Candidate Notes on 01-HR0019

01-HR0019 on Jan 3, 2001

OnTheIssues.org explanation: The US Army and the CIA are currently prohibited by law from assassinating enemies, including terrorist leaders. These prohibitions were put into place after the Kennedy assassination, and after the CIA attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro, so that enemy countries would nave no incentive to assassinate American leaders. This bill undoes those prohibitions. Pres. Bill Clinton stated that during his presidency, he interpreted this law to NOT apply to terrorist leaders, since "assassination" only applies to government officials. Hence Pres. Clinton DID attempt to assassinate Osama bin Laden, by cruise missile attack. Under that interpretation (which is certainly NOT universally accepted) this bill would simply clarify that Pres. Clinton's actions were and are legal.

EXCERPTS FROM BILL and from ORIGINAL EXECUTIVE ORDERS:

Congress finds that--
1. past Presidents have issued Executive orders which severely limit the use

of the military when dealing with potential threats

these Executive orders limit the swift, sure, and precise action needed to protect our national security;

present strategy allows the military forces to bomb large targets hoping to eliminate a terrorist leader, but prevents our country from designing a limited action which would specifically accomplish that purpose.

The following provisions of Executive orders shall have no further force or effect:
1. Section 5(g) of Executive Order 11905: "5(g) No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination."
2. Section 2-305 of Executive Order 12036: "2-305. No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.
3. Section 2.11 of Executive Order 12333: "2.11: No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination."