Assassinations

It is often remarked that politicians’ private lives are becoming feature of political communication in many advanced industrial democracies. However, there have so far been no genuinely comparative studies examining the personalised nature of political communication. Intimate Politics provides for the first time a systematic comparative analysis of such developments in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the US. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources it assesses the extent to which the private lives of politicians have become a feature of political communication in each democracy. The book provides a comprehensive account of the shifting boundaries between the public and private and whether any developments are universal or more advanced in some democracies than others, and seeks to explain why this might be. Intimate Politics will be of great value for students and scholars of communication and media studies and political science and is required reading for anyone who wants a fuller understanding of the transformation of mediated politics in advanced industrial democracies.

ABSTRACT

The CIA designed and implemented the Phoenix program during the Vietnam War in order to coordinate the attack on the political and military leadership of the Viet Cong. The program was actually a small part of the whole pacification effort designed to eliminate support for the Viet Cong among the rural population in South Vietnam. The Phoenix program employed very few Americans or Vietnamese on a full-time basis. It consisted mostly of committees at every political level, from the hamlet to the national level, representing all South Vietnamese agencies, departments, and military organizations. The program, which lasted from 1967 to 1973, was part of the overall pacification effort, under CORDS, designed to win the rural countryside away from the Viet Cong guerillas. Initially, Phoenix planners intended to include the South Vietnamese as participants, with the idea of eventually giving them full control. Despite such intentions, the program remained American.

The predecessors to the Phoenix program included, PT-4 and ICEX, both CIA programs designed to coordinate and plan attacks on the VCI. Whereas the earlier programs had been unabashedly American operations, the Phoenix program actually attempted to involve the South Vietnamese in the planning and operations. Throughout the Phoenix program's existence, the GVN displayed little interest or desire to control the program, and, in fact, American advisors to the program often complained about the lack of South Vietnamese support. While under American management, the Phoenix program acquired an unsavory reputation for assassination and ineffectiveness. It was a reputation that came in part from the secrecy that surrounded the program, especially in the United States, and in part from the CIA-sponsored Provincial Reconnaissance Units that often worked for the program. The PRUs were paramilitary groups of ex-Viet Cong, convicts, mercenaries, and draft dodgers trained and led by Americans, often Green Berets, and generally accepted to be among the best Vietnamese soldiers fighting for the GVN. They also had a tough reputation for torturing and murdering captives.

Now, twenty years after the event, the CIA has yet to authorize the release of many Phoenix documents, making a comprehensive history of the program at this point in time impossible. One particular section of the program of which there is very little information is that of operations to infiltrate the VCI, though indications are that it may have been one of the most effective segments. The CIA relinquished control of the program to MACV in 1968, but despite many humanitarian and procedural improvements instituted in 1968-69, the program's sordid reputation remained. Available documents, mostly MACV files, reveal nothing in the way of assassination plots. Only a few eyewitnesses have come forward since the end of the war.

The Phoenix program suffered from bad press, a lack of GVN support, and an American unwillingness to take the time or effort to train properly their Vietnamese counterparts. Supporters and detractors alike complained of the program's ineffectiveness. The primary indicators that the program was actually quite effective come from the much maligned statistics of the Southeast Asia Analysis Reports, and the Phoenix program's targets: the Viet Cong infrastructure themselves.

In this paper, Dr Kumar critiques the historical disciplinary narrative accounts of “assassinations” in international law through an excavation of the obscured contingencies produced by particular assassinations upon revolutionary emancipatory projects, imaginaries and futures. She argues that assassination should be understood as “a legal practice of death-making” – one which produces particular kinds of hidden systemic contingencies that have been overlooked in traditional accounts of assassination in international law (i.e. international humanitarian law and the laws of armed conflict). To illustrate this argument, she will examine the assassination of Thomas Sankara, revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso, and the effect of his death on Burkinabé, African and decolonial emancipatory imaginaries.

“Terrorism” is fundamentally the same, whether it is carried out by States or non-State actors. Difference arises as one identifies the processes wherein labels are applied which identify select acts of political violence as "terrorism," while terming others "legitimate defense" within the national interest. The subjective labeling of “terrorism” which obscures the systemic violence of State terrorism has accelerated in the post-9/11 "Global War On Terror/Terrorism," as wars advanced by the US and its allies have further expanded into the Middle East, Asia and Africa with numerous proxy wars. This construction of terrorism can be seen as a rhetorical tool utilized by the State, as well as non-State actors that challenge State authority. Throughout these arenas of violence, authoritative language is used by the State within a process of “othering,” and intentional language is adopted to demonize anti-State opponents and legitimize State-crafted actions

After a string of successes in the early nineteenth century, the Victorian movement to reform criminal punishment began to falter. Despite evidence to the contrary, the populace grew convinced that violent crime was on the rise. A frequency analysis of The Times and The Manchester Guardian suggests that this misperception was due to a drastic increase in crime coverage by the periodicals of the day.

We assess the impact of Israeli targeted assassinations on rates of Palestinian violence from September 2000, the beginning of Al-Aqsa uprising, through June 2004. Literature concerning the relationship between repression and rebellion suggests four plausible effects of targeted assassinations on insurgents: deterrence, backlash, disruption, and incapacitation. Using differenced and lagged time-series analysis, we utilize multiple and logistic regression to evaluate the effect of targeted assassinations on Palestinian violence. We conclude that targeted assassinations have no significant impact on rates of Palestinian attacks. Targeted assassinations do not decrease rates of Palestinian violence, nor do they increase them, whether in the short or long-run. Targeted assassinations may be useful as a political tool to signal a state's determination to punish terrorists and placate an angry public, but there is little evidence that they actually impact the course of an insurgency.

Thorny Throne is a literary historical book
drawing up sequential events and transitions to
transformations politically rounded from the WW
II to the early two decades of the 21th century. The
name of the country is not mentioned denotatively
but connotatively figured out throughout the book.
Ten VIPs are put to death over the campus of the
throne rather than the unknown thousands of the
victimized people.
The entire story pivotally revolves around the
lifelong of a throne-dreamer from the cradle to the
grave. From before his birth to after his death he
has been watching how the heads have been being cut off
out of their bodies all around the power throne.
The crown has to be down on either way: to get
out due to a white coup in an intriguing plot or to
be murdered. The book consists of ten crowns, and
every crown has its own colors and flavors in the
terms of using various types of literary
interpretations merging poetic and dramatic roles
in the mainstream of a novel oriented as a
historical biography.
The author has given the characters covert names
to be characterized by their roles and actions as
well as positions. The realistic and actual incidents
he has entertained along with political figures are
all true and precisely depicted in an artistic way of
expression. The author has neutrally advanced an
art-gallery on the political scenario of the heart-melting situations the respected country lives with.
All in all, the soul message of the book as per its
motif and theme has been overflowing out
spontaneously through within the lines and
episodes. The sudden expositions and catastrophic
conclusions are ironically talking aloud over the
curse of throne. Finally, the timelessness and
universality in the book are maintained valid and
perfect in several cases.

The clearest statement ever published on the relation of Lorca's death with sexuality. Schonberg at that time well-known and controversial, not to say disreputable, in Lorca circles because of his 1966 book, in which he clearly says that Lorca was not assassinated for historical motives, although he does not reveal his documentation.  Schonberg is a pseudonym; his true name is Louis de Stinghamber Schonberg. After visiting Schonberg at his home near Nice, he shared his documentation. He was somewhat of a crackpot seen in person.

The other two items in the book are not reproduced here because they were súbseqienly republished elsewhere. The article on Schonberg was never reprinted (and who would have wanted to publish it?), and needed "rescueing" here.

This paper argues that the US Government should repeal the ban on assassination.  The argument lies in the following principles.  The United States already employs an assassination program under the guise of politically correct language.  Assassination causes fewer casualties than open war and is therefore Just War compliant.  Other nations recognize assassination as a necessary weapon to protect their national security.  It is significant that readers understand an open assassination policy would benefit the United States by increasing our credibility, pre-empting attacks on US assets or retaliating proportionally rather than entering into local, regional, or international conflicts. Also readers must understand that assassination is an acceptable practice for national security assurance by nations around the globe, not a vilified act that is conducted solely by the United States.

ABSTRACT

This research examines how Turkish newspapers approached the Armenian terrorism which emerged in the years between 1973 and 1984 as the third wave since the late 19th century. The Armenian terrorist organizations officially emerged in 1975 in order to show the world their rightfulness in terms of the so-called Armenian genocide, assassinating Turkish diplomats, including ambassadors and their families, in a planned and systematic fashion within these 11 years. These terrorist activities accelerated from time to time. Along with the accelerated Armenian terror, domestic terrorism and political disorder were the other developments in Turkey. Within the context of such difficulties, the extent of Armenian terrorist activities and the changes in the politically varied Turkish newspapers' regarding Armenian terrorism within these 11 years are examined thoroughly.

Key words: Armenian question, Armenian terrorism, Turkish press, Turkish diplomats, ideological cleavages.


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ÖZ

Bu çalışmada, 1973 ve 1984 yılları arasında, 19. Yüzyılın sonlarından itibaren zaman zaman patlak veren Ermeni terörünün 3. dalgasının yeniden ortaya çıkışı ve bu terör faaliyetlerinin Türk gazeteleri tarafından ele alınış biçimi irdelenmiştir. Resmi olarak 1975 yılında ortaya çıkan Ermeni terör örgütleri, Ermeni soykırım iddiaları konusunda haklı olduklarını bütün dünyaya duyurmak için, aralarında büyükelçilerin de bulunduğu, Türk diplomatlarını ve aile fertlerini 11 yıl boyunca sistemli ve planlı bir şekilde katletmişlerdir. Bu terör saldırıları zaman zaman yoğunluk kazanmıştır. Ermeni terörünün yoğun bir şekilde yaşandığı bu dönemde, ülke içindeki siyasi karışıklıklar ve terör faaliyetleri de yoğun bir şekilde devam etmiştir. Tüm bu gelişmeler yaşanırken, Ermeni terör saldırılarının bu 11 yıllık dönemde siyasileşmiş Türk gazeteleri tarafından mevcut ideolojik ayrılıkların yaşandığı bir dönemde, Türk halkına ne kadar sağlıklı bir biçimde aktarıldığı ve Türk basınının Ermeni sorununa yaklaşımındaki değişim mercek altına alınmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Ermeni sorunu, Ermeni terörü, Türk basını, Türk diplomatlar, Türk gazeteleri, ideolojik ayrılıklar.

It is an interview which was recorded by a correspondent of an electronic portal Indian Nation on the side lines of a mammoth protest in Delhi against the assassination of journalist, political activist, a dear friend, Gauri Lankesh. I did not know that it was uploaded, watched it only recently when more than 47 thousand people had watched it. It deals with the anti-national past and present of RSS/BJP.