Targeting the terrorists: A legal proposal for assassinating terrorists as a preemptive strike

Abstract

Recently, Sam Nunn, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated to a gathering of weapons scientists and military planners at Los Alamos National Laboratory that, although the Cold War is over, “this is a world of regional wars, of spreading ethnic, religious and tribal warfare” in which more countries are acquiring the capability to unleash mass death. In January, 1994, then‐Defense Secretary Les Aspin wrote in his annual report to the President and Congress that “[t]he danger that [weapons of mass destruction] might be used against U.S. forces in some conflict is not, unfortunately, theoretical.” In July, 1994, during a visit to Moscow, FBI Director Louis Freeh commented that the efforts of organized crime to steal or buy weapons‐grade nuclear material is “the greatest long‐term threat to the security of the United States.” Later that month, “credible threats” were received by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence sources of an impending bombing of Israeli targets throughout the United State...