CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

JOSEF MRÁZEK CYIL 11 (2020) targeted killings in violation of the Supreme Court’ judgement, however. Israel has disclosed the basis for its legal conclusions, allegedly based in “classified documents”. 34 It is necessary as well to say that Israel since its formation has been the subject of targeted killings of various Arab, mostly pro-Palestinian groups and countries. It was e.g. the deadly attack against Israeli sportsmen in 1972 in Munich, the hijacking of an Air France aircraft taken forcefully to Entebbe in Uganda, the hijacking of the Italian cruiser Achille Lauro in 1985, and a series of suicide attacks against Israeli citizens etc. Besides, there are a number of armed conflicts which had a serious impact on the security situation in this area. Let us remember e.g. the Sinai war in 1956, the Six-Day war in 1967, the Yom Kippur war in 1973, and all Lebanese military operations since 1978. Returning to the U.S. policies of “targeted killings” it is necessary to mention the U.S. Executive order of 1976 prohibition on carrying out political assassinations. This order was issued by president G. Ford after revelation that CIA organized assassination attempts against F. Castro and other foreign leaders. G. Ford was forced by public opinion to promulgate this order banning assassination. This order was incorporated into Executive order 12 333 and signed by president R. Reagan . This order provides: “ No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in assassination ”. 35 This order remains formally in effect today. The U.S. allegedly “for decades” condemned targeted killings, characterizing them as assassination or extra-judicial executions. 36 It seems, however, that the U.S. has never entirely abandoned the use of lethal force against political opponents and “adversaries” abroad. The prohibition of assassination began to break down after 9/11 when G. W. Bush administration “conceptualized the fight against a group of terrorists as a “war” and “the old rules of war- including policies about prisoners of war and prohibition on torture- were argued not to apply”. 37 President B. Clinton issued a new presidential “findings” authorizing the use of lethal forces in self-defense in Afghanistan. Seventy-five Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched to kill Osama bin Laden. This first strike was not successful. Following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, president G. W. Bush broadened the scope of human targets beyond the top leaders of Al-Qaeda and beyond the boundaries of Afghanistan . Former Secretary of Defense D. Rumsfeld ordered “special operations units” to prepare “hunter killer teams” with the purpose of killing, not capture the terrorists. 38 6.2 The U.S. targeted killing policy and its justification The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon led to a new impetus in the debate on the right of self-defense. On 20 September 2001, President Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress, described the September 11 th attacks as an “ act of war ” and declared that the U.S. was “ at war with terrorism ”. 39 On October, he notified the UNSC that the U.S. was taking its action of self- 34 Report, supra note 1. 35 See https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html. 36 JAFFER, J., How the U.S. justifies drone strikes: targeted killing, secrecy and the law, The Guardian , 15 November 2016.

37 HUSSAIN, M., supra note 32, p. 6. 38 MURPHY, S.D., supra note 20, p. 237.

39 See “Our war on terror begins with Al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stepped and defeated”. President G. W. Bush address to the Joint

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