JFK Conference: Dan Hardway Detailed how CIA Obstructed HSCA Investigation

[Octafish]

9. For those not clear on the concept: Assassination has no place in Democracy.

According to the testimony of CIA officials, the first U.S. resort to assassination of a foreign leader was initiated in 1960, when Richard Bissell, in the belief he had the explicit backing of Allen Dulles, and at least the implicit approval of President Eisenhower, undertook to bring about the murder of Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of the newly independent Congo.

…Bissell was frustrated by the refusal, on moral grounds, of one trusted agent to participate in the killing. Believing that “murder corrupts,” Michael Mulroney, a senior officer, said, no to Bissell. He argued that if Lumumba had to be eliminated, the Congolese government or military should do it, which appears to be what happened (after CIA urging). To the Senate committee, Mulroney explained that on reflection he concluded, “We have too much of the ‘good German’ in us, in that we do something because the boss says it is okay.” His colleagues were “not essentially evil people. But you can do an awful lot of wrong in this.”

-- Harris Wofford, former United States Senator (D-Pennsylvania), “Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties” (pp. 390-391)

PS: Assassination is an act of war. I don't recall declaring war on Congo or Cuba or anyplace else it's been done in our name.

PPS. No shame in hitting Box Cars, anytime.