Pre-emptive assassination - the new U.S. policy (June 29, 2003)
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Labeling the pre-emptive assassination strike a "troubling" blow to peace, Bush later bowed to pressure from pro-Israel lobbying groups and Congress members; White House opinion now firmly backs the Sharon government's crackdown on militant groups, covert lethal operations and all.
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No wonder.
Eager to follow Sharon's lead in pre-emptively bumping off enemies, the Bush administration is said to be working with Israeli government officials to establish the legal framework for creating America's own targeted-assassination policy. The Israeli justification (that ongoing conflict in the West Bank and Gaza Strip necessitates substituting warfare laws for self-defense) sits well with a US president hoping to fight a never-ending "war on terror."
Coincidence? The Israeli attorney-general's office calls "legal and legitimate" the systematic elimination of almost 100 Palestinian militants (not to mention innocent bystanders) since the intifada broke out in late 2000. The US State Department similarly defined its own hit job on an Al-Aqaeda operative in Yemen last November as "legal and necessary."
more...
http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/62573/1/FROM LEBANON WIRE (MAY 23, 2003)
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BEIRUT: The recent spasm of suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Israel and Chechnya, and the prospect of more to come, possibly even another spectacular equivalent to or worse than Sept. 11 is expected to
result in an intensification of US and Israeli pre-emptive strikes against extremist organizations.http://www.lebanonwire.com/0305/03052323DS.asp snip
Assassination and the license to kill
By Richard M Bennett
The world of counter-terrorism is certain to take a further step into the downward spiral of hit-teams and assassination as Western intelligence services try to find the means to defeat al-Qaeda and its myriad extremist offshoots. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Britain's MI6 (the secret service branch dealing with matters outside the British Islands),
freed of many of the political and legal shackles imposed in the latter years of the Cold War, are expanding their covert capability and the means to use "executive action", a euphemism for assassination, to defeat the greatest threat to democracy since the collapse of communism.
The main source of the experience and influence on operational tactics is perhaps one of the more surprising aspects of these developments.snip
Israel has played a significant and largely secret role within the dark world of Britain's covert operations against terrorist groups. As long ago as the early 1970s Rafael Eitan, the then head of the Israeli hit-squad known as the "Kidon" toured Northern Ireland and later the Special Air Services (SAS) base in Hereford, England. Rumor has it that Eitan was less than impressed with British training, tactics or their "kill" rate. Within months of his visit there began a number of fundamental changes in security policy and operations in the county.
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Britain's tough new approach owes much to IsraelUnder Prime Minister Tony Blair, Britain's official approach is far more cooperative and Mossad have apparently met with little opposition to their clandestine center operating in London with some 15 intelligence officers and two or three members of the Kidon. The Israelis are thought to have a hit list of around 50 Islamic and Palestinian terrorists believed to be currently living in Britain.
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According to Gordon Thomas, one of the world's leading experts on Israeli and British intelligence in particular, the highly effective Kidon is directly controlled by Mossad. It has some 38-40 highly trained assassins and includes at least four women.
They operate throughout the world and wherever a potential or actual threat exists to the interests of Israel or its people. David Kimche, a 30-year veteran of Mossad and its deputy until his resignation in 1980, was largely responsible for the formulation of
the Kidon philosophy that it must be "Israel first, last and always". snip
Dagan led a commando unit called 'Rimon' which was known, how shall I put it, for its unconventional methods." Dagan is known to be keen to promote the Israeli way of dealing with terrorism, and quickly paid an official visit to the CIA director George Tenet in September last year before his promotion had even been confirmed. According to usually reliable intelligence sources, it can be taken as highly significant that the CIA formally established an assassination team in November, less than two months later.
This may be seen as not only a positive US response to the sharing of Israeli experience and expertise, but also as a direct result of the recent lifting of the US presidential ban on "executive action" following the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001. more ... (pretty interesting article actually)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EF13Ak03.htmlLike I said this is not really new. They have just decided to unveil it a bit more... Get's those a bit squirmish with they idea use to it. Oh yes there are a million justifications for it.
IT'S LIQUIDATION SEASON FOLKS!!