Bush policy of targeted killing of US citizens

In threads concerning the Nick Berg murder and whether US forces may have been involved, many posters stated that it is impossible that the US government would be involved in the killing of an American citizen.

Whatever else we conclude about the Nick Berg case, I hope that we can completely dispel the notion that the Bush administration could not possibly be complicit in the killing of a US citizen. This is an very naive and uninformed view of Bush administration policy.

The Bush administration has adopted an official policy of targeted killing of American citizens accused of terrorism or accused of assisting terrorists. This policy is consistent with the histories, behavior and expressed policy preferences of several Bush administration officials who were also officials of the Nixon, Reagan and Bush I administrations, such as Donald Rumsfeld, John Negroponte and Elliot Abrams.

That the Bush administration has publicly adopted the policy of targeted killing of US citizens accused of terrorism is not the wild imaginations of left wing sources; it has been reported for example by ABC News and Associated Press:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/cia_americans021203.html

“CIA Target: Americans Officials: U.S. Citizens Working for Al Qaeda Can Be Killed in CIA Actions

“The authority to kill U.S. citizens is granted under a secret finding signed by the president after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that directs the CIA to covertly attack al Qaeda anywhere in the world. The authority makes no exception for Americans, so permission to strike them is understood rather than specifically described, officials said.”

This policy has been implemented and publicly acknowledged at least once. On November 3, 2002, the CIA killed a US citizen of Yemeni origin, Kamal Derwish, during its predator drone strike on an al-Queda terrorist in Yemen.

This policy is consistent with many Bush administration officials' histories.

In 1973 during the US sponsored coup in Chile, CIA assets in the Chilean armed forces detained and killed American citizen Charles Horman. The Nixon administration denied any role in the murder of Horman, but years later, Freedom of Information Act disclosures document US complicity in the killing. Donald Rumsfeld was counselor to President Nixon, although he had been moved to Nato during the actual coup against Chile’s democratically elected government.

The murder of Horman, the attempt by his widow and father to find his body and the cover up by US embassy officials was made into an excellent – and accurate – film, “Missing,” with Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemon. I strongly urge any DUers who have not seen “Missing” to rent and view this film.

In late 1980, CIA and/or US military assets in the Salvadoran armed forces raped and murdered four US citizens who were activists and nuns – American nuns, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan. Although the killing took place during the lame duck portion of the Carter administration, a coverup was organized by the Reagan administration. Convicted Iran-Contra felon Elliot Abrams, now on the National Security Council, was a State Department official overseeing Central America for much of that period.

In the late 1980s, at least five US citizens were murdered in Guatemala by CIA assets in the Guatemalan military. John Negroponte, was then US ambassador to Honduras, overseeing the counter-insurgency efforts throughout Central America. Activists assert that all “hits” in Central American had to be approved by Negroponte at that time. Negroponte, a high ranking official in the Bush II administration, recently oversaw the ouster of Haitian president Jean Betrand Aristide, and has been nominated to be US ambassador to the United Nations.

All these killings of American citizens in the past were illegal and therefore the US government sought to deny responsibility. Today, however, the Bush administration takes the position that extra-judicial killings of US citizens suspected of terrorist links is perfectly legal.

Try to keep in mind the big picture of the Bush II administration’s plans for new “justice” system for accused terrorists. If the Bush administration wins all of its court cases and implements all of its expressed policy preferences, anyone accused of terrorism who is not a “state actor,” that is a soldier of another state, would get neither the protections of the criminal justice system, nor the protections afforded POWs under the Geneva Convention. This is the system in place, for example, in Guantanamo and Iraqi prisons.

Because they do not enjoy due process or POW protections, accused terrorists may be subjected to extreme interrogations, which many activists and NGOs, such as the Red Cross, consider to be torture. Confessions to terrorism obtained by torture would justify the indefinite detention of accused terrorists.

Persons detained as accused terrorists, or “enemy combatants” may be detained indefinitely without a hearing before a court, without counsel and even without notification of family members.

US citizens detained on US soil accused of terrorism are subject to this system, according to Bush administration policy and actions. This is what has occurred to alleged “dirty bomber” and US citizen Jose Padilla, who was detained on US soil, but removed to Guantanamo without trial. Before the Supreme Court the Bush administration's Solicitor General has argued that it is the view of the administration that once the President accuses a person of being a terrorist that person may be held indefinitely without trial and may be removed from the territory of the US.

US citizens accused of terrorism may, at the discretion of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, be killed under the post 9/11 Presidential finding.

I hope this dispels any notion that there are, in the view of the Bush administration, legal or policy obstacles to the indefinite detention, torture or killing of US citizens accused, but not convicted, of terrorism or aiding terrorist causes.

The lurid photos from America's gulag outpost in Iraq are being spun to give the impression that this is some sort of aberration, and the Berg execution video furthers the theme that there are SOME things that only the barbaric foreigners would be capable of.

You are putting the attention exactly where it should be -- on the institutional context, and the very systematic construction of a world-wide mechanism for absolute control of life and death of individuals by the US "government."

Given their resumes, I was alarmed when GWB appointed Abrams, Negroponte, Reich, and (briefly) Poindextor. Was it to Latin Americanize the U.S., I thought? Create a two tier society with a well fed and well protected upper class and the rest of us just "cannon fodder" and "useless eaters" -- with the tools of repression in place in case any of us dissent too loudly from this arrangement.

None of us familiar with the School of the Americas and our history in South and Central America are surprised at all by the recent turn of events.

To those out there in DU land that think this thinking naive, I think Coppolla's comments on American governance have weight when he has Michael say to Kay, in the Godfather (1972):

Michael: I'm working for my father now. He's been sick, very sick.
Kay: But you're not like him, Michael. I thought you weren't going to become a man like your father. That's what you told me.
Michael: My father's no different than any other powerful man (Kay laughs), any man who's responsible for other people. Like a senator or a president.
Kay: You know how naive you sound?
Michael: Why?
Kay: Senators and presidents don't have men killed.
Michael: Oh, who's being naive, Kay?

Under the circumstances, it is worth recalling more details of the Charles Horman ("Missing") case, which can be found here:

http://www.fact-index.com/c/ch/charles_horman.html

"On September 17, 1973, six days after the US-backed military takeover, Horman was seized by Chilean soldiers and taken to the National Stadium in Santiago, which had been turned by the military into an ad hoc concentration camp, where prisoners were interrogated, tortured and executed. One month later, Horman's body turned up in a morgue in the Chilean capital. A second American journalist, Frank Terrugi, met with the same fate.

"At the time of the military uprising, Horman was in the resort town of Vina del Mar, near the port of Valparaiso, which was a key base for both the Chilean coup plotters and US military and intelligence personnel who were supporting them. While there, he spoke with several US operatives and took notes documenting the role of the United States in overthrowing the Allende government. This discovery led to his secret arrest and US-sanctioned execution. Efforts by his family to determine his fate were met with resistance and duplicity by US embassy officials in Santiago, who knew he was dead and why he had been killed."


Some relevant documents -- edited and unedited versions of US State Dept explanations of his death:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/19991008/

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/19991008/01-04.htm

you are 100% correct.

very well done

I had the same thought many times.

And: For people who pretend to be Christian, it cannot matter if a human being is American or not, the value of life certainly doesn't depend on the nationality (in theory). In reality, it does, and that shows the hypocrisy of the US foreign policy.

Extra judicial killing of suspects? Torture, no problem!

anyone at this point would think they would hesitate to kill an American for their own gain. Look what they did on 9/11/01, after all...

From the Article:

"In the late 1980s, at least five US citizens were murdered in Guatemala by CIA assets in the Guatemalan military. John Negroponte, was then US ambassador to Honduras, overseeing the counter-insurgency efforts throughout Central America. Activists assert that all “hits” in Central American had to be approved by Negroponte at that time. Negroponte, a high ranking official in the Bush II administration, recently oversaw the ouster of Haitian president Jean Betrand Aristide, and has been nominated to be US ambassador to the United Nations."

And Negroponte just got appointed "Ambassador" to Iraq in April.

it is a coincidence.

I was wondering, do you think that the DUers can be divided into two groups -- those who were alive during the 1970s and 1980s when many Bushistas were active in their first go rounds and those who were not yet born? In other words, are older DUers more likely to remember Negroponte et al?

constantly tell our stories. And repeat, because new people come in. Eg, there are questions about VN and the 60s about every 4 months. Also the civil rights movement, the women's movement.

And a lot of the info simply isn't in textbooks.

Colleague (since died) told/reminded me about Negroponte when W put him up for UN ambassador.

How do you submit an article?

if you don't find it, start a thread in the Ask the Admin Forum

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A LOT of journalists have been killed in Iraq. I keep thinking of that tank that turned its turret (is that the word) directly at the hotel where journalists were known to stay and fired away. But there have been many other instances, some no doubt "accidents," and some much less apparently accidents.

Edit: In fact, I just remembered that the government (Rumsfeld? Centcom?) quite specifically warned journalists in advance that if they weren't embedded they could be killed.

the reuters cameraman outside abu ghraib prison , I believe

1951: Department of Defense begins open air tests using disease-producing bacteria and viruses. Tests last through 1969 and there is concern that people in the surrounding areas have been exposed.

1995: Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/experimentation.html

Of course the government would kill a U.S. citizen. As has been noted before, the government exists to serve corporations, and the citizens exist to serve the government.

Edit: The article includes a list of known experiments expanding far beyond the ones I cited.