Assassination
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Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a person—especially if prominent or important.[1][2] It may be prompted by grievances, notoriety, financial, military, political or other motives. Many times governments, corporations, organized crime or their agents order assassinations. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times. A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin or hitman.
Etymology
Assassin comes from the Italian and French Assissini, believed to derive from the word
Founded by
Although it is commonly believed that Order of Assassins were under the influence of hashish during their killings or during their indoctrination, there is debate as to whether these claims have merit, with many Eastern writers and an increasing number of Western academics coming to believe that drug-taking was not the key feature behind the name.[8]
The term "assassinare" (assassin) was used in Medieval Latin from the mid 13th century.[5]
The earliest known use of the verb "to assassinate" in printed English was by Matthew Sutcliffe in A Briefe Replie to a Certaine Odious and Slanderous Libel, Lately Published by a Seditious Jesuite, a pamphlet printed in 1600, five years before it was used in Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1605).[9][10]
Use in history
Ancient to medieval times
Assassination is one of the oldest tools of power politics. It dates back at least as far as recorded history.
The Egyptian pharaoh Teti, of the Old Kingdom Sixth Dynasty (23rd century BCE), is thought to be the earliest known victim of assassination, though written records are scant and thus evidence is circumstantial. Two further ancient Egyptian monarchs are more explicitly recorded to have been assassinated; Amenemhat I of the Middle Kingdom Twelfth Dynasty (20th century BCE) is recorded to have been assassinated in his bed by his palace guards for reasons unknown (as related in the Instructions of Amenemhat); meanwhile contemporary judicial records relate the assassination of New Kingdom Twentieth Dynasty monarch Ramesses III in 1155 BCE as part of a failed coup attempt. Between 550 BC and 330 BC, seven Persian kings of Achaemenid Dynasty were murdered. The Art of War, a 5th-century BC Chinese military treatise mentions tactics of Assassination and its merits.[11]
In the
Chanakya (c. 350–283 BC) wrote about assassinations in detail in his political treatise Arthashastra. His student Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire, later made use of assassinations against some of his enemies.[16]
Some famous assassination victims are
In the Middle Ages, regicide was rare in Western Europe, but it was a recurring theme in the Eastern Roman Empire. Strangling in the bathtub was the most commonly used method. With the Renaissance, tyrannicide—or assassination for personal or political reasons—became more common again in Western Europe.[20]
Modern history
During the 16th and 17th centuries, international lawyers began to voice condemnation of assassinations of leaders. Balthazar Ayala has been described as "the first prominent jurist to condemn the use of assassination in foreign policy".[21] Alberico Gentili condemned assassinations in a 1598 publication where he appealed to the self-interest of leaders: (i) assassinations had adverse short-term consequences by arousing the ire of the assassinated leader's successor, and (ii) assassinations had the adverse long-term consequences of causing disorder and chaos.[21] Hugo Grotius's works on the law of war strictly forbade assassinations, arguing that killing was only permissible on the battlefield.[21] In the modern world, the killing of important people began to become more than a tool in power struggles between rulers themselves and was also used for political symbolism, such as in the propaganda of the deed.[22]
In Japan, a group of assassins called the Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu killed a number of people, including Ii Naosuke who was the head of administration for the Tokugawa shogunate, during the Boshin War.[23] Most of the assassinations in Japan were committed with bladed weaponry, a trait that was carried on into modern history. A video-record exists of the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, using a sword.[24]
In 1895, a group of Japanese assassins killed the Korean queen (and posthumously empress) Myeongseong.[25]
In the United States, within 100 years, four presidents—
In Austria, the
During the 1930s and 1940s,
The African-American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel (now the National Civil Rights Museum) in Memphis, Tennessee. Three years prior, another African-American civil rights activist, Malcolm X, was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965.[31]
Cold War and beyond
Most major powers repudiated Cold War assassination tactics, but many allege that was merely a smokescreen for political benefit and that covert and illegal training of assassins continues today, with Russia, Israel, the U.S.,
In India,
In 1994, the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira during the Rwandan Civil War sparked the Rwandan genocide.[37][38]
In Israel, Prime Minister
United States government killing of citizens
In 2010,
Further motivations
As a military and foreign policy doctrine
Assassination for military purposes has long been espoused:
For similar and additional reasons, assassination has also sometimes been used in the conduct of foreign policy. The costs and benefits of such actions are difficult to compute. It may not be clear whether the assassinated leader gets replaced with a more or less competent successor, whether the assassination provokes ire in the state in question, whether the assassination leads to souring domestic public opinion, and whether the assassination provokes condemnation from third-parties.[43][21] One study found that perceptual biases held by leaders often negatively affect decision making in that area, and decisions to go forward with assassinations often reflect the vague hope that any successor might be better.[43]
In both military and foreign policy assassinations, there is the risk that the target could be replaced by an even more competent leader, or that such a killing (or a failed attempt) will prompt the masses to contemn the killers and support the leader's cause more strongly. Faced with particularly brilliant leaders, that possibility has in various instances been risked, such as in the attempts to kill the Athenian Alcibiades during the Peloponnesian War. A number of additional examples from World War II show how assassination was used as a tool:
- The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague on May 27, 1942, by the British and Czechoslovak government-in-exile. That case illustrates the difficulty of comparing the benefits of a foreign policy goal (strengthening the legitimacy and influence of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London) against the possible costs resulting from an assassination (the Lidice massacre).[43]
- The American interception of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plane during World War II after his travel route had been decrypted.
- Operation Gaff was a planned British commando raid to capture or kill the German field marshal Erwin Rommel, also known as "The Desert Fox".[44]
Use of assassination has continued in more recent conflicts:
- During the Vietnam War, the US engaged in the Phoenix Program to assassinate Viet Cong leaders and sympathizers. It killed between 6,000 and 41,000 people, with official "targets" of 1,800 per month.[45][46][47]
- With the January 3, 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike, the US
As a tool of insurgents
Insurgent groups have often employed assassination as a tool to further their causes. Assassinations provide several functions for such groups: the removal of specific enemies and as propaganda tools to focus the attention of media and politics on their cause.
The
The tactic was used again by the
The Red Brigades in Italy carried out assassinations of political figures and, to a lesser extent, so did the Red Army Faction in Germany in the 1970s and the 1980s.
In the Vietnam War, communist insurgents routinely assassinated government officials and individual civilians deemed to offend or rival the revolutionary movement. Such attacks, along with widespread military activity by insurgent bands, almost brought the Ngo Dinh Diem regime to collapse before the US intervened.[50]
Psychology
A major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that most prospective assassins spend copious amounts of time planning and preparing for their attempts. Assassinations are thus rarely "impulsive" actions.[51]
However, about 25% of the actual attackers were found to be delusional, a figure that rose to 60% with "near-lethal approachers" (people apprehended before reaching their targets). That shows that while mental instability plays a role in many modern assassinations, the more delusional attackers are less likely to succeed in their attempts. The report also found that around two-thirds of attackers had previously been arrested, not necessarily for related offenses; 44% had a history of serious depression, and 39% had a history of substance abuse.[51]
Techniques
Modern methods
With the advent of effective
Explosives, especially the
A sniper with a precision rifle is often used in fictional assassinations; however, certain pragmatic difficulties attend long-range shooting, including finding a hidden shooting position with a clear line of sight, detailed advance knowledge of the intended victim's travel plans, the ability to identify the target at long range, and the ability to score a first-round lethal hit at long range, which is usually measured in hundreds of meters. A dedicated sniper rifle is also expensive, often costing thousands of dollars because of the high level of precision machining and handfinishing required to achieve extreme accuracy.[53]
Despite their comparative disadvantages, handguns are more easily concealable and so are much more commonly used than rifles. Of the 74 principal incidents evaluated in a major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century, 51% were undertaken by a handgun, 30% with a rifle or shotgun, 15% used knives, and 8% explosives (the use of multiple weapons/methods was reported in 16% of all cases).[51]
In the case of state-sponsored assassination, poisoning can be more easily denied.
Targeted killing
Targeted killing is the intentional killing by a government or its agents of a civilian or "unlawful combatant" who is not in the government's custody. The target is a person asserted to be taking part in an armed conflict or terrorism, by bearing arms or otherwise, who has thereby lost the immunity from being targeted that he would otherwise have under the Third Geneva Convention.[57] It is a different term and concept from that of "targeted violence", as used by specialists who study violence.
On the other hand,
When people call a targeted killing an "assassination", they are attempting to preclude debate on the merits of the action. Assassination is widely defined as murder, and is for that reason prohibited in the United States ... U.S. officials may not kill people merely because their policies are seen as detrimental to our interests... But killings in self-defense are no more "assassinations" in international affairs than they are murders when undertaken by our police forces against domestic killers. Targeted killings in self-defense have been authoritatively determined by the federal government to fall outside the assassination prohibition.[60]
Author and former U.S. Army Captain Matthew J. Morgan argued that "there is a major difference between assassination and targeted killing... targeted killing [is] not synonymous with assassination. Assassination... constitutes an illegal killing."
On the other hand, the
Yael Stein, the research director of B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, also stated in her article "By Any Name Illegal and Immoral: Response to 'Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing'":[67]
The argument that this policy affords the public a sense of revenge and retribution could serve to justify acts both illegal and immoral. Clearly, lawbreakers ought to be punished. Yet, no matter how horrific their deeds, as the targeting of Israeli civilians indeed is, they should be punished according to the law. David's arguments could, in principle, justify the abolition of formal legal systems altogether.
Targeted killing has become a frequent tactic of the United States and Israel in their fight against terrorism.
United Nations investigator Ben Emmerson said that US drone strikes may have violated international humanitarian law.[73][74] The Intercept reported, "Between January 2012 and February 2013, U.S. special operations airstrikes [in northeastern Afghanistan] killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets."[75]
Countermeasures
Early forms
One of the earliest forms of defense against assassins was employing
Notable examples of bodyguards include the Roman
The bodyguard function was often executed by the leader's most loyal warriors, and it was extremely effective throughout most of early human history, which led assassins to attempt stealthy means, such as poison, whose risk was reduced by having another person taste the leader's food first.
Modern strategies
With the advent of gunpowder, ranged assassination via bombs or firearms became possible. One of the first reactions was simply to increase the guard, creating what at times might seem a small army trailing every leader. Another was to begin clearing large areas whenever a leader was present to the point that entire sections of a city might be shut down.
As the 20th century dawned, the prevalence and capability of assassins grew quickly, as did measures to protect against them. For the first time,
Access to famous people also became more and more restricted;[78] potential visitors would be forced through numerous different checks before being granted access to the official in question, and as communication became better and information technology more prevalent, it has become all but impossible for a would-be killer to get close enough to the personage at work or in private life to effect an attempt on their life, especially with the common use of metal and bomb detectors.
Most modern assassinations have been committed either during a public performance or during transport, both because of weaker security and security lapses, such as with U.S. President John F. Kennedy and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, or as part of a coup d'état in which security is either overwhelmed or completely removed, such as with Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
The methods used for protection by famous people have sometimes evoked negative reactions by the public, with some resenting the separation from their officials or major figures. One example might be traveling in a car protected by a bubble of clear bulletproof glass, such as the MRAP-like Popemobile of Pope John Paul II, built following an attempt at his life. Politicians often resent the need for separation and sometimes send their bodyguards away from them for personal or publicity reasons. US President William McKinley did so at the public reception in which he was assassinated.[78]
Other potential targets go into seclusion and are rarely heard from or seen in public, such as writer
See also
- Assassinations in fiction
- Contract killing
- History of assassination
- Hitman
- List of assassinated and executed heads of state and government
- List of assassinations
- List of assassinations by firearm
- List of people who survived assassination attempts
- List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots
- Special Activities Center of the Central Intelligence Agency
Notes and references
- ^ "Definition of ASSASSINATION". www.merriam-webster.com. June 24, 2023. Retrieved June 26, 2023.
- ^ Black's Law Dictionary "the act of deliberately killing someone especially a public figure, usually for money or for political reasons" (Legal Research, Analysis and Writing by William H. Putman p. 215 and Assassination Policy Under International Law Archived December 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Harvard International Review, May 6, 2006, by Kristen Eichensehr).
- S2CID 97163876.
- ^ American Speech – McCarthy, Kevin M. Volume 48, pp. 77–83
- ^ a b "assassinate". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
- ^ The Assassins: a radical sect in Islam – Bernard Lewis, pp. 11–12
- ISBN 978-1-84403-416-1
- ISBN 978-0-312-42494-7.
- ^ A briefe replie to a certaine odious and slanderous libel, lately published by a seditious Iesuite. Imprinted at London: By Arn. Hatfield, 1600 (STC 23453) p. 103
- ^ "assassinate, v." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. August 11, 2016.
- ISBN 978-1-78914-352-2.
- ^ 2 Kings 12:19-21
- ^ 2 Samuel 3:26–28 RSV
- ^ 2 Chronicles 32:21
- ^ Judges 4 and 5
- (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
- ^ Johnson, Francis (March 3, 2008). Famous assassinations of history ... Retrieved October 27, 2010.
- ISBN 978-1439851753
- ^ Ross, Jeffrey Ian, Religion and Violence: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict from Antiquity to the Present, Routledge (January 15, 2011), Chapter: Sicarii. 978-0765620484
- ^ Veronesi, Gene. "Chapter 1: The Italian Renaissance and Western Civilization". Italian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland.
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- ^ Nagai, Yasuji (November 21, 2021). "Diplomat's 1895 letter confesses to assassination of Korean queen". The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
- ^ "Appendix 7". National Archives. August 15, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
- ^ Burian, Michal; Aleš (2002). "Assassination – Operation Arthropoid, 1941–1942" (PDF). Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
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- ^ Michael Ellman. The Role of Leadership Perceptions and of Intent in the Soviet Famine of 1931–1934 Archived February 27, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Europe-Asia Studies, 2005. p. 826
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- ^ "English front cover – No Safe Haven" (PDF). p. 100. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 2, 2010. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
- ^ "Mykonos front cover" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 2, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
- ^ "Condemned by Law – Report 11-10-08.doc" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 7, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
- ^ "India: Extremism & Terrorism". Counter Extremism Project. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-137-55500-7, retrieved August 14, 2023
- S2CID 235502691, retrieved August 14, 2023
- ^ "The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ "Milestones: 1993–2000 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
- ^ Greenwald, Glenn (February 5, 2013). "Chilling legal memo from Obama DOJ justifies assassination of US citizens". The Guardian. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
- ^ Machiavelli, Niccolò (1985), The Prince, University of Chicago Press. Translated by Harvey Mansfield
- ^ .
- ^ Commando Extraordinary – Foley, Charles; Legion for the Survival of Freedom, 1992, page 155
- ^ Barnett, James. "When Culture Eats Strategy: Examining the Phoenix/Phung Hoang Bureaucracy in the Vietnam War, 1967-1972" (PDF). Strauss Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-8050-8041-4.
- ^ Hersh, Seymour (December 15, 2003). "Moving Targets". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
- ^ Abdul-Ahat, Ghait (January 4, 2020). "Qassem Suleimani: 'Death to America' chants at Baghdad funeral procession". The Guardian.
- ^ Harel, Amos (January 4, 2020). "Iran Says It Has Decided How to React to U.S. Strike That Killed Soleimani". Haaretz.
- ^ Pike, Douglas (1970). Viet Cong (new edition). The MIT Press.
- ^ a b c d Assassination in the United States: An Operational Study Archived June 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine – Fein, Robert A. & Vossekuil, Brian, Journal of Forensic Sciences, Volume 44, Number 2, March 1999
- ^ Hamas leader killed in Israeli airstrike – CNN, Saturday April 17, 2004
- ^ Iraqi insurgents using Austrian rifles from Iran – The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday February 13, 2007
- ^ The case of the poisoned umbrella. BBC World Service, 2007.
- ISBN 978-0-465-00312-9p. 362
- ^ "Putin 'Deplores' Spy Death" – Sky News Friday November 24, 2006 [dead link]
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-87088-7. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
- ISBN 978-1-139-48711-5. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
- ^ Targeted killing is a necessary option, Sofaer, Abraham D., Hoover Institution, March 26, 2004
- ^ Abraham D. Sofaer (March 26, 2004). "Responses to Terrorism / Targeted killing is a necessary option". The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the originalon August 29, 2011. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-230-60838-2. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
- Guiora, Amos (2004). "Targeted Killing as Active Self-Defense". 36 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 31920. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
- ^ Banks, William C.; Raven-Hansen, Peter (March 2003). "Targeted Killing and Assassination: The U.S. Legal Framework". U. Rich. L. Rev. 37 (3): 667–739. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-7165-2868-5. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
- ^ Steven R. David (September 2002). "Fatal Choices: Israel's Policy Of Targeted Killing" (PDF). The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 16, 2010. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions About Targeting Killing | American Civil Liberties Union". Aclu.org. August 30, 2010. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
- ^ Stein, Yael (2003). "By Any Name Illegal and Immoral: Response to "Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing"". Carnegie Council. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
- ^ "Q&A: Targeted Killings", Eben Kaplan, The New York Times, January 25, 2006. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
- ^ Dana Priest (November 8, 2002). "U.S. Citizen Among Those Killed In Yemen Predator Missile Strike". The Tech (MIT); The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
- ^ Mohammed Daraghmeh (February 20, 2001). "Hamas Leader Dies in Apparent Israeli Targeted Killing". Times Daily. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
- ^ Greg Miller (January 31, 2010). "U.S. citizen in CIA's cross hairs". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 7, 2010. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
- ^ Greg Miller (April 7, 2010). "Muslim cleric Aulaqi is 1st U.S. citizen on list of those CIA is allowed to kill". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
- ^ Drone strikes by US may violate international law, says UN . The Guardian. October 18, 2013.
- ^ UN report calls for independent investigations of drone attacks. The Guardian. October 18, 2013.
- ^ "The Assassination Complex". The Intercept. October 15, 2015.
- ^ Lincoln – Appendix 7, Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964
- ^ How to choose the appropriate bulletproof cars Archived January 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (from Alpha-armouring.com website, includes examples of protection levels available)
- ^ a b The Need For Protection Further Demonstrated – Appendix 7, Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964
- ^ Donaldson-Evans, Catherine (December 20, 2001). "It's Bin Laden ... or Is It?". Fox News. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2006.
- ^ Pelley, Scott (August 15, 2000). "Mind of the Assassin". CBS 60 Minutes II. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
Further reading
- Ayton, Mel. Plotting to Kill the President: Assassination Attempts from Washington to Hoover (Potomac Books, 2017), United States
- Clarke, James W. (2006). Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic Terrorists.
- Clarke, James W. (January 28, 2011). America's History of Crazy Political Assassins Didn't Begin with Loughner. History News Network.
- Porter, Lindsay (2010). Assassination: a History of Political Murder. Thames and Hudson. Review The Daily Telegraph, April 3, 2010.
- "Section B. Killing, injuring or capturing an adversary by resort to perfidy". Customary IHL: Practice Relating to Rule 65. Perfidy. ICRC.
- "Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 (23.b.)". Yale University.
External links
- Notorious Assassinations – slideshow by Life magazine
- George W. Bush administration.
- Kretzmer, David. "Targeted Killing of Suspected Terrorists: Extra-Judicial Executions or Legitimate Means of Defence?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 7, 2008. (PDF)
- Is the CIA Assassination Order of a US Citizen Legal? – video by Democracy Now!