Law & Disorder / Civilization & Discontents

Ex-NSA chief jokes about putting Snowden on a hit list, advocates “targeted killings”

"Assassinations are forbidden by executive order—we don't do assassinations."

A former National Security Agency director joked at a cybersecurity conference on Thursday that NSA-leaker Edward Snowden should be put on a kill list rather than a human rights award list.

"I must admit, in my darker moment[s] over the past several months, I'd also thought of nominating Mr. Snowden, but it was for a different list," Gen. Michael Hayden said at the Washington Post-sponsored event, according to The Hill.

Hayden later fielded a question about an upcoming investigation by journalists Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill into alleged NSA involvement with assassinations. He dismissed the idea and said that while the US does not conduct assassinations, it does conduct “targeted killings.”

"Yes, we do targeted killings, and I certainly hope they make full use of the capacities of the National Security Agency when we do that," he said. "Assassinations are forbidden by executive order. We don't do assassinations."

Hayden later articulated this further. As opposed to the policy of no assassinations, he said the US does authorize and conduct "targeted killings against enemy combatants" because the nation is at war. Such killings likely also include drone strikes, which have even killed American citizens in the past.

US targeted killings have been the object of much speculation recently. Just last year, Iran pointed the finger directly at the US and Israel after a number of nuclear scientists were assassinated within the country. (The killings came during the ongoing disagreement over Iran's attempt to grow its nuclear program.) Both the US and Israel denied the accusations, but "the official reaction in Israel appeared to be more cryptic," the New York Times reported.

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