REFERENCES
- Saul K. Padover provides an interesting and exhaustive chronicling of historical assassinations in “Patterns of Assassination in Occupied Territory ,” Public Opinion Quarterly , Vol. 7 , No. 4 , Winter 1943 , pp. 680 – 693 . [CSA]
- William J. Crotty , Assassinations and the Political Order ( New York : Harper and Row , 1971 ), p. 8 . Crotty says that there are five categories of assassination: anomic (murder for private reasons (the attempt on President Reagan)); elite substitution (Serbia during the nineteenth century); tyrannicide (Czar Alexander II); terroristic assassination (Viet Cong); and propaganda by deed (Sirhan Sirhan) .
- Ibid ., p. 61 . [CSA]
- Stephen Toumlin , Cosmospolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity ( New York : The Free Press , 1990 ), referenced in Ward Thomas , Ethics of Destruction, Norms and Force in International Relations ( Ithaca , NY : Cornell University Press , 2001 ) p. 61 .
- Franklin L. Ford , Political Murder: From Tyrannicide To Terrorism ( Cambridge , MA : Harvard University Press , 1985 ), see chapter 3.
- Ward Thomas , Ethics of Destruction , p. 63 . [CSA]
- Ibid ., p. 65 . [CSA]
- Hugo Grotius , De Jure Belli ac Pacis Libri Tres (1646) , reprinted in The Classics of International Law , translated by Francis W. Kelsey ( Oxford : Clarendon , 1925 ), Vol. 2 , Book 1, Chapter 4, Section 4.
- Ibid ., p. 67 . [CSA]
- Ali A. Mazurie is one of the few scholars who consider the role of assassination in developing polities . See “ Thoughts on Assassination in Africa ,” Political Science Quarterly , Vol. 83 , No. 1 , March , 1968 , pp. 40 – 58 . [CSA]
- Ronald Reagan signed a slightly amended Executive Order (12333) on 4 December 1981: “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” [CSA]
- Jeffrey Claburn , “Public Constraints on Assassination as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy,” International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence , Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 1994, pp. 99–106. [CSA]
- Sir Eldon Griffiths “ We Will Pay Price for Yassin Assassination ,” editorial in Orange County Register , 28 March 2001 , p. C5 .
- William J. Crotty , Assassinations and the Political Order , p. 6 .
- Tim Weiner , “ Rethinking the Ban on Political Assassination ,” The New York Times , 30 August 1998 , Section 4 , p. 3 .
- Ann Marie Pisano , “ Assassination Justification Is Not in U.S.'s Best Interest ,” The Ram , Vol. 84 , No. 7 , 27 March 2003 , available online at http://150.108.13.114/Ram/85_7/opinions_7_assassination.htm . [CSA]
- Sir Eldon Griffiths , “ We Will Pay Price for Yassin Assassination ;” Daniel Schorr , “ Hipocrisy About Assassination ,” The Washington Post , 3 February 1991 , p. C7 ; Ward Thomas , Ethics of Destruction: Norms and Force in International Relations .
- Jacson Vest , “ Kill This Idea ,” The American Prospect , Vol. 12 , No. 8 , p. 36 . [CSA]
- Chalmers Johnson , “ Assassins R Us ,” Common Dreams News Center , 17 November 2003 .
- Tyler J. Harder writes: “…an assassination consists of three elements: (1) a murder, (2) of a specifically targeted figure, (3) for a political purpose. Absent any of these elements, a killing is not an assassination .” Tyler J. Harder , “ Time to Repeal the Assassination Ban of Executive Order 12333 ,” Military Law Review , Vol. 172 , June 2002 , p. 19 .
- Harder argues that we must consider targeted killing in light of the doctrine of self-defense. States may defend themselves from threats. Harder suggests that there are at least three different kinds of self-defense. The first is reactive: a response to hostile acts by another party. America's response to Pearl Harbor is a case in point. Second, at times a preemptive self-defense is appropriate. Israel's preemptive attacks on neighboring armies massing on its borders in 1967 exemplifies a legitimate, proactive form of self-defense. Finally, at times a state must defend itself against a continuing threat. Harder points to the U.S. aerial attacks on Libya in the 1980s as an example of self-defense against a continuing threat. Gaddafi's overt support for terrorists made his regime a continuing threat against the U.S. Ibid., pp. 20 – 21 . [CSA]
- Michael Walzer , “ Difficult to Draw a Bead on Issue of Targeted Killing ,” op-ed in The Los Angeles Times , 8 September 2003 ; p. A27 .
- Daniel Schorr , “ Hypocrisy About Assassination .”
- Robert F. Turner , “ Killing Saddam: Would It Be a Crime? ”, The Washington Post , 7 October 1990 , p. D1 .
- Jeffrey Claburn , “ Public Constraints on Assassination as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy ,” p. 97 – 106 .
- Ralph Peters , “ A Revolution in Military Ethics? ”, Parameters , Summer 1996 , pp. 104 – 105 . [CSA]
- International legal scholars tend to agree that states declare war only on other states, not on nonstate actors or individuals. One scholar calls al-Qaeda “a virtual state,” thus justifying the U.S. “declaration” of war . See Jeffrey Addicott , “ The Yemen Attack: Illegal or Lawful Killing? ” in The Jurist , 7 November 2002 , available at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forum/forumnew68.php , accessed 18 January 2005 .
- Available at CNN.com , “‘Decapitation Strike’ was aimed at Saddam,” 20 March 2003 .
- The horrors of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime are well-documented. A terse introduction can be found in “Life Under Saddam Hussein: Past Atrocities by Saddam Hussein's Regime,” White House Press Secretary , Washington D.C. , 14 April 2003 Available: www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/19675.htm .
- The concept of killing a dictator or tryant is defined as tyrannicide. Typically carried out by domestic citizens, tyrannicide is based on the premise that a leader abdicates his right to rule when he violates the most fundamental rights of his citizens, therefore rendering it morally justifiable to remove him from power by whatever means possible. For detailed accounts of the history and justification of tyrannicide see: Franklin Ford , Political Murder: From Tryannicide To Terrorism and William J. Crotty , Assassinations and the Political Order .
- Quoted in Ward Thomas , Ethics of Destruction , p. 47 .
- For heated expressions on both sides of the debate , see Steven R. David and Yael Stein , “ Israel's Policy of Targeted Killings ,” Ethics and International Affairs , Vol. 17 , No. 2 Fall 2003 . [CSA]
- A cogent expression of this argument is by Mikael F. Nabati , “ Anticipatory Self-Defense: The Terrorism Exception ,” Current History , May 2003 , pp. 222 – 231 .