief Summary. CRS Report for Congress,

Washington D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 2002.

Bobich, Joshua A. "Note: Who Authroized This?!: An Assessment of the Process for Approving U.S.

Covert Action." April 10, 2007.

Catholic Answers. "Just War Doctrine." Catholic. http://www.catholic.com/documents/just-war-doctrine

(accessed November 26, 2014).

CIA. "CIA Study of Assassination." www.anusha.com. http://anusha.com/ciastudy.htm (accessed

October 15, 2014).

—. "Soviet Use of Assassination and Kidnapping." Cental Intelligence Agency. February 1964.

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-

csi/vol19no3/html/v19i3a01p_0001.htm (accessed October 22, 2014).

Costs of War Organization. "Human Costs of War: Direct War Death in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan

October 2001- April 2014." Costs of War. April 2014.

http://www.costsofwar.org/sites/default/files/Direct%20War%20Death%20Toll%20in%20Iraq,%20Afgh

anistan%20and%20Pakistan%20since%202001%20to%20April%202014%206%2026.pdf (accessed

November 27, 2014).

Crumpton, Henry. The Art of Intelligence. New York, NY: The Penguin Press, 2012.

Daughtery, William J. "Approval and Review of Covert Action Programs Since Reagan." International

Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence,, 2004: 62-80.

Defense Casualty Analyis System. "U.S. Military Casualties - GWOT Casualty Summary by Casualty Type."

Defense Manpower Data Center. November 25, 2014. https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/dwp/index.jsp

(accessed November 26, 2014).

Dinges, John. "Operation Condor." Latin American Studies.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/chile/operation-condor.htm (accessed November 26, 2014).

Gifford, Clive. Spies. Boston, MA: Kingfisher, 2004.

Jim Garrett

Good Reads. "Albert Einstein Quotes." Good Reads. http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/19421-if-you-

can-t-explain-it-to-a-six-year-old (accessed November 26, 2014).

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. "Kingfisher Knowledge Series." Houghton Mifflin Books.

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/kingfisher/kfk.shtml (accessed November 26, 2014).

Ibrahim, Yahya, al-Nadari, Harith. "My Story with al Al-Awlaki." Inspire, Winter 2012: 1-62.

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. "The 9/11 Commission Report." 9-11

Commission. August 21, 2014. http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Exec.htm (accessed

November 27, 2014).

Neerman, Marc. "WeeK 1: History & Definitions of Assassination." American Military University. October

1, 2014. https://edge.apus.edu/portal/site/273056/page/73858efb-9c41-4268-bf8d-e556b8f27c62

(accessed November 25, 2014).

—. "Week 6: Targeted Killings." American Military Univeristy. November 2014.

https://edge.apus.edu/portal/site/273056/page/73858efb-9c41-4268-bf8d-e556b8f27c62 (accessed

November 25, 2014).

Plate, Thomas, and Andrea Darvi. Secret Police: The Inside Story of a Network of Terror. Garden City, NY:

Doubleday & Company Inc., 1981.

Ross, Brian. "While America Slept: The True Story of 9/11." ABC News. September 11, 2011.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/ten-years-ago-today-countdown-911/story?id=14191671#all (accessed

November 26, 2014).

Schorr, Daniel. "Reviewing the Presidential Ban on Assassinations." NPR. September 17, 2001.

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/americatransformed/essays/010917.schorrcommentary.html

(accessed November 27, 2014).

Simcox, Robin. "Killing Al Qaeda leaders: It works." Los Angeles Tiems. May 24, 2012.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/24/opinion/la-oe-simcox-targeted-killings-work-20120524

(accessed November 27, 2014).

The Iran-Contra Report. November 18, 1987.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/PS157/assignment%20files%20public/congressional%20report%20key

%20sections.htm (accessed November 27, 2014).

This Nation. "What is an Executive Order." This Nation. http://www.thisnation.com/question/040.html

(accessed November 27, 2014).

Trento, Joseph. The Secret History of the CIA. New York: MJF, 2001.