中情局的殺人許可

新華網消息:美國《洛杉磯時報》網站22日播發一篇署名文章披露，在冷戰期間，中情局曾策劃暗殺8名外國領導人，其中5人後來都暴斃。中情局在其中都扮演了不同角色。這篇題為《中情局得到殺人許可》的文章，要點如下:

素有殺人傳統

1960年，中情局曾密謀暗殺帕特裏斯盧蒙巴，方法就是讓他的牙刷沾上一種致命病菌。這位剛果領導人如果用這把牙刷，幾天或幾周後就會一命嗚呼。

大約在同一時間，中情局的健康紊亂委員會將一塊上有交織字母紋樣的毒手絹寄給伊拉克領導人阿卜杜勒卡裏姆卡西姆。

中情局的這個執行行動部門曾多年密謀暗殺卡斯特羅。它雇用黑手黨給卡斯特羅的食物下毒，並試圖讓他穿被足菌腫病菌汙染的潛水服。足菌腫是一種罕見的熱帶疾病，該病從腳部發病後向上蔓延，直到損害整個身體。中情局考慮過的暗殺工具還包括會爆炸的雪茄、灌有毒液的鋼筆和當卡斯特羅觸碰時會在水下爆炸的貝殼。

這些陰謀都沒有得逞。盧蒙巴和卡西姆被政敵處決，卡斯特羅現在還活得好好的。但這些陰謀表明，中情局幾十年來一直有殺人的許可。

國會本月早些時候大為光火，因為有消息披露，中情局顯然在時任副總統的切尼命令下向國會隱瞞一項計劃達8年之久。該計劃旨在刺殺基地組織領導人首當其衝的是本拉丹。但國會本不應對這樣一項計劃感到大驚小怪的。

手段令人發指

中情局參與策劃刺殺行動至少可以追溯到1954年，當時它推出一本暗殺手冊作為美國發起的針對危地馬拉左翼政府的政變的一部分。這本19頁的手冊在1997年被公之於眾，內容令人發指。它指出，盡管可以徒手殺人……但最簡單的就地取材的工具通常是最有效的刺殺工具。錘子、斧子、扳手、螺絲刀、火鉗、菜刀、燈座或任何又硬又重又順手的東西都能派上用場。

這份手冊建議說，人為事故是幹掉某人的最好辦法。效果最好的事故……就是從至少75英尺(約合23米)高的地方跌落到堅硬的表麵。升降梯、樓梯井、開著的窗戶和橋梁都可以利用。它還建議，抓住暗殺對象的腳踝，把暗殺對象掀下去……把暗殺對象推倒在火車或地鐵列車前通常會奏效，但這需要算準時間。

手冊還談到了鈍器，稱幾乎在任何地方都可以隨手抄起一把錘子，棒球棒也是很棒的凶器。手冊解說了刺入身體的最佳位置、如何把人的頭骨敲得凹陷進去，以及步槍、手槍、衝鋒槍和其他武器的優缺點。

屢次上演鬧劇

在冷戰期間，中情局曾策劃暗殺8名外國領導人，其中5人後來都暴斃。中情局在其中都扮演了不同角色。

後來，這些計劃被參議院的一個委員會披露，福特總統在1976年發布命令禁止政治刺殺行動。裏根總統後來擴大了禁令的範圍，去掉了其中的政治二字，並在禁止政府雇員行刺的同時也禁止雇用殺手行刺。

盡管禁令目前仍然有效，但它已基本被忽視。看看下麵的例子。

1986年，裏根下令轟炸利比亞，以報複恐怖分子襲擊柏林一家迪斯科舞廳、造成包括兩名美國軍人在內的三人死亡以及200多人受傷的事件。在空襲中，襲擊目標之一、利比亞領導人卡紮菲毫發未損，但他兩歲大的養女喪生。

在1991年的海灣戰爭期間，老布什政府轟炸了巴格達。時任中情局局長、現任國防部長的羅伯特蓋茨說，白宮官員希望薩達姆在掩體中被炸死。同年，在沙特一個空軍基地，時任國防部長的切尼和鮑威爾將軍簽字同意向伊拉克發射一枚2000磅重的激光製導炸彈。

1998年，在美國駐非洲的兩個使館被炸後，克林頓下令對阿富汗的基地組織訓練營進行巡航導彈打擊。白宮顯然對本拉丹沒被炸死感到失望。據報道，他在襲擊前不久剛剛離開其中一座營地。

一年後，在塞爾維亞強迫阿爾巴尼亞族人離開科索沃後，北約轟炸了貝爾格萊德。一枚巡航導彈直接命中塞爾維亞領導人米洛舍維奇的臥室，但他當時並沒有睡在那裏，毫發無傷地逃脫了。

暫且不論道德，暗殺的問題在於美國並不十分精於此道，就像中情局暗殺卡斯特羅的鬧劇所顯示的那樣。而由國家策劃的暗殺行動招致報複的可能性倒是真實存在的。肯尼迪說:我們不能卷進這種事情，否則我們都會成為襲擊目標。或許當現任中情局長帕內塔取消該局在911事件後製定的海外刺殺計劃時，他對這一點也是心知肚明的。



http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-wise22-2009jul22,0,2126028.story

The CIA, licensed to kill

The agency has been involved in planning assassinations since at least 1954.

By David Wise
July 22, 2009

Back in 1960, the CIA hatched a plan to kill Patrice Lumumba by infecting his toothbrush with a deadly disease. The Congolese leader would brush his teeth and, presto, in a few days or weeks he would be gone.

Around the same time, the CIA's Health Alteration Committee -- who thought that name up? -- sent a monogrammed, poisoned handkerchief to Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, the leader of Iraq.

And the CIA's "executive action" unit plotted for years to murder Fidel Castro. It hired the Mafia to poison his food and tried to give him a diving suit contaminated with Madura foot, a rare tropical disease that starts in the foot and moves upward, slowly destroying the body. The CIA also considered offing the Cuban leader with an exploding cigar, a poison pen and a seashell that would blow up underwater when he touched it.

Not one of the plots was successful. Lumumba and Kassem were executed by their foes, and Castro is still alive. But the plots make clear that the CIA has been licensed to kill for decades.

Congress -- especially congressional Democrats -- was outraged earlier this month when it was disclosed that, apparently on orders from Vice President Dick Cheney, the CIA for eight years concealed from Congress a program to assassinate the leaders of Al Qaeda, starting with Osama bin Laden. But they shouldn't have been surprised that such a plan was being hatched.

The CIA's involvement in planning assassinations goes back at least to 1954, when it prepared a manual for killings as part of a U.S.-run coup against the leftist government of Guatemala. The 19-page manual, which was declassified in 1997, makes chilling reading. "The essential point of assassination is the death of the subject," it declares, noting that while it "is possible to kill a man with the bare hands ... the simplest local tools are often much the most efficient means of assassination. A hammer, ax, wrench, screwdriver, fire poker, kitchen knife, lamp stand or anything hard, heavy and handy will suffice."

The agency's manual recommends "the contrived accident" as the best way to dispose of someone. "The most efficient accident ... is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface. Elevator shafts, stairwells, unscreened windows and bridges will serve." The manual suggests grabbing the victim by the ankles and "tipping the subject over the edge. ... Falls before trains or subway cars are usually effective, but require exact timing."

The manual goes on to discuss "blunt weapons," noting that "a hammer can be picked up almost anywhere in the world" and that baseball bats are also excellent. The manual explains the best place in the body to stab people or how to bash their skulls in and the pros and cons of rifles, pistols, submachine guns and other weapons.

During the Cold War years, the CIA plotted against eight foreign leaders, five of whom died violently. The agency's role varied in each case.

After the plots were publicized by a Senate committee, President Ford issued an executive order in 1976 barring political assassination. President Reagan broadened the ban, dropping the word "political" and extending the prohibition to include contract killers as well as government employees.

Although the ban remains in effect, it has largely been ignored on the premise that it does not apply in a military setting. Consider the following:

In 1986, Reagan ordered the bombing of Libya in retaliation for a terrorist attack on a Berlin disco that killed three people, including two U.S. servicemen, and wounded more than 200 others. In the airstrike, Libya's leader, Moammar Kadafi, a target of the raid, escaped unharmed, but his 2-year-old adopted daughter was killed.

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, when the first Bush administration bombed Baghdad, Robert M. Gates, the former CIA director and current Defense secretary, said White House officials hoped that "Saddam Hussein would be killed in a bunker." At an air base in Saudi Arabia that year, Cheney, then secretary of Defense, and Gen. Colin L. Powell signed a 2,000-pound laser-guided bomb destined for Iraq. "To Saddam with affection," Cheney wrote.

In 1998, President Clinton ordered a cruise missile strike on Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan after the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The White House was clearly disappointed when the strike failed to kill Bin Laden, who reportedly left one of the camps shortly before the attack.

A year later, again during the Clinton administration, NATO bombed Belgrade after Serbia forced ethnic Albanians to flee from Kosovo. A cruise missile was lobbed right into the bedroom of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader and Yugoslav president, but he was not sleeping there and escaped injury.

In Yemen in 2002, a CIA Predator drone fired a Hellfire missile that destroyed a car in which a top Al Qaeda leader, Qaed Sinan Harithi, was riding.

The problem with assassination, morality aside, is that the U.S. is not very good at it, as the CIA's farcical efforts to murder Castro demonstrate. It seems unlikely that the CIA will kill Bin Laden with a baseball bat. And there is the real possibility of retaliation for a state-sponsored assassination. President Kennedy was quoted as saying, "We can't get into that kind of thing or we would all be targets." Perhaps CIA Director Leon Panetta had that in mind when he canceled the assassination program.

David Wise writes frequently about intelligence. He is the author of "Nightmover: How Aldrich Ames Sold the CIA to the KGB for $4.6 Million" and "Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America."