Assassination or ‘targeted killings’?
Joshua Raines of the University of Iowa College of Law argues that although assassination, ‘narrowly defined’ [sic], is illegal, ‘targeted killings’ could well be permissible under ‘just war’ criteria. The US should therefore pass legislation that allows for ‘…targeted killings under a very narrow range of circumstances with adequate checks built in to curtail abuse.’
Joshua Raines – ‘Osama, Augustine, and assassination: the just war doctrine and targeted killings’ in Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, 12 (Spring 2002), pp. 217-243.
The assassination dilemma is addressed in a special issue of the University of Richmond Law Review. With articles bearing titles such as ‘Proposal for a new Executive Order on assassination’ and ‘It’s not really “assassination”: legal and moral implications of intentionally targeting terrorists and aggressor-state regime elites’, it’s not difficult to see where sympathies lie.
University of Richmond Law Review, 37 (3) (March 2003)
After this, it comes as a slight relief to read Major Tyler J. Harder’s view that repealing the existing Executive Order (…) would ‘…not make assassination legal; rather, it would eliminate confusion and misunderstanding [that it] creates, and ensure that the United states has maximum flexibility in responding to contemporary foreign affairs issues.’
Tyler J. Harder – ‘Time to repeal the assassination ban of Executive Order 12,333: a small step in clarifying current law’, Military Law Review, 172 (June 2002), pp. 1-39.
UFOs
The Rendlesham Forest UFO (the UK’s equivalent of Roswell?) featured in a paper given by Peter Robbins at MUFON’s annual UFO symposium held last July at Rochester, New York. (MUFON is the Mutual UFO Network). Robbins co-authored Left at East Gate (Michael O’Mara, 1997), a detailed account of the events that took place near the joint USAF/RAF bases at Bentwaters and Woodbridge in Suffolk in December 1980.
Peter Robbins – ‘An American in Suffolk: reflections, observations and updates on a decade’s research into Britain’s Rendlesham Forest UFO incident’. MUFON International UFO Symposium Proceedings, (2002), pp.150-160.
- More information about MUFON can be found at
< http://www.mufon.com > - Mark Lucas’s article, ‘If you go down to the woods today…’ in The Independent of 4 December 2002 provides a handy summary of the incident.
Following pressure from the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Ministry of Defence finally agreed to release some of its Rendlesham files last December. The text of these is available at <http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/foi/ufo/ufofilepartpdf>
Biological weapons
In a survey of one particular type of ‘weapons of mass destruction’, the authors conclude that ‘…threat assessments of toxins as potential [biological weapons] will require a network of interdisciplinary expertise that crosses traditional boundaries and areas of responsibilities, with access to classified and unrestricted information…’
Sebestyen Gorka and Richard Sullivan, ‘Biological toxins: A bioweapon threat in the 21st century’, Security Dialogue, 33 (2) (June 2002), pp 141-156.
The Cold War
The Congress of Cultural Freedom’s ‘The Future of Freedom’ Conference held in Milan in 1955 is the focus of an article by Giles Scott-Smith. He offers an overview of the Conference’s ‘end of ideology’ theme and its main protagonists. (Scott-Smith is the author of The Politics of Apolitical Culture: the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA, and post-war American hegemony, Routledge, 2001, reviewed in Lobster 43)
Giles Scott-Smith, ‘The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the end of ideology and the 1955 Milan Conference: Defining the Parameters of Discourse’, Journal of Contemporary History, 37 (3)(July 2002), pp 437-455.
Fred Halliday proposes an outline for an anthology of Cold War literature covering five major themes: nuclear war; wars of the third world; belief and betrayal; the spy novel; and the end of cold war. Fred Halliday, ‘High and just proceedings: Notes towards an anthology of the Cold War’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 30 (3) (2001).
Latin America
Francois Le Roy analyses the 1967 ‘Mirage Affair’, in which Peru had the temerity to buy twelve Mirage 5 supersonic fighter jets from France, ‘despite [the US Government’s] repeated warnings of the consequences.’ The initial consequences were financial:the United States withheld development loans from Peru. According to Le Roy, the Mirage deal also ended the presidency of Fernando Belaunde Terry and helped usher in the military dictatorship of Juan Velasco Alvarado.
Francois Le Roy, ‘Mirages over the Andes: Peru, France, the United States, and military jet procurement in the 1960s’, Pacific Historical Review, 71 (2) (May 2002), pp 269-300. (1)
9/11
The Journal of American History, published by the Organization of American Historians, has produced a special issue aiming to put the event into some sort of historical perspective. Scholars with expertise on terrorism, anti-Americanism, the Middle East, fundamentalism, and foreign relations, have contributed essays, with topics ranging from CIA activities in Afghanistan to anti-Americanism in the Arab world.
‘History and September 11: a special issue’ The Journal of American History, 89(2) (September 2002). Also available in full at
< http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/89.2/ >.
Spooks
Richard L. Russell, an academic based at the Near East-South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, the National Defense University, examines the strengths and weaknesses of American intelligence during the first Gulf War. As you would expect from someone who worked for the CIA (he was a political-military analyst specialising in Middle East and European affairs), Russell believes that the CIA’s intelligence was more accurate than that of the defence establishment.
Richard L. Russell, ‘CIA’s strategic intelligence in Iraq’, Political Science Quarterly, 117 (2) (Summer 2002), pp 191-207. Also available in full at
< http:// www.psqonline. org/ >.
Deep Throat Uncovered?
At a conference held in Washington DC in May, Professor Bill Gaines of the University of Illinois announced that, after four years, he and his journalism students had concluded that Fred Fielding (former assistant to President Nixon) was ‘Deep Throat’ who provided information about the Watergate break-in. This site contains a great deal of material related to the investigation conducted by Gaines and his students over the past four years, including information about the documents they reviewed, various media responses to their findings, a brief synopsis about the Watergate scandal, and the clues that led the students to Fielding.
< http://deepthroatuncovered.com/ >
McCarthy records released
On 5 May 2003 the Senate Committee on Government Affairs announced the release of all of the previously closed transcripts of executive session proceedings during Joe McCarthy’s embattled tenure as a subcommittee Chair (1953 – 1954). The transcripts of 16 closed hearings – some 9,675 pages of testimony given by close to 500 witnesses – is the largest quantity of documents related to the McCarthy or his investigations ever to be released.
The complete five-volume set is available on the Government Printing Office web site at < http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate12cp107.html >. Printed copies of the hearings may be purchased from the Government Printing Office at < http://bookstore.gpo.gov >.
The not so free
Freedom under fire: dissent in post-9/11 America, a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, describes how federal and state government officials, aided and abetted by the police, have used censorship, surveillance, detention, and force to clamp down on dissent since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Protesters in various parts of the country have been beaten, maced, and faced horseback charges. FBI agents have also spied on professors and students at the University of Massachusetts. The Report is available online at
< http://www aclu.org/dissentreport >.
Notes
1 Related to which see ‘NATO and eastern Europe’ in ‘The View from the Bridge’ in this issue – ed.