Dead or Alive: The Future of U.S. Assassination Policy Under a Just War Tradition
In 1976, Gerald Ford signed Executive Order (E.O.) 11,905 in response to a report by the Church Committee, which detailed the United States’ involvement in several assassination attempts. E.O. 11,905 forbade employees from engaging in or conspiring to engage in political assassination. Ronald Reagan expanded upon that prohibition in 1981 by issuing E.O. 12,333, which prohibited not only employees of the United States, but also anyone “acting on behalf of the United States” from conspiring to engage in assassination. Moreover, the ban on assassination described in E.O. 12,333 was not limited to “political assassination” as previously ordered under E.O. 11,905, but applied to all assassination.5 E.O. 12,333 is still in effect, despite the George W. Bush Administration’s stated intention to proceed with “targeted killings” of terrorist leaders and possibly even financiers of terrorism through the use of drones and other methods. Indeed, in accordance with authority granted to the CIA by President Bush, lethal missile strikes were used to kill suspected leaders of al Qaeda. The Obama Administration has already taken steps to distance its policies from those of the Bush Administration with regard to torture and the use of Guantanamo Bay, but it has not expressed a perspective on the use of assassination. In fact, in language similar to Bush’s colloquialism shortly after September 11, 2001, that Osama bin Laden was “‘[w]anted, dead or alive,’” President-elect Barack Obama, just before his inauguration, reiterated his “preference” to “capture or kill” bin Laden. Moreover, in the early days of his administration, it appears President Obama has used drones in a manner consistent with the policies of the prior administration.
