Human Lives Human Rights: Targeted assassination of high-ranking officials in different countries is a rare phenomenon, however, in some cases it has happened. These include the assassination of the Emperor of Austria and his wife at the hands of Serbian black nationalist group (Black Hand), assassination of Mahatma and Indira Gandhi by the extremist Sikhs of India and the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy.
Perhaps the most important of these targeted killings is the Kennedy assassination. Kennedy’s assassination is significant because as president, he was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the sole holder of the US nuclear arsenal, the most powerful man in the world to be assassinated by a coalition of his opponents.
What is clear today about Kennedy’s assassination is that the Kennedy Opposition Coalition was an international mafia group that included the Washington intelligence community, including the CIA and the FBI, the Pentagon warlords, the US military, and the Mossad.
What could be said about the motivation of the members of this coalition for the targeted assassination of Kennedy, is that the former US president opposed the US military presence in the Vietnam War and even ordered the withdrawal of US troops from the Vietnam swamp. This directive was exactly the opposite of the ambitious goals of the warlord armies and Pentagon, as well as the economic interests of the owners of the American arms complexes.
Kennedy also opposed Israel’s violent approach to the Palestinian people and the nuclearization of Tel Aviv, and made this clear to former Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir. Therefore, there were compelling reasons for the members of this coalition to make efforts to eliminate Kennedy.
Kennedy’s assassination was not the first or last attempt to oust the official of a country. It should be noted, however, that the assassination of an official such as John F. Kennedy is a targeted assassination.
Following conditions are required to be met for the targeted assassination of an official:
- Not to be killed on the battlefield
- The victim should not be in direct combat
- No conviction should be issued against the person in any international court or authority.
Therefore, according to the mentioned conditions, it can be said that an event such as Kennedy’s assassination is a targeted murder.
Targeted assassination is an assassination that is carried out with prior planning and preparation against a specific person or persons.
In the legal interpretation of targeted assassination, it can be said that this type of assassination is a premeditated assassination, and planned killing is one of the seven examples defined in the Statute of the International Criminal Court in The Hague as a crime against humanity and is put in the same category of crimes such as genocide and ethnic cleansing, and it exactly has the legal status of these crimes.
Finally it must be said, Kennedy’s assassination is a clear example of a crime against humanity based on current interpretations and standards of international public law and humanitarian law.
