NonilexMar 3

#GiftArticle

#Trump Opens the Pandora’s Box of #Assassination
Killing anyone without a trial, let alone a foreign leader, involves a #moral choice.
[& Trump has no morals.]

On Saturday, the #US, in a joint op with #Israel, killed #Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali #Khamenei. For the first time in the postwar era, DC has succeeded in killing a foreign leader—shattering a precedent that had been sustained for decades by a mix of moral, political, & logistical concerns.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/khamenei-assassination-precedent/686215/?gift=guxsrl_dAdXUP9zqbQPWxQWCisA23rxrHDj14QNX3Go

Trump Opens the Pandora’s Box of Assassination

Killing anyone without a trial, let alone a foreign leader, involves a moral choice.

The Atlantic
Show threadNonilexMar 3
50 years ago, in Feb 1976, President #GeraldFord signed Executive Order 11905, which directed that “no employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political #assassination.” There should be no tears…for #Khamenei, who for 4 decades oversaw a repressive state with terroristic tentacles that extended throughout the world. But it is worth looking at why presidents of both political parties have long been wary of the #StateSponsoredMurder of foreign leaders.
Show threadNonilexMar 3
As a US representative, Ford was a member of the #WarrenCommission, which investigated the #assassination of President #JohnFKennedy. The experience affected him profoundly. During a site visit to the Texas School Book Depository, the members of the committee took a rifle similar to the one used by Lee Harvey Oswald & looked through its scope at the traffic below. “Kennedy had been my friend,” Ford later recalled. “The thought we were reconstructing his assassination sent a chill down my spine.”
Show threadNonilexMar 3
When Ford learned as president that the #CIA had engaged members of the #Mafia in a failed effort to kill #FidelCastro during the #Eisenhower & #Kennedy years,he was dismayed & decided to form a special commission to investigate abuses by the intelligence community & suggest reforms. Days after announcing the formation of the #RockefellerCommission in Jan 1975, Ford accidentally shared at an off-the-record lunch with execs & editors from NYT that his concern about abuses involved #assassination.
Show threadNonilexMar 3

While awkwardly trying to make a point about the continuing importance of secrecy, Ford told his guests that he had learned of some #CIA activities that, if made public, would undermine the reputation of his Cold War predecessors. When asked for an example, the president absentmindedly responded, “Like assassinations.” Although the Times respected the ground rules, this was too juicy not to leak.

#assassination #Trump #geopolitics #law

Show threadNonilexMar 3

Within a month, the president’s comment became news, & public reaction to it & to earlier reporting about the #CIA …sparked 2 congressional investigations into the #assassination plots…. Despite his unintentional leak, Ford was already predisposed to doing something to end this dark presidential legacy. “Although none of these assassinations had been carried out,” Ford later wrote in his memoirs, “the fact that government officials had even considered them was distressing.”

#law #geopolitics

Show threadNonilexMar 3

A year later, Ford signed the EO to make sure such operations didn’t happen again.

Ford’s successors broadened the scope of his #assassination ban. First #JimmyCarter & then #RonaldReagan dropped the qualifier of “political.” Reagan directed that “no person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” Reagan’s version of the assassination ban remains in effect, last amended by #Bush in 2008. #Trump didn’t revoke it.

Show threadBrad Rosenheim

@Nonilex Very interesting. Of note, with Reagan's change, Obama authorized extra judicial killings of USian citizens abroad that were against this E.O. At the time, those killings were both infuriating and chilling, but I did not realize there was a standing E.O. prohibiting them. I think Obama was a decent president and a good man, not nearly as evil and devoid of morals as the current resident of the White House. The point I want to make, though, is that we have allowed our governments too long to abuse its power on the international stage and, as a result, our standing in the world is greatly diminished by all of these acts. Trump is following a long-practiced tradition in the U.S.A.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cheney-and-obama-enabled-trump-s-extrajudicial-killings/ar-AA1Rzgor

MSN

Mar 3 at 3:31pmWeb
Show threadNonilexMar 3

@Brad_Rosenheim

The article discusses that. I’m not excusing the orders, but it distinguishes between killings of heads of state / political leaders & others.

Show threadBrad RosenheimMar 3
@Nonilex Thank you. It is interesting to think there was a time where leaders of the U.S.A. (and otherwise unscrupulous ones at that) were interested in broadening the definition of those they shalt not kill, only to get us where we are today.