Assassination Research Articles

Missing Spies and Political Murder: The FBI and the Construction of Crime

Missing Spies and Political Murder: The FBI and the Construction of Crime

Subversive acts and political assassinations inside Kuwait (1983-1988)

The Iran-Iraq war began in 1980 and lasted for eight years, and there were many reasons behind that war, but the most important of them is Iran’s attempt to export its Islamic Shiite revolution to Iraq and then to other Gulf countries, and this was a reason for these countries, especially Kuwait, to provide material support logistical, media, etc., to Iraq during the war period, and that cost Kuwait a lot, as it was exposed during the war years, especially during the period (1983-1985), to a lot of sabotage and political assassinations, the most dangerous of which was the explosions in the American embassy and the French embassy in 1983 In addition to that, the attempt to assassinate its Emir, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, in 1985.

Digital character assassination in the Jordanian law

One of the rights inherent in a legal personality is the ability to maintain the individual's dignity and treat himself with respect, regardless of his social status. The rise of cybercrime has made it possible to launch digital attacks on someone's honor or reputation, creating a need for rules that limit what can be posted on personal pages and websites. The adoption of Cybercrime Law No. 17 of 2023 shows that Jordanian lawmakers have been proactive. Through the use of a descriptive and inductive analytical approach, this research demonstrated the uniqueness of this legislation, which prohibits the distribution or attribution of any works aimed at defaming a person’s reputation. Presenting an incorrect image of the targets and isolating them socially is the deliberate moral destruction of a person, organization, institution, or social group through spreading rumours, fabricating accusations, and manipulating data and facts. This procedure is similar to the deliberate assassination of individuals. Lawmakers in Jordan have tightened penalties for the perpetrators of this crime and those who helped commit it. The study found that although the goal of character assassination and the crime of digital defamation is to harm the victim's reputation and dignity, there is a significant difference. Character assassination differs from digital defamation in that it requires a specific goal: the moral destruction and social isolation of the targeted individual. This paper aims to clarify the term character assassination, analyze the legislative text that explicitly criminalizes it, identify the elements of this crime and how it is committed, verify the criminal protection procedures decided by the Jordanian legislator, and explain the reasons that prove these crimes. This paper relied on the descriptive approach in studying the phenomenon. Character assassination and gathering information related to this field.

Mass political murder: What and where is the hate?

Mass political murder: What and where is the hate?

Making words harmless: Why politicians survive character assassination attacks

Making words harmless: Why politicians survive character assassination attacks

Slaying the Servants of the Lord: The Killing of Bishops in Medieval Germany, c.900–1300

Abstract The medieval Church did its best to discourage both the involvement of clerics in violence and violence against clerics. The murder of a bishop, in particular, was a relatively rare event in this period. Thus the death of Thomas Becket was the exception, and certainly not the rule. Yet there was one kingdom where despite canonical prohibition prelates did frequently die through violence during the central Middle Ages. Between c.900 and c.1300 some thirty German bishops were either murdered or died in battle, and a number of other prelates suffered violence and were often lucky to escape with their lives. This paper seeks to explain why this should have been the case, examining the various different reasons why so many bishops perished in Germany, and looks at a number of particular cases in detail. Why did such killings became a regular feature of political life in the Reich at this period? How did contemporaries react to such events? The article also asks what this phenomenon—and also the prevalence of political assassinations among laymen—may tell us about medieval German society.

The web of Big Lies: state-sponsored disinformation in Iran

ABSTRACT The 2022 ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ protests in Iran have led to the escalation of state-sponsored online disinformation campaigns. This paper aims to examine how, amidst a growing legitimacy crisis, the Iranian regime has employed a ‘Big Lie’ to shatter hopes for change by discrediting influential dissidents and hindering the formation of an effective opposition movement. Three target groups have borne the brunt of this strategy: celebrities, political dissidents inside the country, and prominent opponents in the diaspora. By reviewing state-owned media content and tweets, this paper reveals a consistent pattern of character assassination against dissidents. The ruling regime’s ultimate goal is to foster a sense of public hopelessness for an alternative to the Islamic Republic. By conceptualizing the Big Lie online, the study engages with the mechanism of control in modern despotism in the age of the internet and social media.

Romanians and Bulgarians at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Political assassinations, border incidents and the attempted anarchist/terrorist plot against King Carol I (1900-1901)

At the beginning of 1900, Romanian-Bulgarian relations were very tense, being fuelled by both the incidents at the Southern border and the attacks that took place on the Romanian territory, thus, on the agenda of the Romanian politicians, the problem of the Aromanians from the Balkan Peninsula and Macedonia, the province coveted by Bulgarians, Greeks and Serbs, where comitagii gangs, the antarti and the cetnic fought both for the liberation of the countrymen from Ottoman rule and with the Turkish troops. In this context, assassination came to be used as a weapon against opponents, being present in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece.At the end of the 19th century, Romanian society was suddenly awakened to reality, facing the consequences of the barbaric manner in which one of these revolutionary secret committees acted, whose anarchist subcommittee was established in Bucharest – nowadays we frequently use the phrase terrorist cell for something similar. Thus, it received the mission to commit several bombings on the Romanian territory, as well as the assassination of King Carol I and Romanian dignitaries, while, at the Southern border, the Romanian border guards reported daily incidents at the common border whose purpose was to destabilize and maintain a tense state on the conventional demarcation line between Romania and Bulgaria.

Introduction: Toward a Radical International Thought

Bringing together political theorists of empire with critical scholars of international relations who have interrogated the methodological nationalism (indeed the fetish of the nation-state) of their disciplines, this special issue examines the multifaceted dimensions (including political, ideological, and psycho-affective) of a radical international thought. Going beyond articulations of anti-colonial struggle at the national level, the issue charts radical theories and praxes of insurgency and revolutionary violence and brings an internationalist framework to bear on historical moments like the Spanish Civil War, the rise of anti-imperial development alternatives, and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and others. In doing so, the issue spotlights thinkers who are rarely read in a global register, such as Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, Jalāl Āl-e Ahmad, Ghassan Kanafani, and Eqbal Ahmad, among others. Furthermore, the introduction argues, the essays track these understudied articulations of radical international thought in the context of the traveling projects of imperial domination to which they responded. These radical figures’ political thought and action, in turn, inspired further imperial responses, such as political assassinations in the Third World, counterrevolutionary tactics, and other modes of violence in the service of empire.

Resistance from generation to generation: The Saturday Mothers in Istanbul

AbstractThe Saturday Mothers (Cumartesi Anneleri) are a group that has gathered in Istanbul for a 30‐min sit‐in every Saturday since 1995 seeking justice for forced disappearances and political murders in Turkey. What started with a group of approximately 30 mainly family and close relatives of those who disappeared has grown to include thousands of participants. The initial protests were composed predominantly of mothers of victims, but over the past 28 years other relatives, including children, have joined the vigils. In many cases, those children then continue to participate and join the social movement. We are particularly interested in the Saturday Mothers' ability to sustain participation in weekly collective action, including the ways in which intergenerational transmission shapes and encourages this action. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 19 members of the Saturday Mothers. Analysis of participants' narratives and experiences included three main themes: family as a model, shared experiences, and functions of the movement. Findings highlight the complex interplay between familial influences, collective memory, and the formation of the Saturday Mothers' identity.

الاغتيال السياسي: مفهومه، تكييفه، نماذجه، وتجريمه في الفقه والقانون

Under Islamic Sharia, the crime of political assassination is, indeed, a political crime as a criminal offense and is considered a non-political crime as a penalty or punishment. It is the physical elimination of a political figure for a political purpose. With no doubt, by killing the ruler or President of a country, the regime may fall in some cases. It is a political crime in this sense, and it is a non-political crime as a punishment or penalty in accordance with Islamic Sharia, International and national law. Because the perpetrator of the crime of political assassination is punished with the most severe punishment, even death by hanging, unlike the general political crime. The crime of political assassination is as old as politics itself. Since the state existed, politics and political assassination have also been existed with state. Even during the best Islamic centuries (i.e Khilfa Al-Rashida period) the Khalifa (rulers) were assassinated by the opponents. In this article, we will endeavor to discuss the provisions of political assassination from Islamic Sharia perspective, and will make its comparison with both International and Afghan laws as well.

SMS Spam Detection using Machine Learning

Emails are a crucial instrument for achieving the interconnectedness of machines and people worldwide in the global age we live in, when the world is becoming smaller and smaller and everyone is connected to one another. Since the development of communication technology and the exponential increase in internet usage in recent years, emails have become an integral part of our everyday lives. It has also, regrettably, led to the emergence of numerous online scams that employ phishing tactics to trick people into disclosing their personal information. These scams can result in serious financial theft, identity theft, character assassination, and other malicious activities that could have dire repercussions for internet users. Addressing the problem of spam and phishing emails becomes crucial as a result of these problems. Therefore, this project is about detecting phishing and spam e-mails using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. Let's explore methods to identify malicious emails using NLP. This assists in detecting and classifying potentially harmful and spam emails, ultimately preventing harm to user data. This project involves exploration of how different methods are implemented to detect the spam e-mails and the work being done to improve upon the current and possible future scenarios because as the scammers keep evolving and we need to develop and rise up accordingly

Убийство В.В. Воровского и процесс Конради–Полунина 1923 года в восприятии российской социалистической эмиграции

The article dwells on the assassination of V.V. Vorovsky, head of the Soviet delegation at the international conference in Lausanne, on May 10, 1923 and on the trial of M. Conradi and A.P. Polunin as viewed by Russian socialist émigrés, i.e. members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and social democrats (Mensheviks). This paper aimed to study the attitude of the socialist community of Russian émigrés towards individual political terror during the 1920s. The methodology is based on the principles of intellectual history, which allow us to shed some light on the perception of the 1923 Lausanne trial by analysing the confrontation and ideological struggle of certain political figures and civic groups for attention. The paper provides a brief description of the main works of Russian and foreign historians who studied the assassination of Vorovsky and the trial of his murderers. The context of the trial, the reaction of different émigré camps and the organization of Conradi and Polunin’s defence are analysed. The official response of the Foreign Delegation of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, reflected in the Revolutionary Russia journal, is noted. Particular attention is given to the unpublished article “Both Are Worse” (1923) by leader of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party V.M. Chernov on the results of the trial in Lausanne. Chernov’s argumentation and his views on the fundamental differences between the pre-revolutionary Socialist Revolutionary terror and the assassination of Vorovsky are analysed. Chernov points out that Socialist Revolutionary and Narodnaya Volya’s terror stayed within a strict moral and ethical framework that forbade political assassinations on the territory of free democratic countries. Socialist Revolutionary terrorists had never followed the path of least resistance, proclaiming the idea of selfsacrifice. Chernov emphasizes that only those not involved in the White Terror can hold others accountable for the Red Terror. The paper considers the response of Russian social democrats abroad, in particular, leader of the émigré Mensheviks F.I. Dan’s article dedicated to the Lausanne trial. His thesis about the exclusive right of socialist parties to fight the Bolshevik dictatorship, without involving the White movement, is emphasized. A conclusion is drawn that Russian socialists abroad held a fundamentally unified position on resisting political terror.

Examining the Mr Tsafendas enquiry trial: Current insights on forensic psychiatric assessment and ethics

On 6 September 1966, the prime minister of South Africa, Dr HF Verwoerd was killed by Mr Tsafendas, a Portuguese national of Greek descent, in parliament by stabbing him in the chest. Mr Tsafendas was a messenger in parliament. At the enquiry trial of Mr Tsafendas, he was found unfit to stand trial on the ground that he suffered from schizophrenia. The psychiatric evidence during the enquiry trial was reviewed and discussed under the following headings: Diagnosis of schizophrenia; Consideration of cultural factors in forensic psychiatric settings; Delusional infestation v. extreme overvalued beliefs; Simulation of psychosis; Ethical considerations in criminal capacity and trial competency assessments. Lessons from the Mr Tsafendas enquiry trial for forensic psychiatrists where a defendant previously diagnosed with schizophrenia commits a prominent political murder, are summarised. It is emphasised that the personhood of an accused referred for forensic observation should be respected and protected, instead of focusing exclusively on a specific diagnosis.

Revisiting the Accounts of the Political Assassinations in the Prophet’s Lifetime

Abstract The historicity of accounts concerning the political assassinations of several rivals of the Prophet Muḥammad has recently been called into doubt on the basis of a literary analysis of these accounts. This article offers an alternative view of the historical value of these assassination narratives by scrutinizing the accounts of the killings of three Jewish rivals of the Prophet. It argues that certain details of the political assassinations in Medina and Khaybar that are found in rare accounts merit strong trust, and it questions the methodology of applying a literary approach specifically to the accounts of the assassinations, as literary devices are found in reports of nearly every episode pertaining to the Prophet’s lifetime.

Women and Invisible Boundaries: A Case of Slippage in Sanitation in Two Gram Panchayats, Shravasti, UP, India

ABSTRACT Sustainable management of water and sanitation is inextricably linked with women’s health and well-being. This paper investigates slippage in sanitation, experienced by women beneficiaries of the Swacch Bharat Mission Rural programme through Amartya Sen’s conception of justice. A total of 135 individuals were interviewed from 49 households in Kanjadwa and Madhnagar Manoharpur Gram Panchayats, Shravasti, India, out of which 90 were women. As per findings, 30% of women practice open defaecation despite possessing toilets, resulting in slippage. The Sanitation Well-being framework is deployed to study slippage and its linkage with women’s agency. Personal, cultural, and structural factors contributing to this are child marriage, denial of education and employment opportunities, slut shaming, victim blaming, domestic violence, and character assassination. These are made worse by the state adoption of misogynistic IEC messages that reinforce cultural stereotypes and worsen women's condition. In the quest to attain ODF status in Ikauna Block, UP, the current sanitation programme became a tool of suppression. Consequently, we understand that open defaecation among women is an outcome of the basic unfreedoms rather than a volitional choice that prevents them from experiencing sanitation well-being.

Victim blaming and character assassination: Media framing of controversial issues of Bangladesh

News framing plays a significant role in creating and diverting perceptions on controversial issues in Bangladesh. The study examines three selected occurrences involving renowned personalities to discover the factors that contribute to the sensationalization of news information. The research posits theme-based criteria that influence news framing and investigates how controversy spreads via conventional and internet media. According to the study, online news portals participate in more news framing than conventional media. Victim blaming and character assassination are frequent framing strategies utilized in the online domain. The framing factors include misleading headlines, improper wording, and distortion of context. Thematic analysis of the study finds nine variables responsible for framing disagreement in the media, three of which constitute a basic pattern for framing disputes. The study emphasizes the possibility of news framing interfering with an individual's personal and professional life, as well as the importance of responsible journalism that promotes factual reporting while avoiding framing elements that can lead to victim blaming, character assassination, and sensationalism. Overall, the study adds to the current literature on news framing by offering insights into the thematic factors that can greatly influence framing debate. The study's findings might be useful for media practitioners and policymakers in Bangladesh and abroad since they give a better knowledge of the mechanics of framing disputes in the media. The report also recommends more research on news framing and its influence on public perceptions and attitudes toward contentious subjects.

CAUGHT IN THE ELECTION TRAP: VOTER FRAUDULENCE AND DYSFUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY DURING THE 2021 ALBANIAN GENERAL ELECTIONS

There is a growing consensus that data driven elections are a winner, irrespective of variables that may affect the elections. The question of how these data are obtained in the first place is highly disputed. This paper analyzes Albania and looks at one of its prime indicators like voter fraudulence that leads to distorted election results. Our findings show that the factors that have led to such an outcome are the patron-client relationship, shadow financing, and the use of public administration as an arm extension of the ruling party. There are many mechanisms used by ruling political parties in non-consolidated democracies to obtain an outright advantage in elections, ranging from political assassination or imprisonment of political opponents to staffing the ballot boxes. But as the Albanian case testifies, more refined measures are more legitimate both domestically and in seeking international legitimacy. This article advances the present debate on the impact of patronage schemes on electoral competition and results in semi-consolidated democracies.

Security Challenges and Economic Development in Emerging Economics: The Nigeria Experience

The study focused on security challenges and economic development in emerging economic in Nigeria and solutions. The continuous rise in insecurity and deterioration in the economic development in Nigeria call for a concern among researchers and policy makers over the years. Nigeria has witnessed an unprecedented security challenge occasioned by the activities of militants in the South-South region, kidnappers in the south east, violent armed robbery in almost parts of the country, political assassination, ritual killings and more recently activities of Boko Haram in some parts of the northern region especially north east. These social menaces, when put together impinge on the security of lives and property of both Nigerian citizens and foreigners living or even trying to invest in the country. To ensure economic development in Nigeria therefore, the study recommends various measures of curbing security challenges including preventive community policing, human capital development, equitable distribution of resources as well as channeling of resources to frontline sectors of the economy among others. This paper recommend that Federal government should engage peace and conflict resolution experts in dealing with issues concerning Fulani herdsmen and Farmers crises and that ranching method of cattle rearing location across the country while the herdsmen should be given needed training for effective and efficient management of the ranching. Also, effective leadership and good governance as a panacea to solving problems of insecurity, unemployment, poverty, hunger, disease, among other negative indices.

Effort of The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu RI) in Preventing Vlack Campaign in the 2019 Election

This study aims to find out the efforts of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu RI) in preventing black campaigns on social media in the 2019 Election. Bawaslu is a state institution that has the duty to monitoring the implementation of the campaign. In this context, campaign implementation is often filled with black campaign practices. A black campaign is a campaign that brings down political opponents by committing character assassination through spreading slander as well as fake news (hoax). This research wants to see what makes Bawaslu unable to be optimal in preventing black campaigns on social media. This research uses a qualitative approach and the type of research used is descriptive-analytical. The concepts used are participatory monitoring strategies and Michel Foucault's theory of power and knowledge. This research uses data collection techniques through interviews and literature studies in the form of books, news, and previous research journals that are relevant to this research. The results of the research show that there are determinant factors that make Bawaslu not optimal in preventing and supervising black campaigns on social media, such as the weak participatory supervision program made by Bawaslu. There is a power relationship that occurs between Bawaslu, social media and hoax. Because the presence and spread of hoax on social media is still stronger than the prevention efforts carried out by Bawaslu. This is because social media platforms have community standards which limit the movement and supervision of Bawaslu in dealing with hoax issues.