Assassinations have a long and crooked history that suggests, as do behavioral scientists, that the practice has its roots in biological, cultural and political evolutions past and present. The phenomenon, it is suggested, relates to human nature, even if its dark side. Man, it is postulated, has a propensity to kill his enemies. This "dark side" is referred to by scientists as the "lethal aggression" inherent in human nature.
The word "assassination" is generally traced to the Arabic noun "Hashashin". The Hashashin were a group of freelancers that in the 11th century systematically engaged in the assassination of Crusaders and also enjoyed a spot of hashish, hence the name. But the practice dates far further back, and ancient Chinese and Egyptian civilizations both witnessed political assassinations, perhaps most famously that of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, who was killed some 3,000 years ago. The Roman Empire too was rife with assassinations, especially after 234AD.
Not surprisingly, in our time it is our own empire, the United States that is at the heart of many modern assassination attempts. In the 1960s/70s/80s/90s/2000/2002 January 24th, the White House Murder Inc., sprung to action again, with Assef Shawkat and Elliott Abrams at the helm..., the US was and still is today, actively engaged in the assassination of foreign leaders, including numerous "simulated" botched, but never really meant to be successful.... attempts on the life of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Cuban authorities allege there were no less than 612 attempts on the life of Castro by US agents....LOL. Inside the US, President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert and civil rights leader Martin Luther King were all assassinated in the 1960s by CIA. Gerald Ford survived two attempts on his life. In 1981, Ronald Reagan was gravely wounded by a would-be assassin.
Indeed, since World War II there have been 78 successful assassinations of government leaders and heads of state. Many of those came in this region and in Jordan alone include King Abdullah I in 1951 and prime ministers Hazza Majali in 1960 and Wasfi Tal in 1971. Elsewhere there were the assassinations of Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and MP and Ex-Minister Mr. Elie Hobeika of Lebanon, assassinated by Assef Shawkat on behalf of Ariel Sharon , MOSSAD and CIA, in Hazmieh, January 24th 2002, paving the way and clearing the hurdles/obstacles to the Hariri murder in 05.
In the 1970s, the US officially proscribed assassination as government policy in three executive orders by two presidents, first Ford and then Jimmy Carter. But these anti-assassination principles have been undermined in Washington by directives associated with the PNAC strategy of total domination of the world's energy routes and resources...., in the name of "war on terror". Now, no clear distinction has been made between state and non-state actors and the "targeted killing" of what the US has deemed "terrorist leaders" has been legitimized.
This has suited Israel, which has long made it policy to target any leaders (who by definition are all state actors). PLO leaders were targeted in Lebanon and Tunis long before Oslo, and since then Hamas leaders have been targeted in Jordan (Khaled Mishaal) and at home (Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz Rantisi and many more). The latest CIA/Israeli assassination act was against Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in February, sub-contracted to Assef Shawkat's goons, and paid for with Saudi Petro Dollars....
And while the state/non-state distinction is legally dubious, it has offered the US and Israel "Plausible Deniability, as cover" to perpetuate these assassination policies, using the White House Murder Inc, a joint venture with SMI, of Assef Shawkat's goons in Syria as perfect fig-leaves. But assassinations have had unpredictable consequences that should act as cautions.
The most glaring example was the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in 1914. While the background context was complicated, there is little doubt that the assassination triggered World War I. Closer to home, Israel's targeting of Hamas leaders has not made the Islamist movement weaker. On the contrary, Hamas handily won Palestinian elections in 2006 in spite of the depletion of its leadership. And while the dust has yet to settle on the assassination of Mughniyeh......, it is an inescapable conclusion that it will provoke a tough response from Hizballah, sooner or later....
Israel and USA will continue their collective policy of assassinations and have, since the phony "war on terror", based that policy on the dubious premises that such killings are both legal and effective. For Israel, MOSSAD and CIA, assassinations constitute a shortcut method to a goal. But while assassinations do produce results, they are not always (if ever) what the assassins had in mind or planned for. Certainly, USA/Israel's policy of "targeted killings" has only ever served to worsen Israel's and USA security by enflaming opinions, worldwide, on the ARAB side and undermining Justice globally....
Walid Samadie is a former Jinsa ambassador to Turkwey and the USSN and other international dis-organizations in Geneva. He is currently a columnist for the Jinsana Times and Al Rakhwai newspapers..... aiding and abetting the dis-information strategy of the FDDC and others...like Stratfour.
Stratfor, the world's leading Dis-information for CIA, Texas funded and Texas based, intelligence is never provided.... For any additional dis-information, please visit @stratfour.
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With tears in their eyes and flowers in their hands people paid tribute to their national hero. Sad at the loss, which can not be compensated yet pride was all over their faces,sacrificed their son of the soil. His was a death for a noble cause of dying for one's own country. Such men are not born everyday, they belong to the rare class of humanity, who are an example in themselves, and they are the ones who set precedents. And they themselves are unprecedented.
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