Since when is it okay for a state (or an individual) to set out to kill a person based solely on accusations against him that have never been publicized and have never been tested against even the most basic norms of criminal procedure?
It is not okay. Extra-judicial killings, also known as assassinations, are always abhorrent. They shock the conscience of anyone who believes in the rule of law. When carried out by states they represent a quite unacceptable excess of state power.
Much worse than “judicial” executions, which are (imho quite rightly) strongly criticized throughout much of the world.
So how come so many political leaders, representatives of the western MSM, and other members of the western political elite seem to be completely unpeturbed– or even quietly supportive– when reports come out of US government operatives undertaking acts of extra-judicial killing?
Just because Israel has been carrying out such acts against alleged Palestinian opponents for many years now, does that make it somehow “okay”?
No.
Just because in the early days of the post-9/11 trauma, some mentally sick members of the Bush administration started handing out decks of playing cards with the “52 most wanted” on them, does that make setting out to kill those named individuals, or others later associated with them, somehow okay?
No.
It is time for us US citizens, whose government has carried out numerous acts of extra-judicial execution in recent years, to draw a firm line and say “No more!”
This week, we have had yet another shocking example of
- (a) our government– speaking through still unnamed “administration officials”– trying to “justify” the acts of lethal aggression it committed against Syria on Sunday by saying that they were aiming at (and indeed, also succeeded in) killing an alleged long-time operative of Al-Qaeda in Iraq called Abu Ghadiya; and
(b) this explanation being reported by many branches of the media– e.g. the NYT, “Wired” magazine, and Britain’s ITV— without those reporters also providing the essential background in national or international law, or in common morality, that would indicate that such acts of assassination constitute serious violations of the rule of law. And without seeking out and quoting the opinion of anyone who states anything to that effect… In other words, these acts of extra-judicial killing are treated by these reporters and the editors who stand behind them simply as “business as usual”, the kind of “normal” acts that a government carries out need that not be exposed to any particular questioning or criticism.
It is time for this to stop. Reporters, editors, and editorialists should probe such activities a lot more deeply. Editors should task reporters to go out and ask their US government sources whether they think that acts of extra-judicial killing are ever valid? And under what circumstances? What procedures are followed before a person is put onto a US government hit list? What safeguards are there to ensure against the use of malicious slander when such hit-lists are compiled? What safeguards are there to insure against cases of mistaken identity in either the placing of a name on a hit list, or the “execution” of the kill? Under what supposed “legal” authority are these assassinations carried out?
My understanding is that the “excuse” US military officials often make when they speak about their missions is that they say their orders are to “capture or kill” the named individuals. But including an explicit “kill” option in there would still require specific legal authority, no?
… As it happens, in the case of Sunday’s Sukkariyeh raid, no less august of a media outlet than the BBC has now thrown some doubt on the claim that it was all “about” targeting this shadowy AQI operative, Abu Ghadiya:
- US officials … are reportedly claiming that [Abu Ghadiyah’s] death in the raid will have a major impact on al-Qaeda’s capabilities.
But this runs at odds with statements made by the militant’s organisation, al-Qaeda in Iraq, which announced his death on jihadist web sites over two years ago.
According to an al-Qaeda obituary of the militant released in August 2006, Abu Ghadiya died on the Saudi-Iraqi border sometime after the US-Iraqi offensive on Fallujah in November 2004…
But whether the Sukkariyeh raid was indeed a deliberate attempt to extra-judicially execute this alleged miscreant or not, that fact makes no difference at all to the underlying illegality of the act. An extra-judicial killing is extra-judicial, period. Such an act carried out by the US inside Iraq would, at one level, be no less heinous than one carried out in Syria. But crossing an international border to do it, and violating Syria’s sovereignty in that way, certainly adds an additional level of illegality to the act under international law.
But my basic point here is: Extra-judicial killing is always wrong, and should be treated as such in the public policy discourse.
You are quite correct. But this has been going on for a very long time. What is novel, and sinister, is the political calculation that there are more votes in America, as there are in Israel, in favour of lynch law than there are for the Rule of Law.
It is a very southern idea just as this is a very southern government. That is where Bush’s legacy lies: in the Pantheon of Dixie bigots along with Bilbo, Pitchfork Ben and the late Senator Thurmond. Authenticity at last!
This was great. I love your dramatic “No.”
The US has been doing this for some time, sometimes indiscriminately, like the air attack on Libya in 1986. Actually, nearly all of these raids, even when they are targeted, kill innocent people as well as the intended target. What about them? Does anybody care?
Oh, their survivors might be compensated. That will take care of it. From a recent Pentagon news conference: “We are going to compensate victims. We are going to acknowledge incidents. We’re going to apologize for them. We’re going to compensate victims, and then we’re going to investigate. And if that investigation later proves that we need to compensate more people, we will do so. And if it turns out we compensated too many, so be it. But the main point there is that we do much already but still need to more.”–Pentagon spokesman Morrell
Will survivors of innocents killed in targeted attacks be compensated? Probably not. There is an attitude in the military that if there are bad guys in your midst then you are bad too and you all deserve to die. But guerillas “swim” (from Mao) in the regular population, so to the US military this puts the whole population at risk, as we have seen in Iraq. Haditha, for one example.
The point I am making is that this is a slippery slope and once you start killing there is no practical limit. So don’t start. No other country except Israel does this, with few exceptions, so why should the US?
It is not okay. Extra-judicial killings, also known as assassinations, are always abhorrent. They shock the conscience of anyone who believes in the rule of law. When carried out by states they represent a quite unacceptable excess of state power.
Humm Israelis doing it for the past 60 years?
Any one or UN or the Veto power states or International Tribunal or any judicial body say or take actions against a state of Israel that give her Extra-judicial killings of not just Palestinians freedom fighters but its extended far from that includes Iraqi scientists which according to Israeli reference more that dozen of them and the famous one Killing Egyptian scientist in Paris because he working in Iraq project.
Far from killing humans Israel went far further to distraction of shipment like that nuclear reactor when handed to Iraqi to be shipped to Iraq then all blown up while on the deck for shipment (obviously they chose right moment as it was handed there were no insurance cover and any legal matter on the suppliers?
Helena, why are you getting so exercised about this when the Syrian diplomatic response has been relatively mild? I assume you of all people know how to rate diplomatic reactions?
Do you think George W woke up in the morning and decided to send out the order “we are going to kill this guy today?”
Honestly.
Do you really think this specific raid against this specific group of people came as a complete surprise to the Syrian Government?
btw have to say I am sad about your new website format. It seems somehow more aggressive and masculine in image than the previous one, which I very much liked. Found that I don’t visit it as frequently as I used too, although you might think that is a good thing!
Syria Protests U.S. Raid To U.N.
Watch the space for UN action?
bb
Do you really think this specific raid against this specific group of people came as a complete surprise to the Syrian Government?
What is making you say this? Have you any evidences to presented support your claims? Alternatively, just guess?
US military officials often make when they speak about their missions is that they say their orders are to “capture or kill” the named individuals.
Where are US military officials from OBL then? Why OBL still free, while his Son around the places with his recent mirage to Britt woman. As far as US military exercises in Iraq they detained family members to get their targets unnamed individuals, so why this Son left free?
BB, your comment bears very little relationship to what I was actually writing about. I was writing about how abhorrent I feel it is that our government dispatches forces around the world to carry out extra-judicial executions– and that most of the MSM seems to act as though that’s quite normal and okay.
Do you think this is okay?
You didn’t say anything about that.
What i wrote had no relationship to, and therefore said nothing about, Syria’s diplomacy. I was writing about the kinds of values Americans in government and the media should uphold. Including, crucially, a respect for basic principles of the rule of law.
I believe that assassinations have been carried out by many nations for many years in relative secret. Israel and the US seem to be that only countries that do them publicly and brag about it. it is and has for many years been illegal under international law and I believe that all those participating, from Bush/ Olmert on down to the field operatives stand in jeapordy of trial and punishment in some enlightened countries.
A very interesting exclusive article in The New Republic today claims that Bush issued new orders for these killings in other countries because he is nearing the end of his term and sees no downside for the elections.
from The Long War Journal (excerpts):
Al Qaeda leader Abu Ghadiya was killed in yesterday’s strike inside Syria, a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal. But US special operations forces [Task Force 88] also inflicted a major blow to al Qaeda’s foreign fighter network based in Syria. The entire senior leadership of Ghadiya’s network was also killed in the raid, the official stated.
The Syrian government claimed eight civilians, including women and children, were killed in the strike. But a journalist from The Associated Press who attended the funeral said that only the bodies of seven men were displayed.
The US official said there were more killed in the raid than is being reported. “There are more than public numbers [in the Syrian press] are saying, those reported killed were the Syrian locals that worked with al Qaeda,” the official told The Long War Journal. “There were non-Syrian al Qaeda operatives killed as well.”
Those killed include Ghadiya’s brother and two cousins. “They also were part of the senior leadership,” the official stated. “They’re dead. We’ve decapitated the network.” Others killed during the raid were not identified.
The strike is thought to have a major impact on al Qaeda’s operations inside Syria. Al Qaeda’s ability to control the vast group of local “Syrian coordinators” who directly help al Qaeda recruits and operatives enter Iraq has been “crippled.”
Watch the space for UN action?
news report: Ban ki-Moon issued a sharp rebuttal today regarding this new terrorist attack on national sovereignty by the United States . . .
just kidding
good news from Mail Online:
Frustrated Pakistani officials have ordered the U.S. to stop firing pilotless missiles(sic) over their territory.
Pakistan summoned the U.S. ambassador early this morning to protest the missile strikes, led by pilotless U.S. aircraft on the Pakistani side of its border with Afghanistan.
Helena,
the kinds of values Americans in government and the media should uphold. Including, crucially, a respect for basic principles of the rule of law.
Yap, are there other kinds of values Americans had we don’t know?
Iraq shows us the “NAKED” values Americansa respect for basic principles of the rule of law…. Isn’t Helena?
the plot thickens–
BBC News–
According to an al-Qaeda obituary of the militant released in August 2006, Abu Ghadiya died on the Saudi-Iraqi border sometime after the US-Iraqi offensive on Fallujah in November 2004. But al-Qaeda’s story is not accepted by the US.
———
Sometimes you can believe al-Qaeda (e.g. “Iraq is the central front on the war on terror”) and sometimes you can’t, apparently.
Don,
Sometimes you can believe al-Qaeda (e.g. “Iraq is the central front on the war on terror”) and sometimes you can’t, apparently.
Paul Bremer after his signature of disassembled Iraqi army replied to Iraqis who asked him US should help to secure Iraqi borders from allegedly “al-Qaeda” threats he replied to them:
let them in we ready to fight them here!!!
But let reminded you with the seen of those beheading and western hostage in “ORANG” suits stopped long time it’s replaced by sectarian cleansings!!! Is that means al-Qaeda vanished from Iraq?
Each day today in Iraq US arresting between 15-20 Iraqi on claims of al-Qaeda members or fighters or leaders….. So is it al-Qaeda runoff orange suits or beheading removed from their ideology or it’s a Fatwa by head of al-Qaeda to stop beheading of westerns?
You need to guess what behind that, leave it to your imaginations.
Don
just kidding
This what most people agree with.
But Helena still have faith in UN and its system she did not realised that this body run and controlled by here country and lobbing against the poor and development countries all the time just like others like IMF.
So now giving loans to Island and Hungary in very cheap interest %1 today while demanding high interest from very poor countries and other restrictions that violated their sovereignty.
I wonder where Helena what’s going on in Democratic Republic of Congo now with 17000 UN peace force can not stops rabbles who threaten central government and thousands or civilians flee their homes and town looks we are on edge of new ethnic cleaning in six-year so-called Great War of Africa killed an estimated 3.8 million people, making it the world’s worst armed conflict since the Second World War. Since 2003, however, a further 1.4 million have died from violence, famine and disease in the war’s aftermath.
Then will see Helena later analysing the outcome of atrocities here.
Helena let Quaker and other US of the respect for basic principles of the rule of law show the world and motivated now not after the atrocities finish and millions killed as it’s all the time the case of so called Humanitarians human caring people.
the kinds of values Americans
SPIEGEL:
Pollitt:
Salah,
I’m with you and share your anger but (since you included my name in your post) I’m asking you to please ease up on Helena. I nag her too sometimes but she’s an unrepentant idealist who won’t change, which is a good thing because with cynical beings like you and me, we need at least one idealist in the world. She does publish our rants, after all.
Also let’s remember that while she can’t address every ill in the world she comes darn close, for one person. I think she’s only one person although sometimes I wonder when the thoughtful postings come thick and fast.
Of course we can still reserve the right to disagree with her. This usually doesn’t bother her because, I imagine, she still thinks she’s right! (I’m serious.)
Don,
I appreciate Helena for letting us and read our “Rants” but I really have all the respect and admire her but some times word got hot with what I read.
When I spoke about Iranians in Iraq no one agree with me as far as I feel, after 6 years the mode changing from Helena to others like Scott who insulting me on this space because he don’t like my writing.
Now we weak up Helena also Scott saying Iran interference in Iraq politics!! So what changed here?
when I were hating and appose these Iranians interferences in first place as an Iraqi loving my country and land speaking against any one mangling and interferes in my home country politics specially not for the majority of Iraq and promoting far more policies against the wishful of most Iraqi and treat Iraq as part of their imaginations as part of historical power.
Imagine any one of you have same interference and living seeing things going one and affecting you personally, your family and your native citizens. Are you like that, pleas put yourself in same shoe and speaks e here before rush insulting a guy he worte his view opposing your loving view for some reasons and hidden personal agenda.
As I said I insulted by some one he thinks himself also “Right” for his thoughts about land he visited 20 years ago. He forget what written by one born and lived 40 years on the land and knew what our neighbours minds and interests also long as deep history of 5000 years old, and he went more insulting me here.
Please help me out.
Isn’t it possible the Syrian govt. provided the intelligence and gave the go ahead for this attack, then protested in order to try and stop the Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq?
In that vein, I’d go with Iran.
Helena
The House of Lords turned down the attempt to make inquests on people killed in securtiy matters a closed affair. So the spooks can’t just shoot people and whisk the body away.
Just as well. Poor Old Jean Charles might have just been conveniently covered up.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7699657.stm
Difficult one to call for the trigger man. If he got bad intel he really had no choice.
Perfidious Albion not only refuses to extradite certain individuals wanted for high crimes against Mother Russia, it mocks justice by allowing some of them to flaunt lavish lifestyles. Moscow is therefore certainly justified in taking appropriate extra-territorial action, including extra-judicial execution. (Which may explain the demise of Alexander Litvinenko.)
Do we like any killing/executions by the state?
NO!