Judicial Assassination / Targeted Killings

U.S. shows signs of emulating controversial Israeli anti-terrorism policy.

The Israeli use of assassination as a national security method goes back decades. One important element of the tactic is that Israeli assassinations have been directed at foreigners, defined as "state enemies." Targets over the years have included officers from Arab armies, German-Nazi scientists who worked for Arab military projects and Palestinian terrorists. Israeli intelligence agents, their foreign helpers and Israel's military units executed the operations outside of Israel's borders and in the occupied territories, but never inside Israel or against Israeli citizens.

The first known targeted killing occurred in 1956, when an Israeli agent gave a rigged parcel to Col. Mustafa Hafez, the director of Egyptian military intelligence in Gaza, which was then under Egyptian control. When Hafez opened the package, it exploded in his face, mortally wounding him.

clipped from findarticles.com ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 14 - Olmert On Killing Arafat. APS Diplomat Recorder,  September, 2003 Deputy PM Ehud Olmert tells Israel Ratio: "Arafat can no longer be a factor in what happens here. The question is: How are we going to do it? Expulsion is certainly one of the options, and killing is also one of the options. In my eyes, from a moral point of view, this is no different than the eliminations of others who were involved in activating acts of terror". (In Ramallah, a beaming Arafat soaked up the cheers of supporters who descended on his compound for a fourth straight day. Israel has carried out dozens of killings of ... Want to read the whole article? You can purchase it here It's quick and easy.