Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [216]
ASSASSINATION. Most people would, and official U.S. policy does, draw a distinction between casualties inflicted as a result of military operations and the targeted assassination of a specific individual. (See chap. 8 for further discussion of assassination and the U.S. ban on it.) At the same time and even before the 2001 terrorist attacks, the formerly broad support for the assassination ban had eroded among the general public and to some extent in the press. The change in attitude perhaps reflected some of the difficulties the United States has encountered in imposing its will since the end of the cold war.
Even if the ban were to be lifted selectively, it is difficult to imagine how useful criteria for implementing assassination could be drawn up. What level of crime or hostile activity would make someone a legitimate target? As with Britain’s interest in assassinating Adolf Hitler, it is not easy to identify a potential target at the right time. Also, some possible targets are former partners. Saddam Hussein, for example, received U.S. backing in his war with Iran (1980-1988), which was then seen as the bigger problem. His behavior became problematic only after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
In the case of Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders, the debate over assassination became irrelevant. The United States recognized the attacks of 2001 as an act of war, making these individuals legitimate military targets.
Assassination is also a remarkably sloppy tool. Without absolute assurances about who will follow the victim into power and how the successor will behave, assassination provides no guarantee of solving the problem at hand. The political unrest in Lebanon following the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 is instructive. It is widely assumed that Hariri was killed by Syria as he opposed Syria’s continued military presence in Lebanon. The result of Hariri’s death was widespread protests in Lebanon and international condemnation of Syria, resulting in the beginning of the long-delayed Syrian withdrawal of military forces and intelligence officers.
The leaders who would be considered targets are not in democracies; they are in states where the mechanisms for political succession are ill defined or subject to contest. One thug could replace another. Thus the gain would be little, while the risk to international reputation would be great.
Assassination also raises the specter of reprisal. An absence of rules cuts both ways.
RENDITIONS AND TORTURE. The war on terrorism has seen an increase in renditions, the seizure of foreign nationals overseas and, in many cases, transportation to their country of origin for incarceration and interrogation (see chap. 5). Although the United States has obtained pledges from these countries about the manner in which rendered suspects are treated, allegations have been made that some of them have been tortured and that the United States is at least complicit in this torture.
Most countries have a legal sanction against torture, whether it is enforced or not. Within U.S. law, at least, torture is specifically forbidden by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which bans “cruel and unusual punishment.” But the war on terrorism has given rise to a debate over what constitutes torture (as opposed to harsh and even degrading treatment) and whether or not this is acceptable. The debate is also colored by the treatment of Iraqi prisoners held by the U.S. military at Abu Ghraib, where U.S.