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Mug shot of Lee Harvey Oswald, the individual responsible for the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Oswald himself was assassinated two days later by Jack Ruby, the first such event to receive wide television coverage.

Assassination is the act of killing a prominent person for either political, religious or monetary reasons.[1]

An assassination may be prompted by religious, political or military motives. It is an act that may be done for financial gain, to avenge a grievance, from a desire to acquire fame or notoriety, or because of a military, security, insurgent or secret police group's command to carry out the homicide. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times.

  • 2Use in history
  • 3Further motivations
  • 5Techniques
  • 7Counter-measures

Etymology[edit]

14th-century painting of the successful assassination of Nizam al-Mulk, the de facto ruler of the Seljuq Empire, by an Assassin.

The word assassin is often believed to derive from the word Hashshashin (Arabic: حشّاشين, ħashshāshīyīn, also Hashishin, Hashashiyyin, or Assassins),[2] and shares its etymological roots with hashish (/hæˈʃʃ/ or /ˈhæʃʃ/; from Arabic: حشيشḥashīsh).[3] It referred to a group of NizariShia Muslims who worked against various political targets.

Founded by Hassan-i Sabbah, the Assassins were active in the fortress of Alamut in Persia from the 8th to the 14th centuries, and later expanded by capturing forts in Syria. The group killed members of the Abbasid, Seljuq, Fatimid, and Christian Crusader elite for political and religious reasons.[4]

Although it is commonly believed that Assassins were under the influence of hashish during their killings or during their indoctrination, there is debate as to whether these claims have merit, with many Eastern writers and an increasing number of Western academics coming to believe that drug-taking was not the key feature behind the name.[5]

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The earliest known use of the verb 'to assassinate' in printed English was by Matthew Sutcliffe in A Briefe Replie to a Certaine Odious and Slanderous Libel, Lately Published by a Seditious Jesuite, a pamphlet printed in 1600, five years before it was used in Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1605).[6][7]

Use in history[edit]

Assassination of Julius Caesar, by Vincenzo Camuccini

Ancient to medieval times[edit]

Jael and Sisera, by Artemisia Gentileschi.

Assassination is one of the oldest tools of power politics. It dates back at least as far as recorded history.

In the Old Testament, King Joash of Judah was recorded as being assassinated by his own servants;[8]Joab assassinated Absalom, King David's son;[9] and King Sennacherib of Assyria was assassinated by his own sons.[10]

Chanakya (c. 350–283 BC) wrote about assassinations in detail in his political treatise Arthashastra. His student Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire, later made use of assassinations against some of his enemies, including two of Alexander the Great's generals, Nicanor and Philip.[11] Other famous victims are Philip II of Macedon (336 BC), the father of Alexander the Great, and Roman consul Julius Caesar (44 BC).[12]Emperors of Rome often met their end in this way, as did many of the Muslim Shia Imams hundreds of years later. The practice was also well known in ancient China, as in Jing Ke's failed assassination of Qin king Ying Zheng in 227 BC. Whilst many assassinations were performed by individuals or small groups, there were also specialized units who used a collective group of people to perform more than one assassination. The earliest were the sicarii in 6 A.D., who predated the Middle Eastern assassins and Japanese ninjas by centuries.[13][14]

Assassination of King Przemysł II of Poland
Assassination of William the Silent of Holland.
Assassination of King Henry III of France
Assassination of King Henry IV of France

In the Middle Ages, regicide was rare in Western Europe, but it was a recurring theme in the Eastern Roman Empire. Blinding and strangling in the bathtub were the most commonly used procedures. With the Renaissance, tyrannicide—or assassination for personal or political reasons—became more common again in Western Europe. High medieval sources mention the assassination of King Demetrius Zvonimir (1089), dying at the hands of his own people, who objected to a proposition by the Pope to go on a campaign to aid the Byzantines against the Seljuk Turks. This account is, however, contentious among historians, it being most commonly asserted that he died of natural causes. The myth of the 'Curse of King Zvonimir' is based on the legend of his assassination.[15] In 1192, Conrad of Montferrat, the de factoKing of Jerusalem, was killed by an assassin.

The reigns of King Przemysł II of Poland (1296), William the Silent of the Netherlands (1584), and the French kings Henry III (1589) and Henry IV (1610) were all ended by assassins.

Modern history[edit]

In the modern world, the killing of important people began to become more than a tool in power struggles between rulers themselves and was also used for political symbolism, such as in the propaganda of the deed. In Russia alone, two emperors, Paul I and his grandson Alexander II, were assassinated within 80 years. In the United Kingdom, only one Prime Minister has been assassinated—Spencer Perceval on May 11, 1812.[16]

In Japan, a group of assassins called the Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu killed a number of people, including Ii Naosuke who was the head of administration for the Tokugawa shogunate, during the Boshin War.[17] Most of the assassinations in Japan were committed with bladed weaponry, a trait that was carried on into modern history. A video-record exists of the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, using a sword.[18]

Shown in the presidential booth of Ford's Theatre, from left to right, are assassin John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone

In the United States, within 100 years, four presidents—Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy—died at the hands of assassins. There have been at least 20 known attempts on U.S. presidents' lives. Huey Long, a Senator, was assassinated on September 10, 1935. Robert F. Kennedy, a Senator and a presidential candidate, was also assassinated on June 6, 1968 in the United States.

In Austria, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, carried out by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian national and a member of the Serbian nationalist insurgents (The Black Hand), is blamed for igniting World War I after a succession of minor conflicts, while belligerents on both sides in World War II used operatives specifically trained for assassination. Reinhard Heydrich died after an attack by British-trained Czechoslovak soldiers on behalf of the Czechoslovak government in exile in Operation Anthropoid,[19] and knowledge from decoded transmissions allowed the United States to carry out a targeted attack, killing Japanese AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto while he was travelling by plane. The Polish Home Army conducted a regular campaign of assassinations against top Nazi German officials in occupied Poland. Adolf Hitler was almost killed by his own officers, and survived various attempts by other persons and organizations (such as Operation Foxley, though this plan was never put into practice).

During the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph Stalin's NKVD carried out numerous assassinations outside of the Soviet Union, such as the killings of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists leader Yevhen Konovalets, Ignace Poretsky, Fourth International secretary Rudolf Klement, Leon Trotsky, and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) leadership in Catalonia.[20]

India's 'Father of the Nation', Mahatma Gandhi, was shot to death on January 30, 1948 by Nathuram Godse.

The African-American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel (now the National Civil Rights Museum) in Memphis, Tennessee. Three years prior, another African-American civil rights activist, Malcolm X, was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. Two years prior, another African-American civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, was assassinated on June 12, 1963. Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party was assassinated on December 4, 1969.

Cold War and beyond[edit]

President Kennedy minutes before his assassination, November 22, 1963.

Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, was assassinated by Saad Akbar, a lone assassin, in 1951. Conspiracy theorists believe his conflict with certain members of the Pakistani military (Rawalpindi conspiracy) or suppression of Communists and antagonism towards the Soviet Union, were potential reasons for his assassination.

In 1960, Inejiro Asanuma, Chairman of the Japanese Socialist Party, was assassinated in a stabbing by an extreme rightist.

The U.S. Senate Select Committee chaired by Senator Frank Church (the Church Committee) reported in 1975 that it had found 'concrete evidence of at least eight plots involving the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro from 1960 to 1965.'[21]

Most major powers repudiated Cold War assassination tactics, though many allege that this was merely a smokescreen for political benefit and that covert and illegal training of assassins continues today, with Russia, Israel, the U.S., Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and other nations accused of engaging in such operations.[22] In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan (who survived an assassination attempt himself) ordered the Operation El Dorado Canyon air raid on Libya in which one of the primary targets was the home residence of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi escaped unharmed; however, his adopted daughter Hanna was claimed to be one of the civilian casualties.

In the Philippines, the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr. triggered the eventual downfall of the 20-year autocratic rule of PresidentFerdinand Marcos. Aquino, a former Senator and a leading figure of the political opposition, was assassinated in 1983 at the ManilaInternational Airport (now the Ninoy Aquino International Airport) upon returning home from exile. His death thrust his widow, Corazon Aquino, into the limelight and, ultimately, the presidency following the peaceful 1986 EDSA Revolution.

After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the new Islamic government of Iran began an international campaign of assassination that lasted into the 1990s. At least 162 killings in 19 countries have been linked to the senior leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[23] This campaign came to an end after the Mykonos restaurant assassinations, because a German court publicly implicated senior members of the government and issued arrest warrants for Ali Fallahian, the head of the Iranian Intelligence.[24] Evidence indicates that Fallahian's personal involvement and individual responsibility for the murders were far more pervasive than his current indictment record represents.[25]

Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean minister, was assassinated in Washington, D.C. in 1976. Letelier's murder was part of the U.S.-backed state terror campaign known as Operation Condor.[26]

Anwar Sadat, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt (formerly President of the United Arab Republic), was assassinated October 6, 1981, during the annual parade celebrating Operation Badr, the opening maneuver of the Yom Kippur War.

Swedish prime minister Olof Palme was murdered by a gun-wielding man close to midnight on February 28, 1986, after having visited a cinema with his wife. The couple were not accompanied by a body guard detail. The identity of the assassin and the reason for the murder are still unknown.

On August 17, 1988, President of Pakistan Gen. M. Zia ul Haqdied alongside 31 others including the Chief of Staff of the Pakistani Armed Forces, the US Ambassador to Pakistan and the chief of the US Military Mission to Pakistan when his C-130 transport plane mysteriously crashed. The crash is widely considered – in Pakistan – to be an act of political assassination.[27]

In post-Saddam Iraq, the Shiite-dominated government used death squads to perform extrajudicial executions of radical Sunni Iraqis, with some alleging that the death squads were trained by the U.S.[28][29] Concrete allegations have since surfaced that the Iranian government has actively armed and funded Shia death-squads in post-Saddam Iraq.[30]

Indira Gandhi's blood-stained sari and belongings at the time of her assassination. She was the Prime Minister of India.

In India, Prime MinistersIndira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi (neither of whom were related to Mahatma Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1948), were assassinated in 1984 and 1991 respectively. The assassinations were linked to separatist movements in Punjab and northern Sri Lanka, respectively.

In Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995. Yigal Amir confessed and was convicted of the crime.

Israeli tourist minister Rehavam Ze'evi was assassinated on October 17, 2001, by Hamdi Quran and three other members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP stated that the assassination was in retaliation for the August 27, 2001, killing of Abu Ali Mustafa, the Secretary General of the PFLP, by the Israeli Air Force under its policy of targeted killings.

In Lebanon, the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, prompted an investigation by the United Nations. The suggestion in the resulting Mehlis report that there was Syrian involvement, prompted the Cedar Revolution, which drove Syrian troops out of Lebanon.

In Pakistan, former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007, while running for re-election. Bhutto's assassination drew unanimous condemnation from the international community.[31]

In Guinea Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira was assassinated in the early hours of March 2, 2009, in the capital, Bissau. Unlike typical assassinations his death was not swift; he first survived an explosion at the Presidential Villa, was then shot and wounded, and finally was butchered with machetes. His assassination was carried out by renegade soldiers who were apparently revenging the killing of General Tagme Na Waie, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Guinea Bissau, who had been killed in a bomb explosion the day before.

Further motivations[edit]

As military and foreign policy doctrine[edit]

The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage and assassination.

Assassination for military purposes has long been espoused – Sun Tzu, writing around 500 BC, argued in favor of using assassination in his book The Art of War. Nearly 2000 years later, in his book The Prince, Machiavelli also advises rulers to assassinate enemies whenever possible so they won't pose a threat.[32] An army and even a nation might be based upon and around a particularly strong, canny, or charismatic leader, whose loss could paralyze the ability of both to make war.

For similar and additional reasons, assassination has also sometimes been used in the conduct of foreign policy. The costs and benefits of such actions are difficult to compute, especially when they depend upon the policies of a successor, and one study has found that perceptual biases held by leaders often negatively affect decision making in this area, such that decisions made to go forward with assassinations often reflect the vague hope that any successor might be better.[33]

In both military and foreign policy assassinations, there is the risk that the target could be replaced by an even more competent leader, or that such a killing (or a failed attempt) will 'martyr' a leader and lead to greater support of his or her cause (by showing the moral ruthlessness of the assassins). Faced with particularly brilliant leaders, this possibility has in various instances been risked, such as in the attempts to kill the Athenian Alcibiades during the Peloponnesian War. A number of additional examples from World War II show how assassination was used as a tool:

  • The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague on May 27, 1942 by the British and Czechoslovak government-in-exile. This case illustrates the difficulty of comparing the benefits of a foreign policy goal (strengthening the legitimacy and influence of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London) against the possible costs resulting from an assassination (the Lidice massacre).[33]
  • The American interception of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plane during World War II, after his travel route had been decrypted.
  • Operation Gaff was a planned British commando raid to capture or kill the German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (also known as 'The Desert Fox').[34]

Use of assassination has continued in more recent conflicts:

  • During the Vietnam War, partly in response to Viet Cong assassinations of government leaders, the U.S. engaged in the Phoenix Program to assassinate Viet Cong leaders and sympathizers, and killed between 6,000 and 41,000 people, with official 'targets' of 1,800 per month.[citation needed]

As tool of insurgents[edit]

Insurgent groups have often employed assassination as a tool to further their causes. Assassinations provide several functions for such groups, namely the removal of specific enemies and as propaganda tools to focus the attention of media and politics on their cause.

The Irish Republican Army guerrillas of 1919–21 killed many RIC Police Intelligence officers during the Irish War of Independence. Michael Collins set up a special unit – the Squad – for this purpose, which had the effect of intimidating many policemen into resigning from the force. The Squad's activities peaked with the killing of 14 British agents in Dublin on Bloody Sunday in 1920.

This tactic was used again by the Provisional IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1969–1998). Killing of RUC officers and assassination of Unionist politicians was one of a number of methods used in the Provisional IRA campaign 1969–1997. The IRA also attempted to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by bombing the Conservative Party Conference in a Brighton hotel. Loyalist paramilitaries retaliated by killing Catholics at random and assassinating Irish nationalist politicians.

Basque terrorists ETA in Spain have assassinated many security and political figures since the late 1960s, notably the President of the Government of Spain Luis Carrero Blanco, 1st Duke of Carrero-Blanco Grandee of Spain, in 1973. Since the early 1990s, they have also targeted academics, journalists and local politicians who publicly disagreed with them.

Dictionary file for password cracking. The Red Brigades in Italy carried out assassinations of political figures, as to a lesser extent, did the Red Army Faction in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the Vietnam War, Communist insurgents routinely assassinated government officials and individual civilians deemed to offend or rival the revolutionary movement. Such attacks, along with widespread military activity by insurgent bands, almost brought the Diem regime to collapse before the U.S. intervention.[35]

Psychology[edit]

A major study about assassination attempts in the U.S. in the second half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that most prospective assassins spend copious amounts of time planning and preparing for their attempts. Assassinations are thus rarely a case of 'impulsive' action.[36]

However, about 25% of the actual attackers were found to be delusional, a figure that rose to 60% with 'near-lethal approachers' (people apprehended before reaching their target). This shows that while mental instability plays a role in many modern-age assassinations, the more delusional attackers are less likely to succeed in their attempt. The report also found that around two-thirds of attackers had previously been arrested (not necessarily for related offenses), that 44% had a history of serious depression, and that 39% had a history of substance abuse.[36]

Techniques[edit]

Modern methods[edit]

With the advent of effective ranged weaponry, and later firearms, the position of an assassination target was more precarious. Bodyguards were no longer enough to hold back determined killers, who no longer needed to directly engage or even subvert the guard to kill the leader in question. Moreover, the engagement of targets at greater distance dramatically increased the chances of an assassin's survival. The first heads of government to be assassinated with a firearm were the Regent Moray of Scotland in 1570, and William the Silent, the Prince of Orange of the Netherlands in 1584. Gunpowder and other explosives also allowed the use of bombs or even greater concentrations of explosives for deeds requiring a larger touch.

Explosives, especially the car bomb, become far more common in modern history, with grenades and remote-triggered land mines also used, especially in the Middle East and Balkans (the initial attempt on Archduke Franz Ferdinand's life was with a grenade). With heavy weapons, the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) has become a useful tool given the popularity of armored cars (discussed below), while Israeli forces have pioneered the use of aircraft-mounted missiles,[37] as well as the innovative use of explosive devices.

Rifle of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy
Derringer of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln

A sniper with a precision rifle is often used in fictional assassinations. However, certain pragmatic difficulties attend long-range shooting, including finding a hidden shooting position with a clear line-of-sight, detailed advance knowledge of the intended victim's travel plans, the ability to identify the target at long range, and the ability to score a first-round lethal hit at long range, usually measured in hundreds of meters. A dedicated sniper rifle is also expensive, often costing thousands of dollars because of the high level of precision machining and hand-finishing required to achieve extreme accuracy.[38]

Despite their comparative disadvantages, handguns are more easily concealable, and consequentially much more commonly used than rifles. Of 74 principal incidents evaluated in a major study about assassination attempts in the U.S. in the second half of the 20th century, 51% were undertaken by a handgun, 30% with a rifle or shotgun, 15% used knives, and 8% explosives (usage of multiple weapons/methods was reported in 16% of all cases).[36]

In the case of state-sponsored assassination, poisoning can be more easily denied. Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident was assassinated by ricin poisoning. A tiny pellet containing the poison was injected into his leg through a specially designed umbrella. Widespread allegations involving the Bulgarian government and KGB have not led to any legal results. However, after the fall of the USSR, it was learned that the KGB had developed an umbrella that could inject ricin pellets into a victim, and two former KGB agents who defected said the agency assisted in the murder.[39] The CIA made several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, many of the schemes involving poisoning his cigars. In the late 1950s, KGB assassin Bohdan Stashynsky killed Ukrainian nationalist leaders Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera with a spray gun that fired a jet of poison gas from a crushed cyanide ampule, making their deaths look like heart attacks.[40] A 2006 case in the UK concerned the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko who was given a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210, possibly passed to him in aerosol form sprayed directly onto his food. Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, had been granted asylum in the UK in 2000 after citing persecution in Russia. Shortly before his death he issued a statement accusing President of RussiaVladimir Putin of involvement in his assassination. President Putin denies he had any part in Litvinenko's death.[41]

Targeted killing[edit]

Predatordrone; sometimes used in targeted killings

Targeted killing is the intentional killing–by a government or its agents–of a civilian or 'unlawful combatant' who is not in the government's custody. The target is a person asserted to be taking part in an armed conflict or terrorism, whether by bearing arms or otherwise, who has thereby lost the immunity from being targeted that he would otherwise have under the Third Geneva Convention.[42] Note that this is a different term and concept from that of 'targeted violence' as used by specialists who study violence.

On the other hand, Georgetown Law Professor Gary Solis, in his 2010 book entitled The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War,[43] writes: 'Assassinations and targeted killings are very different acts'.[42] The use of the term assassination is opposed, as it denotes murder, whereas the terrorists are targeted in self-defense, and thus it is viewed as a killing, but not a crime.[44] Judge Abraham Sofaer, former federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, wrote on the subject:

When people call a targeted killing an 'assassination,' they are attempting to preclude debate on the merits of the action. Assassination is widely defined as murder, and is for that reason prohibited in the United States .. U.S. officials may not kill people merely because their policies are seen as detrimental to our interests .. But killings in self-defense are no more 'assassinations' in international affairs than they are murders when undertaken by our police forces against domestic killers. Targeted killings in self-defense have been authoritatively determined by the federal government to fall outside the assassination prohibition.[45]

Author and former U.S. Army Captain Matthew J. Morgan has argued that 'there is a major difference between assassination and targeted killing .. targeted killing [is] not synonymous with assassination. Assassination .. constitutes an illegal killing.'[46] Similarly, Amos Guiora, professor of law at the University of Utah, writes: 'Targeted killing is .. not an assassination', Steve David, Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, writes: 'There are strong reasons to believe that the Israeli policy of targeted killing is not the same as assassination'. Syracuse Law Professor William Banks and GW Law Professor Peter Raven-Hansen write: 'Targeted killing of terrorists is .. not unlawful and would not constitute assassination', Rory Miller writes: 'Targeted killing .. is not 'assassination'. Associate Professor Eric Patterson and Teresa Casale write: 'Perhaps most important is the legal distinction between targeted killing and assassination'.[47][48][49][49][50]

On the other hand, the American Civil Liberties Union also states on its website, 'A program of targeted killing far from any battlefield, without charge or trial, violates the constitutional guarantee of due process. It also violates international law, under which lethal force may be used outside armed conflict zones only as a last resort to prevent imminent threats, when non-lethal means are not available. Targeting people who are suspected of terrorism for execution, far from any war zone, turns the whole world into a battlefield.'[51]Yael Stein, the research director of B'Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, also states in her article 'By Any Name Illegal and Immoral: Response to 'Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing'[52]

'The argument that this policy affords the public a sense of revenge and retribution could serve to justify acts both illegal and immoral. Clearly, lawbreakers ought to be punished. Yet, no matter how horrific their deeds, as the targeting of Israeli civilians indeed is, they should be punished according to the law. David's arguments could, in principle, justify the abolition of formal legal systems altogether'.

Targeted killing has become a frequent tactic of the United States and Israel in their fight against terrorism.[42][53] The tactic can raise complex questions and lead to contentious disputes as to the legal basis for its application, who qualifies as an appropriate 'hit list' target, and what circumstances must exist before the tactic may be employed.[42] Opinions range from people considering it a legal form of self-defense that reduces terrorism, to people calling it an extra-judicial killing that lacks due process, and which leads to further violence.[42][45][54][55] Methods used have included firing a five-foot-long Hellfire missile from a Predator or Reaperdrone (an unmanned, remote-controlled plane), detonating a cell phone bomb, and long-range sniper shooting. Countries such as the U.S. (in Pakistan and Yemen) and Israel (in the West Bank and Gaza) have used targeted killing to eliminate members of groups such as Al-Qaeda and Hamas.[42] In early 2010, with President Obama's approval, Anwar al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be publicly approved for targeted killing by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in September 2011.[56][57]

United Nations (UN) investigator Ben Emmerson said that U.S. drone strikes may have violated international humanitarian law.[58][59]The Intercept reported, 'Between January 2012 and February 2013, U.S. special operations airstrikes [in northeastern Afghanistan] killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets.'[60]

Counter-measures[edit]

Early forms[edit]

This bodyguard was killed by an IED during Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha's assassination in 2007

One of the earliest forms of defense against assassins was employing bodyguards. Bodyguards act as a shield for the potential target, keeping lookout for potential attackers (sometimes in advance, for example on a parade route), and putting themselves in harm's way—both by simple presence, showing that physical force is available to protect the target,[36][61] and by shielding the target during any attack. To neutralize an attacker, bodyguards are typically armed as much as legal and practical concerns permit.

Notable examples of bodyguards include the Roman Praetorian Guard or the Ottoman Janissaries—though, in both cases, the protectors sometimes became assassins themselves, exploiting their power to make the head of state a virtual hostage or killing the very leaders they were supposed to protect. The fidelity of individual bodyguards is an important question as well, especially for leaders who oversee states with strong ethnic or religious divisions. Failure to realize such divided loyalties led to the assassination of Indian Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi, assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

This bodyguard function was often executed by the leader's most loyal warriors, and was extremely effective throughout most of early human history, leading assassins to attempt stealthy means, such as poison (which risk was answered by having another person taste the leader's food first).

Another notable measure is the use of a body double, a person who looks like the leader and who pretends to be the leader to draw attention away from the intended target.

Modern strategies[edit]

Assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan

With the advent of gunpowder, ranged assassination (via bombs or firearms) became possible. One of the first reactions was to simply increase the guard, creating what at times might seem a small army trailing every leader; another was to begin clearing large areas whenever a leader was present, to the point where entire sections of a city might be shut down.

As the 20th century dawned, the prevalence and capability of assassins grew quickly, as did measures to protect against them. For the first time, armored cars or limousines were put into service for safer transport, with modern versions virtually invulnerable to small arms fire, smaller bombs and mines.[62]Bulletproof vests also began to be used, which were of limited utility, restricting movement and leaving the head unprotected – so they tended to be worn only during high-profile public events, if at all.

Access to famous persons, too, became more and more restricted;[63] potential visitors would be forced through numerous different checks before being granted access to the official in question, and as communication became better and information technology more prevalent, it has become all but impossible for a would-be killer to get close enough to the personage at work or in private life to effect an attempt on his or her life, especially given the common use of metal and bomb detectors.

Most modern assassinations have been committed either during a public performance or during transport, both because of weaker security and security lapses, such as with U.S. President John F. Kennedy and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, or as part of coups d'état where security is either overwhelmed or completely removed, such as with Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.

Pope Benedict XVI in a modified Mercedes-Benz M-ClassPopemobile in São Paulo, Brazil

The methods used for protection by famous people have sometimes evoked negative reactions by the public, with some resenting the separation from their officials or major figures. One example might be traveling in a car protected by a bubble of clear bulletproof glass, such as the MRAP-like Popemobile of Pope John Paul II, built following an attempt at his life. Politicians often resent this need for separation, sometimes sending their bodyguards away from them for personal or publicity reasons; U.S. President William McKinley did this at the public reception where he was assassinated.[63]

Other potential targets go into seclusion, and are rarely heard from or seen in public, such as writer Salman Rushdie. A related form of protection is the use of body doubles, people with similar builds to those they are expected to impersonate. These persons are then made up, and in some cases altered to look like the target, with the body double then taking the place of the person in high risk situations. According to Joe R. Reeder, Under Secretary of the Army from 1993 to 1997, Fidel Castro used body doubles.[64]

United States Secret Service protective agents receive training in the psychology of assassins.[65]

See also[edit]

  • Special Activities Division of the Central Intelligence Agency

Notes and references[edit]

  1. ^Black's Law Dictionary 'the act of deliberately killing someone especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons' (Legal Research, Analysis and Writing by William H. Putman p. 215 and Assassination Policy Under International LawArchived December 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Harvard International Review, May 6, 2006 by Kristen Eichensehr).
  2. ^American Speech – McCarthy, Kevin M. Volume 48, pp. 77–83
  3. ^The Assassins: a radical sect in Islam – Bernard Lewis, pp. 11–12
  4. ^Secret Societies Handbook, Michael Bradley, Altair Cassell Illustrated, 2005. ISBN978-1-84403-416-1
  5. ^Martin Booth (2004). Cannabis: A History. Macmillan. ISBN978-0-312-42494-7.
  6. ^A briefe replie to a certaine odious and slanderous libel, lately published by a seditious Iesuite. Imprinted at London : By Arn. Hatfield, 1600 (STC 23453) p.103
  7. ^'assassinate, v.' OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. August 11, 2016.
  8. ^2 Kings 12:19-21
  9. ^2 Samuel 3:26-28 RSV
  10. ^2 Chronicles 32:21
  11. ^Boesche, Roger (January 2003). 'Kautilya's Arthaśāstra on War and Diplomacy in Ancient India'(PDF). The Journal of Military History. 67 (1): 9–37. doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0006.
  12. ^Johnson, Francis (March 3, 2008). Famous assassinations of history .. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
  13. ^Pichtel, John, Terrorism and WMDs: Awareness and Response, CRC Press (April 25, 2011) p.3-4. ISBN978-1439851753
  14. ^Ross, Jeffrey Ian, Religion and Violence: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict from Antiquity to the Present, Routledge (January 15, 2011), Chapter: Sicarii. 978-0765620484
  15. ^'FFZG.hr'(PDF). Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  16. ^M. Gillen 1972 Assassination of the Prime Minister: the shocking death of Spencer Perceval. London: Sidgwick & Jackson ISBN0-283-97881-3.
  17. ^Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai Swordsman: Master of War. Tuttle Publishing; 1 edition (August 5, 2014). p. 182. ISBN978-4805312940
  18. ^Chun, Jayson Makoto (2006). A Nation of a Hundred Million Idiots?: A Social History of Japanese Television, 1953–1973. Routledge. pp. 184–185. ISBN978-0-415-97660-2. Retrieved March 22, 2014.
  19. ^Burian, Michal; Aleš (2002). 'Assassination — Operation Arthropoid, 1941–1942'(PDF). Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
  20. ^Michael Ellman. The Role of Leadership Perceptions and of Intent in the Soviet Famine of 1931–1934. Europe-Asia Studies, 2005. p. 826
  21. ^Church Committee – Interim Report: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders Part III.B, page 71 from the 'history-matters.com' website. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
  22. ^John Dingles (2004) The Condor Years ISBN978-1-56584-764-4
  23. ^'English front cover – No Safe Haven'(PDF). p. 100. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 2, 2010. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
  24. ^'Mykonos front cover'(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on September 2, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  25. ^'Condemned by Law – Report 11-10-08.doc'(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on March 7, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  26. ^McSherry, J. Patrice (2011). 'Chapter 5: 'Industrial repression' and Operation Condor in Latin America'. In Esparza, Marcia; Henry R. Huttenbach; Daniel Feierstein (eds.). State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies). Routledge. p. 107. ISBN978-0415664578.
  27. ^Ghosh, Palash (April 27, 2013). 'Who Killed General Zia Of Pakistan? Perhaps The Israelis, The US, Moscow'. International Business Times. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  28. ^'The Salvador Option' – The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in IraqNewsweek, Friday January 14, 2005
  29. ^CBS: Death Squads In Iraqi HospitalsCBS Evening News, Wednesday October 4, 2006
  30. ^Iran 'training Shia death squads'[Scotsman.com News], March 22, 2007
  31. ^Benazir Bhutto shot dead at suicide bombing of rally; 20 feared deadThe Canadian Press, Thursday December 27, 2007
  32. ^Machiavelli, Niccolò (1985), The Prince, University of Chicago Press. Translated by Harvey Mansfield
  33. ^ abSchilling, Warner R.; Schilling, Jonathan L. (Fall 2016). 'Decision Making in Using Assassinations in International Relations'. Political Science Quarterly. 131 (3): 503–539. doi:10.1002/polq.12487.
  34. ^Commando Extraordinary – Foley, Charles; Legion for the Survival of Freedom, 1992, page 155
  35. ^Viet Cong – Pike, Douglas, The MIT Press; New Ed edition, Wednesday December 16, 1970
  36. ^ abcdAssassination in the United States: An Operational StudyArchived June 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine – Fein, Robert A. & Vossekuil, Brian, Journal of Forensic Sciences, Volume 44, Number 2, March 1999
  37. ^Hamas leader killed in Israeli airstrike – CNN, Saturday April 17, 2004
  38. ^Iraqi insurgents using Austrian rifles from Iran – The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday February 13, 2007
  39. ^The case of the poisoned umbrella. BBC World Service, 2007.
  40. ^Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin. The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB.Basic Books, 1999. ISBN978-0-465-00312-9 p. 362
  41. ^Putin 'Deplores' Spy Death – Sky News Friday November 24, 2006[dead link]
  42. ^ abcdefGary D. Solis (2010). The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-87088-7. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  43. ^Solis, Gary D. (February 15, 2010). The law of armed conflict .. – Gary D. Solis. ISBN978-1-139-48711-5. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
  44. ^Targeted killing is a necessary option, Sofaer, Abraham D., Hoover Institution, March 26, 2004
  45. ^ abAbraham D. Sofaer (March 26, 2004). 'Responses to Terrorism / Targeted killing is a necessary option'. The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on August 29, 2011. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
  46. ^Matthew J. Morgan (2009). The Impact of 9–11: The New Legal Landscape. Macmillan. ISBN978-0-230-60838-2. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  47. ^Amos Guiora (2004). 'Targeted Killing as Active Self-Defense'. 36 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 31920. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  48. ^Steven R. David (September 2002). 'Fatal Choices: Israel's Policy Of Targeted Killing'(PDF). The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. Archived from the original(PDF) on November 16, 2010. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  49. ^ abRory Miller (2007). Ireland and the Middle East: trade, society and peace. Irish Academic Press. ISBN978-0-7165-2868-5. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  50. ^'Targeted Killing and Assassination: The U.S. Legal Framework', Banks, William C., Raven-Hansen, Peter, 37 U. Rich. L. Rev. 667 (2002–03). Retrieved October 89, 2010.
  51. ^'Frequently Asked Questions About Targeting Killing American Civil Liberties Union'. Aclu.org. August 30, 2010. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  52. ^Stein, Yael (2003). 'By Any Name Illegal and Immoral: Response to 'Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing''. Carnegie Council. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  53. ^'Q&A: Targeted Killings', Eben Kaplan, The New York Times, January 25, 2006. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
  54. ^Dana Priest (November 8, 2002). 'U.S. Citizen Among Those Killed In Yemen Predator Missile Strike'. The Tech (MIT); The Washington Post. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  55. ^Mohammed Daraghmeh (February 20, 2001). 'Hamas Leader Dies in Apparent Israeli Targeted Killing'. Times Daily. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
  56. ^Greg Miller (January 31, 2010). 'U.S. citizen in CIA's cross hairs'. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 7, 2010. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
  57. ^Greg Miller (April 7, 2010). 'Muslim cleric Aulaqi is 1st U.S. citizen on list of those CIA is allowed to kill'. The Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
  58. ^Drone strikes by US may violate international law, says UN . The Guardian. 18 October 2013.
  59. ^UN report calls for independent investigations of drone attacks. The Guardian. 18 October 2013.
  60. ^'The Assassination Complex'. The Intercept. 15 October 2015.
  61. ^Lincoln – Appendix 7, Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964
  62. ^How to choose the appropriate bulletproof carsArchived January 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (from Alpha-armouring.com website, includes examples of protection levels available)
  63. ^ abThe Need For Protection Further Demonstrated – Appendix 7, Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964
  64. ^Donaldson-Evans, Catherine (December 20, 2001). 'It's Bin Laden .. or Is It?'. Fox News. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2006.
  65. ^Pelley, Scott (August 15, 2000). 'Mind of the Assassin'. CBS 60 Minutes II. Retrieved March 30, 2010.

Further reading[edit]

  • Clarke, James W. (2006). Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic Terrorists.
  • Clarke, James W. (January 28, 2011). America's History of Crazy Political Assassins Didn't Begin with Loughner. History News Network'.
  • Porter, Lindsay (2010). Assassination: a History of Political Murder. Thames and Hudson.ReviewThe Daily Telegraph, April 3, 2010.
  • 'Section B. Killing, injuring or capturing an adversary by resort to perfidy'. Customary IHL: Practice Relating to Rule 65. Perfidy. ICRC.
    • 'Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 (23.b.)'. Yale University.

External links[edit]

Look up assassination in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Assassination
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Assassination.
Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Assassination.
  • Notorious Assassinations – slideshow by Life magazine
  • CNNA short article on the U.S. policy banning political assassination since 1976 from CNN.com/Law Center, November 4, 2002. See also Ford's 1976 executive order. However, Executive Order 12333, which prohibited the CIA from assassinations, was relaxed by the George W. Bush administration.
  • Kretzmer, David 'Targeted Killing of Suspected Terrorists: Extra-Judicial Executions or Legitimate Means of Defence?'(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on March 7, 2008. (PDF)
  • Is the CIA Assassination Order of a US Citizen Legal? – video by Democracy Now!
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Assassination&oldid=899210549'
(Redirected from Assassins)
Look up assassin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Assassin usually refers to:

  • a member of the medieval Ismaili order of Assassins
  • someone who commits a targeted murder or assassination

Assassin(s) or The Assassin(s) may also refer to:

  • 2Books
  • 3Film and TV
  • 4Games
  • 5Music

Animals and insects[edit]

  • Assassin bugs, a genus in the family Reduviidae
  • Assassin spiders, a genus in the family Archaeidae

Books[edit]

  • 'The Assassin', story by Maupassant
  • The Assassins, story by Hemingway
  • The Assassins (Kazan novel) by Elia Kazan
  • The Assassin, novel by Harlan Ellison
  • The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam, a 1967 non-fiction book by Bernard Lewis
  • 'The Assassins' (The Hardy Boys), a fictional group in the 1987 Hardy Boys 'Casefiles' books
  • The Assassini, a 1990 novel by Thomas Gifford
  • Assassins (LaHaye novel), a 1999 novel in the Left Behind series by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim Lahaye
  • Krondor: The Assassins, a 1999 novel by Raymond E. Feist
  • The Hassassin in Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, 2000
  • The Assassins, a 2005 novel by Oliver North
  • 'The Assassin', a character in the 2006 Noble Warriors book trilogy
  • Assassin (Myers novel), a 2006 historical fiction novel by the children's author Anna Myers
  • Assassin (Cain novel), a 2008 thriller novel by Tom Cain, the third Samuel Carver book
  • Assassin's Creed, a series of novels based on the game series Assassin's Creed by Oliver Bowden

Comics and visual novels[edit]

  • Assassin (Fate/stay night), a fictional character
  • Assassin (Fate/Zero), a fictional character

Film and TV[edit]

Films[edit]

  • The Assassin, the UK title for Gunfighters (film), a 1947 American film directed by George Waggner
  • The Assassin (1961 film), an Italian film
  • Assassin (1969 film), a South Korean thriller film
  • The Assassin, also known as Yakuza Deka, a 1970 Japanese film starring Sonny Chiba
  • Assassin (1973 film), a British thriller film starring Ian Hendry
  • The Assassin a 1993 film also known as Point of No Return
  • Assassins (film), a 1995 American-French film starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas
  • Assassin(s), a 1997 French film
  • Margaret Cho: Assassin, a 2005 film by Margaret Cho
  • An Assassin, a 2011 Japanese film
  • The Assassins (film), a 2012 Chinese film
  • Assassin (2015 film), a British thriller film by J. K. Amalou starring Danny Dyer
  • The Assassin (2015 film), a Taiwanese-Hong Kong-Chinese film directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
  • Assassin's Creed (2016 film), an American US film directed by Justin Kurzel

Television[edit]

  • 'Assassins' (Desperate Housewives), a 2011 episode of the seventh season of the series
  • 'Assassin' (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), a 2008 episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent
  • 'The Assassin' (The Borgias), a 2011 episode of the Showtime-Bravo! series The Borgias
  • 'Assassin', a 1981 episode of the BBC series Blake's 7
  • 'The Assassin', an episode from the first season of MacGyver

Games[edit]

Video gaming[edit]

  • Assassin (video game), a 1992 video game
  • The Assassin (2000 video game), an unreleased game from OMC Games
  • A secret unlockable character in the Soulcalibur series, debuting in Soulcalibur II

Role playing[edit]

  • Assassin (character class), a character class common to many games
  • Assassin (game), a live-action role-playing game

Music[edit]

  • Assassin (band), an American heavy metal band
  • Assassin (deejay) (born 1982), Jamaican dancehall deejay
  • Assassin (rap crew), a French hardcore rap group

Stage[edit]

  • Assassins (musical), a 1990 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Albums[edit]

  • Assassin (album), a 1984 album by Assassin
  • Assassins (album), by Into a Circle
  • Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1, a 2008 album by Nachtmystium
  • I, Assassin, a 1982 album by Gary Numan
  • The Assassin (album), by Big Ed

Songs[edit]

  • 'Assassin' (The Orb song), 1992
  • 'Assassin' (Muse song), 2006
  • 'Assassin', a song by John Mayer on the album Battle Studies
  • 'Assassin', a song by Motörhead on the album Snake Bite Love
  • 'Assassin', a song by Morbid Saint on the album Spectrum of Death
  • 'Assassins', a song by The Insane Clown Posse on the album The Amazing Jeckel Brothers
  • 'Assassins', a song by noise rock duo Lightning Bolt from the album Wonderful Rainbow
  • 'The Assassin', a song by Iron Maiden from the 1990 album No Prayer for the Dying
  • 'Assassing', a song by Marillion on the album Fugazi

Other meanings[edit]

  • Associated prime ideal in mathematics
  • The Assassins (professional wrestling), a wrestling tag team
  • Assassin (horse) (1779–c. 1794), Thoroughbred racehorse that won the 1782 Epsom Derby
  • The Assassin, a ring name of professional wrestler Jody Hamilton
  • The Assassin, a nickname for street basketball player Brandon Durham
  • The Assassin, a nickname for former American football defensive back Jack Tatum
  • All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN)

See also[edit]

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