Can We Assassinate World Leaders?

[Barquentine]

I proposed assassinating Assad right at the start of the Syrian Civil War. I usually suggest targeting the leader and their ministers of problem countries - such as Saddam Hussein in 1991. However, a friend has said there is some rule against doing this - some unwritten agreement between countries that goes back several hundred years. Does anyone know what that rule is or where it comes from?

[ferlew]

No let's just assassinate anyone with a B in their name.

[Canary42]

Your friend is winding you up.

[ferlew]

"C" too :)

[sherrardk]

Isn't it just a given that you can't go round bumping people off?

[DaisyNonna]

Thou shalt not kill?

[ferlew]

Not a clue ;)

[sandyRoe]

Allende in Chile died as a result of American machinations. In Iran, in the 1950s, a democratically elected leader was overthrown as a result of a British-American plot.

[2sp_]

How do you know that "we" don't...?

[pretty_snowdrop]

I think the origins of this were when monarchs were absolute monarchs and they felt they were answerable only to God. As quoted on Wikipedia..The divine right of kings, or divine-right theory of kingship, is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving the right to rule directly from the will of God. The king is thus not subject to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or any other estate of the realm, including (in the view of some, especially in Protestant countries) the Church. According to this doctrine, only God can judge an unjust king. The doctrine implies that any attempt to depose the king or to restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God and may constitute a sacrilegious act. So there you go!!

[sandyRoe]

Cromwell showed that a kings head would fall into the axemans basket as readily as any other.

[DaisyNonna]

The Divine Right of Kings followed through the bloodline.
Cannot be claimed by electees or usurpers.

[Ellipsis]

> Can We Assassinate World Leaders?

What, like this (attempt) you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_United_States_bombing_of_Libya

Forewarned by a telephone call, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family rushed out of their residence in the Bab al-Azizia compound moments before the bombs dropped. It was long thought that the call came from Malta's Prime Minister, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. However, Italian politician Bettino Craxi was the person who actually warned Gaddafi, according to Giulio Andreotti (the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy) and Abdel Rahman Shalgham (Libya's Foreign Minister from 2000 until 2009 who was at this time Libya's ambassador to Italy).

[emmie]

you are joking surely...

[Brinjal]

Americans supposedly had a hand in the demise of Savimbi in Angola by providing him with satellite communication which allowed him to be tracked and killed.

[jake-the-peg]

Article 33 of the charter of the UN

//The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.//


I think that precludes bumping off people you don't like at the outset

[Octavius]

The bottom line is that it's illegal unless you are powerful enough to get away with it.

[modeller]

It depends on who does the assassination, internal or external.
In general it rarely , if ever achieves much. Had Hitler been killed during the war by General Stauffenberg the Germans would have said they would have won had he lived.
Which is what happened after the WW1 , they said they had been betrayed by their generals.

[aelmpvw]

hang on, before i pull the trigger, can i check the rules?