To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (769673 ) 2/15/2014 12:51:42 PM From: Broken_Clock Read Replies (1) | Respond to Then you'd be wrong in that respect. The US has championed targeted killings for decades through such venues as the School of the Americas. Remember burning branch Davidians alive in Waco?Predator drone ; sometimes used in targeted killingsTargeted killing is the premeditated killing of an individual by a state organization or institution outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield.El Salvador , Nicaragua , Colombia , and Haiti within the context of civil unrest and war during the 1980s and 1990s. Targeted killings have also been used in Somalia , Rwanda , and in the Balkans during the Yugoslav Wars . Currently the US government practices targeted killings semi-publicly, as with the killing of Osama Bin-Laden and Al-Awlaki . Targeted killings have also been used by narcotics traffickers.Second Intifada , when Israeli security forces used the tactic to kill Palestinian opponents. [1] Though initially opposed by the Bush Administration , targeted killings have become a frequent tactic of the United States government in the War on Terror . [1] Instances of targeted killing by the United States that have received significant attention include the killing of Osama bin Laden and of American citizen Anwar al-Aulaqi in 2011. Under the Obama administration use of targeted killings has expanded, most frequently through use of combat drones operating in Afghanistan , Pakistan or Yemen .[2] academics, military personnel and officials describe targeted killing as legitimate within the context of self-defense, when employed against terrorists or combatants engaged in asymmetrical warfare. They argue that drones are more humane and more accurate than manned vehicles. [3] [4] Others, including academics such as Gregory Johnsen and Charles Schmitz, twenty-six members of Congress , [5] some media sources ( Jeremy Scahill , James Traub ), some human rights groups[ who? ] and ex- CIA station chief in Islamabad , Robert Grenier [6] have criticized targeted killings as similar to assassinations or extrajudicial killings, illegal within the United States and under international law .
