According to "Ruth Wedgewood, a professor of international law and diplomacy at Yale and Johns Hopkins, ... 'If Israel is indeed at war with the P.L.O., these people – anyone in the chain of command – are fair targets.' But, she added, 'no one really knows what to do in this netherworld between peace and war.'" (Tim Weiner, "Rules in War and Peace," The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post, 2001.08.19).
"The United States argued that since Colonel Qaddafi had been plotting terrorist attacks on its citizens, it had the right to strike directly at him.
"In the name of counterterrorism, Congress, in 1996, passed and President Clinton signed a law authorizing 'all necessary means, including covert action and military force, to disrupt, dismantle and destroy international infrastructures used by international terrorists.' And 'infrastructures' meant 'anything and everything that supports a terrorist' – including the terrorists themselves,' explained Mark M. Lowenthal, who was then staff director of the House intelligence committee." (ibid.)
"But Jeffrey H. Smith, the former general counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency – whose director, George J. Tenet, has tried to broker a Mideast peace – said Israel must have hard evidence of an impending attack by a specific individual to justify killing him" (ibid). This is true. However, just as intelligence gathering secrets and informers are protected from discovery in American law, intelligence gathering secrets and informers are similarly protected in Israel. Such evidence is shared between intelligence agencies, such as the Mossad and C.I.A., and diplomatic circles, not published in newspapers or shared with reporters.
According to "Mr. Moore, a former State Department international law counsellor... 'If there is an identifiable group that you know through your intelligence is engaging in attacks against your people, you have every right to defend yourself... That is not assasination and should not be talked about as assassination,' he said. 'It is lawful under the U.N. charter." (ibid.) Something that Kofi Anan would do well to check before he opens his mouth with anti-Israeli sentiments… again!
World leaders are increasingly silent because they’re increasingly aware of the hard evidence to which certain, and only certain, intelligence communities and diplomats are privy.
The Arab propaganda machine would have you believe that calling a terrorist a politician should give the terrorist immunity from defensive interdiction.
Wrong.
Old terrorists never retire, they just assume the title of politician in order to train, equip, sponsor and command younger terrorists.
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