US Foreign Assassinations of leaders since 1945 has been a popular method of regime change, although officially illegal for some of this time. The US government has carried out bombings and other efforts at "regime change".

Nations in which the CIA has assassinated or attempted to assassinate a movement leader

The US has made more than 50 attempts to assassinate political party leaders according to William Blum in his 2003 book Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II, which is "far and away the best book on the topic" according to Noam Chomsky,[1] and "the single most useful summary of CIA history" in the opinion of former CIA officer John Stockwell.[2] All such operations are illegal, performed for undisclosed reasons by undisclosed people, and rarely if ever is a clear humanitarian benefit identifiable.

This list does not include killings of US citizens, such as the assassination of Martin Luther King, in which a US jury concluded in 1999 the US government was involved.

Legal status

On February 18, 1976 US President Gerald Ford signed Executive Order 11905 which banned political assassinations, declaring that "No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination."[10]

Three days after 9/11, the US congress gave "Authorization for Use of Military Force" (AUMF) to the US president[11]. This vague legal statue has been stretched to legalize assassination of al-Qaeda purported leaders.[12] People on the target list are considered military enemies of the U.S., and therefore not subject to ealier legislation.

Recent Developments

The CIA has been a preferred tool of the US deep state to carry out assassinations for a range of reasons. After 1976, effort was made to make them plausibly deniable. However, post 2001, the US government is increasingly blatant about assassinating whoever it pleases. The official narrative, however, still avoids the word assassination, preferring instead the phrase "targeted killing". Attacks are being made on individuals or leaders of quite small groups who are post hoc designated "terrorists". Since 2011, for example, there have been killings of nuclear technicians in Iran. Drones are proving increasingly effective at killing targets, and are being programmed to make autonomous decisions about whom to kill.[13]

Related Document

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