Alternative Insight

The Assassins
A Third Army


Assassins have often changed the course of history; sometimes acting alone and other times as the trigger of a small group of locally organized conspirators. The local assassins still exist, but a new type of assassin has emerged - a government sponsored killer whose actions are principally used to combat National Liberation movements or settle power struggles. Assassins are also used to resolve disputes, prevent wars, start wars or engineer coup d'etats. Assassins have become a third army, fighting battles that have outcomes similar to those in great conflagrations. No need to equip an army, no need to invade; a few bold strokes by a limited number of persons can achieve the objective.

The government sponsored assassinations operate with conditions:

There have been government planned assassinations that never reached fruition but would have changed history. There have been government sponsored assassinations that have not gained attention and have changed history. There are recent assassinations that indicate assassinations are becoming an important weapon in resolving disputes.

Governments have planned assassinations that did not reach fruition but would have changed history.

Two assassinations that didn't occur, but would have greatly modified history, are those planned, but not one hundred percent proven, by the CIA against Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Iraq leader Saddam Hussein.

The Cuban people's faith in Fidel Castro has been the principal force that keeps Cuba's leftist government in power. An assassination of Fidel Castro would have derailed Cuba's political and economic systems, and with U.S. interference, resulted in a new government more in line with global trends and more amenable to U.S. interests. Depending upon when the assassination occurred, Angola and Venezuela, both of which received support from Castro's Cuba, might have different governments. Radical movements in South America might have remained subdued.

Iraq has shown where it is without Saddam Hussein. From present appearances, the departure of Hussein by a single bullet would have only saved more bullets and a U.S. invasion of Iraq. The U.S. congress would not have to debate whether or when America withdraws troops from Iraq. The troops wouldn't have been there, but civil strife would still have erupted.

One attempted assassination that requires no proof is the 1986 attempt on Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi. While attacking Libya, the U.S. air force bombed one of Gadhafi's homes.The bombing killed Gadhafi's adopted daughter, but failed to kill the Libyan leader. This assassination attempt, together with other damage done by U.S. bombings of Libya, has been considered the principal reason for the 1988 Lockerbie terrorist attack, in which 270 persons were killed in the downing of PanAm flight 103.

Assassinations that were planned and didn't happen are still significant. World leaders realize that these assassinations, if carried to fruition, could have had shocking results.

Governments have sponsored successful assassinations. Many of them have not gained attention and have changed history.

The principal use of government sponsored assassinations has been to subdue National Liberation movements. Before discussing this motive, mention will be made of some notable government sponsored assassinations that changed the course of recent history.

(1) The November 2, 1963 assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. Suspected to be engineered by the Kennedy administration, it eventually brought Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky to power in South Vietnam. These leaders acquiesced to the escalation of American military forces in Vietnam, a military adventure that eventually became a debacle.
(2) Russia's March 2005 assassination of Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov and its now confirmed July 2006 assassination of Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev. Since these assassinations, the violence in Chechnya has been greatly reduced and Chechnya has a president friendly to Russia.
(3) A missile downing of Hutu and Rwandan President Habyarimana's plane, on April 6, 1994. This assassination triggered violence against Rwanda Tutsis who controlled the nation's military. Investigators have charged that the violence caused 800,000 Tutsi deaths within 100 days of revenge. A report by French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguière accuses current Rwandan President Paul Kagame for the missile attack on President Habyarimana's plane. The report claims the missiles used to shoot down the plane were from the Ugandan Army. Paul Kagame had, for awhile, been Chief of Military Intelligence of Uganda, a foreign nation.
(4) Governments have been accused of conducting assassinations against dissidents in Russia, in several African nations, most prominently Nigeria, and in Asian countries, especially Indonesia and the Philippines. These assassinations have mainly affected the internal politics and have not had international repercussions.
(5) The Syrian government has been accused of numerous assassinations of opponents in Lebanon. Although Syria is likely to be complicit in the assassinations, no conclusive evidence has verified the accusations. Many Lebanese factions exist that have enemies common to those of Syria.
(6) Iranian government agents have been convicted of assassinations of dissidents in various parts of the globe. Shapour Bakhtiar, the Shah's last prime minister was stabbed in his Paris home in 1991. A French investigation led to the imprisonment of several individuals who were believed to have been intelligence agents of the Islamic Republic. After a German Court found that Tehran ordered the assassination of Iranian Kurdish leaders in Berlin in 1992, European nations decreased their contacts with Iran. In a bizarre twist, a 2001 Tehran military court convicted fifteen "rogue agents" of Iran's Intelligence Ministry for the murder of four secular dissidents. After feeling more secure in the establishment of its Islamic Republic, the early years of 2006, have not had any assassinations by Iranian "rogue agents."
(7) An assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov by the Abu Nidal Organization. Israel used the intended assassination as the excuse for its 1982 invasion of Lebanon; an event which changed the course of Middle East history.

The largest groupings of government sponsored assassinations have occurred in Africa and against Palestinians. These assassinations have been an essential strategy to eliminate National Liberation movements. This strategy is discussed in an article Political Assassination as a Strategy against Liberation Movements, Victoria Brittain in Race and Class Volume 48 (1) 2006. The article is based on a revealing paper given at a 2005 colloquium in Paris. A concise version of the article can be found at Pambazuka News.

Victoria Brittain is a former associate foreign editor at the Guardian where she worked for 20 years. Ms. Brittain covered Africa and Third World economic and political issues. Excepts from her article:

The use of political assassination against liberation movements has changed the course of history in a number of countries in Africa and continues to devastate the Middle East. The current power relations between the Third World and the dominant Western and imperialist powers are a product of the war of attrition which the West has waged, particularly by political assassinations, which have robbed Africa and the Middle East of some of their great leaders, and weakened their important political organisations.

Today, opposition to the new colonialism has become so fragmented, sectarian, de-politicised, marginalized, leaderless, as to give birth to the suicide bomber as a widespread phenomenon ?most strikingly in opposition to the US occupation of Iraq, as well as in Palestine.

Two key liberation movements to consider in particular are South Africa?s African National Congress, and the Palestinians? Fatah movement and various Palestinian splinter groups.

Charismatic leaders from countries as different as Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Cameroon, and Congo, who each had an influence that went far beyond their own countries, were assassinated in the interests of the colonial powers, even if the assassins themselves were sometimes recruited in local groups funded from the West. Amilcar Cabral, Eduardo Mondlane, Felix Moumie, and Patrice Lumumba, ...were all murdered by the forces or allies of their current or former colonial power, because they threatened its future influence, not to say continuing control, over the economy and ideology in the country in question. Their brutal disappearances from the African political scene had a much bigger impact than their countries? mainly modest weight would have intimated.

South Africa suffered some thousands of deaths ? uncounted and often anonymous - of its commanders and cadres, assassinated in exile in ANC camps and offices in neighbouring countries, or by death squads inside the country. Dozens of individuals were targeted, mainly in the second rank of leaders. The assassination campaign by the apartheid regime aimed to take out the movement?s best brains, and to sap the will power of the rank and file to organise against apartheid.

The confession of a former policeman, Butana Almond Nofemela in October 1989, that he had been part of a death squad, finally blew the lid off the secret policy, and gave some indication of its range. There were at least 50 such assassinations between august 1977 and November 1989.

All these political assassinations over the years were undoubtedly successful in weakening the ANC and its allies, the UDF and COSATU, so that the eventual transfer of power was on much more favourable terms to the old regime, than had been envisaged during the armed struggle.

But all of this bloodshed is eclipsed in scale by the Israeli assassinations of Palestinians ? part of the massive bloodletting in the Middle East that has, since 1977 under Menachem Begin, marked the struggle for Greater Israel, and the inevitable balkanisation of the Arab world. This began from the 1956 attempt by Britain, France and Israel to destroy Nasser, the Arab champion of the day.

Political assassinations have been, and still are, the backbone of Israeli counter-terrorism policy, and, in addition, there have been systematic assassinations of the Palestinian leaders keenest to negotiate with Israel. The highest level of the Israeli political/military establishment has been personally involved in many of the most important strikes.

The use of sophisticated poison by Israeli assassins was revealed in 1997 when a Hamas leader, Khalid Mash?al, was poisoned in Amman by two Mossad agents (who had traveled on false Canadian passports and who were captured). Muhamed Yusif al Najjar was killed by Israeli commandos in Beirut in 1973 ? led by Ehud Barak, later Prime Minister, disguised as a woman. Abu Jihad, the PLO?s foreign minister, was killed in his house at the PLO headquarters in Tunis by a sea-borne Israeli military squad led by General Moshe Yaalon, later chief of staff.

In southern Lebanon, Hizbollah and Amal both had leaders assassinated by Israel in an extension of the war against the Palestinians. These actions, often coordinated by the US and sometimes financed by Saudi Arabia did not always succeed but they raised the stakes, for instance, notably, with the March 1985 massive car bomb in Beirut near the apartment block of Hizbollah?s spiritual leader, Sheik Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, which missed him, but killed 80 people and wounded two hundred.

Throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories? two intifadas, scores of Palestinians in less prominent local leadership positions were targeted and killed by undercover Israeli hit squads with incalculable impact on the political coherence of the resistance to the Occupation.

Which brings us to recent history of assassinations

Recent assassinations of prominent Russian dissidents and Lebanese anti-Syrian politicians have provoked charges that the Russian and Syrian governments planned the respective assassinations. The charges lack definitive proof and essential facts cast doubt on the charges.

The radioactive substance that caused the death of former KGB operative Alexander Litvinenko cannot be conveniently used for a disguised assassination and is easily traced. Litvinenko didn't have an importance that guaranteed his removal would sufficiently benefit the Kremlin. Just the opposite; his death has made the world suspicious of Russian president, Alexander Putin.

The linking of the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, constantly portrayed as an intrepid journalist, to Russian government intrigue, is also dubious. Ms. Politkovskaya's recent career did not follow that of an intrepid journalist.

She worked for Izvestia from 1982 to 1993, and then as a reporter, editor of emergencies/accidents section (hardly significant), and assistant chief editor (1994-1999) of Obshchaya Gazeta, a liberal Moscow newspaper with a circulation of only 18000. Obshchaya suspended publication in May 2002. From June 1999 to 2006, she wrote columns for the weekly news publication Novaya Gazeta.

Anna Politkovskaya wrote columns for the weekly Novaya Gazeta. These columns were private and unverified interviews with persons who suffered in the Chechnyan war. Her book titled: Putin's Russia. has almost no information on Putin. It is a compilation of tragic stories of Russians, not much different than stories of suffering peoples throughout the word. Ms. Politkovskaya's thrust was that President Putin is personally responsible for any tragic death in Russia; be it by cold, starvation or illness. By Ms. Politkovskaya's reasoning, all western leaders are responsible for individual tragedies in their countries. After all, events similar to those she describes in her book occur throughout the western world. She writes:

I have wondered a great deal about why I am so intolerant of Putin. What is it that makes me dislike him so much as to feel moved to write a book about him? I am not one of his political opponents or rivals, just a woman living in Russia. Quite simply I am a forty-five-year-old Muscovite who observed the Soviet Union at its most disgraceful in the 1970S and 1980s. I really don't want to find myself back there again.

Anna Politkovskaya had courage, and her death is unfortunate and regrettable. But, there is no indication she was sufficiently known inside Russia and had media opportunity to influence the Russian masses against Putin.

Considering Putin's overwhelming popularity with the Russian people, is it sensible to believe that the assassinations of the two dissidents could benefit the Russian government?

Similar to the assassinations of anti-Russian dissidents, it is not apparent how the assassinations of anti-Syrians have benefited the Syrian government.

The February 14, 2005 assassination of Rafik Baha ad-Din Hariri, an anti-Syrian business tycoon and Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000-2004, seems to be planned in Damascus. Couple Hariri's assassination with that of Pierre Gemayel, a leading anti-Syrian Lebanese minister and Maronite Christian leader, shot to death in a Beirut suburb on November 21, 2006, and Syria's involvement in the assassinations seems highly likely. Nevertheless, facts exist that question Syria's direct participation in the assassinations:

Without going into details, Iraq and Sri Lanka have become battlegrounds where government militias and government antagonists are using pin-pointed and random assassinations to advance their causes. In Afghanistan, Nigeria and Lagos, assassinations are either challenging power or preventing challenges to power. In all these countries, retaliation is the rule. These assassinations are expected to continue into the far future

The Future World of Assassinations
The United States has declared a war against terrorism. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. has learned it cannot win these wars with either a conventional army or a second army of civil defense forces. The U.S. military has spread itself too thin and its casualties in the two wars have dampened American support for more military adventures.

Covert and peripatetic terrorists, who move among populations, cross borders and engage in asymmetrical warfare, cannot be combatted by conventional means. Small and lightly armed forces that move quickly, attack momentarily and disappear rapidly are best countered by a secret counter-terrorist army, a third army of "legalized assassins," who are able to seek out and destroy the leadership and important elements of guerrilla forces.

The U.S. assassination activities are limited by Executive Order (EO) 119050, signed in February 1976 by former President Gerald Ford. The EO "forbade all U.S. government employees from engaging in or conspiring to engage in political assassination." President Jimmy Carter's EO 12036 tightened restrictions on intelligence agencies. President Ronald Reagan in 1981, (EO 12333, Sec 2.11) extended the order to apply specifically to intelligence agencies.

Since the ban on assassinations is not federal law but only enforced by Executive Orders, an American president can revoke the EO without congressional approval. Despite the Executive Orders, the U.S. will find means to either modify or circumvent the ban. Unless the U.S. government receives unqualified support from governments that house terrorists, is able to reconcile differences without becoming a target or resolves the social and economic conditions that spawn terrorism, it will be using the euphemisms of targeted operations, neighborhood clashes and covert activities for well-directed assassinations.

For Russia, it will be the same. Russia does not want more Chechnyas. Considering the fragile composition of much of Russia and Radical Islam movements in some Republics, Russia can expect other Chechnyas.The Russian government has neither wholeheartedly approved nor discounted assassinations as a response to asymmetrical warfare. Stopping insurgency before it becomes widespread will be the Russian attitude towards incipient revolts. Assassinations will be the weapon of choice for its counter-insurgents.

Israel, which has tuned assassination into a fine art of warfare, had its Supreme Court validate its activities.

Thursday, December 14, 2006, JERUSALEM ? The Israeli Supreme Court decided Thursday not to issue a blanket ban against the targeted killing of Palestinian militants, ruling that some of the killings were legal under international law.

The Israeli human rights organization B'tselem estimates that 339 Palestinians have been killed in targeted operations over the past six years. Of those, 210 were targets. The other persons were 'collateral damage.'

Israel's policies have one notable difference from those of the United States and Russia. The latter nations, in their legitimate wars against terrorism, but not in any wars of expansion, are defending themselves against actual terrorist operations. Israel is using assassination as an offensive weapon against a legitimate defense to its oppression of the Palestinian people - a big difference.

The problem with acceptance of targeted assassinations as a legitimate weapon of defense is that the words 'legitimate " and "defense" are difficult to objectively define. More troubling is that assassinations can go beyond immediate needs and entrap innocent persons. It can spread until expediency and revenge become guiding forces. After that occurs, nobody will be safe. Many persons will either become assassins or be assassinated.

alternativeinsight
january, 2007

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