Are killings by government agencies justified?
This week’s news of the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Mambouh in Dubai on January 20 most likely being the work of Israel’s secret service Mossad, has put the issue of murders by government agencies back in the limelight.
The practice of targeted killing has a long history in Israel. Most famously, the Mossad hunted down and killed many of those it held responsible for the murder of several Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympics.
Israel is probably not the only nation that doles out death on a personal level. Last year, the New Yorker magazine reported the United States uses surgical drone missile strikes to take out key Taliban leaders. In one such strike, 11 people died who happened to be unlucky enough to be close to a target.
Collateral damage is one of the main moral objections raised against state-sponsored assassinations. An oft cited argument in favour of the liquidations is that they are in the interest of justice.
Probably the most important question is whether the strikes are effective. If the killing of an alleged terrorist leader can prevent future attacks, hundreds of lives might be saved in the process. Of course, the opposite may also hold true: perhaps the killing of its leadership motivates a terrorist organisation to carry out more attacks in retribution.
What do you think? Are targeted killings by government agencies justified? Why? Are they effective?
Saturday 20 February 2010, 18:51
Most civilised countries agree that capital punishment/death penalty is a violation of human rights.
A government co-ordinated assassination equals death penalty without a trial.
Didn’t we go to war to fight this type of injustice in the past and present i.e. Irak, Afghanistan, etc.
What is the role of the UN in this matter.
Will there be an enquiry?
Or is it business as usual.
Saturday 20 February 2010, 19:04
Being an American and one of those personally affected by 9/11, I can understand a country wanting to eliminate those responsible for an attack. But I feel in these cases killing ONE terrorist doesn’t solve the problem. In fact there are usually more terrorists ‘waiting in the wings’ and killing one does more to aggravate successors into more violence.
Saturday 20 February 2010, 22:15
No one at earth have/can justify the targeted killing by the government agencies and no one should support this!
Throughout our history governmental agencies around the globe have been involve in the Extra-Judicial killings of their opponents.
The UN and the EU should take proper measures to hold the states responsible for these acts and the International Criminal Court of The Hague should be the place for open trial’s of the culprits.
Saturday 20 February 2010, 22:37
Beats an – no basis in international law – invasion with lots of collateral damage (known to you and me as innocent bystanders, that were unlucky enough to be in the area).
Despite the warning, “the person should be considered innocent until proven guilty”, I just note that the alleged perps are now on Interpol’s most wanted list. So it would seem that extra-judicial is still …
Sunday 21 February 2010, 13:53
Answering that question is not interresting, it will happen anyway, certainly by countries with a troubled democracy.
What is much more shocking is the fact that the Mossad used identities of it’s own citizens, they betrayed their own kind!
Not one Israëli with a double passport is safe from now on.
The distrust it will generate is far more threatening for Israël than anything else.
The beast has starten to eat itself, poor people of Israël who will be left with nothing but fear.
Fear from within added to the fear they had to live with for so long.
Thursday 25 February 2010, 19:46
I really question the validity of the Mossad being behind this. I can seen believe that an Arab or European country might set this up to look like a Mossad assassination. It wouldn’t surprise me that another government might plan this to allow them to separate themselves from Israel. I just can’t believe any governments agency could be this sloopy. You know the government in Dubia has to have someone feeding them this intelligence, like it was planned to be documented.
No I’m not Jewish!
As for a country condoning this action. I think it is only logical. Send 1 soldier to terminate 1 evil leader who has no regard for life, peace, prosperity or even the happiness of their own country or the one they are attacking and all those people being killed.
Yes I would take that shot for my country and any other threatened by a terrorist, evil dictator or corrupt government official. If only Hitler had been dealt that way. Or Mussolini or so many others.
Friday 26 February 2010, 20:04
Alan in AZ
I think we all agree, in hindsight, that it would be great if someone had taken Hitler out, before the War (during the War it would clearly have been legal for an opposing solder to try to kill him). But before the War, how do you decide he is really going to do what he did. How do you decide that you have the right to kill someone elected by the majority of the German population?
And once you give any government these powers, how do you control them. Russian agencies seem happy to kill political opponents abroad. If you were a Russian, would you feel justified in poisoning a politician in the UK who opposed the current Russian government?
Friday 26 February 2010, 21:25
This is an interesting question even if formally at war. Isn’t there something in the Geneva Convention about this? If we went around assassinating every leader we didn’t like, what kind of world would that be? I wonder what the press and the world would be saying if the assassination had been of an Israeli figure or an American? What would we do or say if the Chinese assassinated a political figure from the West who spoke out and threatened them or sold weapons to arm an enemy of China? You see, this is not a solution at all. If the Israeli is allowed to do this, then anyone in the world can do the same without fear of retribution. To me it is uncivilized… but so is war.
Saturday 27 February 2010, 13:34
#6 Alan; Unfortunatly for your assumption, only the Israëli governement had acces to the stolen identities of the attackers, since there were more ‘country-identities’ than just one country involved. It is virtualy impossibble that the Irish, Brittish, French and maybee more governements coöperated to fulfill your assumption, you sometimes wish they would coöperate that good. Anyhow it is more than clear who is behind this (the Mossad), and I think that is very bad for Israël and its inhabitants, who can they trust from now on?
The arrogance and being completly out of touch with reality of them who hold the power is breaking the country, the question is how to rescue Israël from this disaster, because this path will lead to irretrievable damage for the state of Israël and therefore it is a bigger threat for its future than any traditional militant group like Hamas
Sunday 28 February 2010, 20:09
The Mossad may have a daunting reputation, yet in 2004, two Mossad agents got imprisoned then deported from New Zealand, after trying to enter on false passports.
As we live in a democracy famous for it’s Hague Tribunal, we should support bringing war criminals & terrorists etc to justice. That is the civilized thing to do.
Unfortunately, capture can be extremely tricky, and often impossible. And the world is not such a noble place. We should presume that most if not all governments have clandestine agencies that deal with people we mostly never hear about.
Such underhandedness is understandable .. yet in an ideal world, not to be condoned. If we wish to achieve a more peaceful world .. we must strive to encourage integrity, respectful co operation & negotiation.
Yes, the guy they knocked off was no saint .. he was responsible for a lot of grief. However, what Israelis are doing to Palestinians is inexcusable. For every Israeli murdered by Palestinians, there are 7- 10 Palestinians murdered by Israelis.
Extra-judicial killings should be brought to trial .. otherwise, where do we draw the line ??
Monday 1 March 2010, 13:24
Well, I get confuse in defining who a terrorist really is. In the said case a “suspect” brutally assassinated.What happened to the rule that says innocent until proven guilty. If the killers and their government think this guy was a suspect, they should have gathered their evidence and brought him to justice. They however failed to do just that and instead decided to carry out jungle justice, supported by other Gov’ts.
These killers are the real terrorist and they know they have no grounds to even accused this man that is why they will not even attempt to bring him to court because the court will decide against them.
Big nations that are supposed to condemn these acts are the ones instead spearheading these type of activities. The only reason why there is a crying now is because Passports of these countries have been used.
God is watching over us and one day we will hace to allto face him directly.
I am a christian and a Cameroonian who is just giving his honest opinion.
Vallyboss
Thursday 4 March 2010, 20:17
If you agree that Israel and Hamas are at war and the war is just – and both sides agree they are – then you must conclude that to bring about the death of an enemy is justified. Nor do the Geneva conventions outlaw such killings. Nor does international law.
It goes without saying that Hamas is very enthusiastic about killing Israelis and is not worried about ending up in the Hague regardless of the number and frequencies of their killings.
Nor do I hear calls from around the world to bring Hamas or Queda terrorists before international courts. Though many are happy to entertain the idea of bringing Israeli leaders to the Hague.
Tuesday 16 March 2010, 4:21
Q. Are killings by government agencies justified?
A. Sure why not?