If you kill someone who needs killing, is that called really “assassination”?

Yes, because it begs the question, who determines that “someone needs killing?” You? Me? Pat Buchanan? Dick Cheney? Joe Biden? John Yoo? Greg Craig? Eric Holder?

Whomever makes that determination will surely feel they are justified in their belief that so and so is better off dead.

The ends do NOT justify the means, no matter how many times and ways folks might try to make the justification.

If you kill someone who needs killing, is that called really “assassination”?

Iran has suffered a number of high-profile aircraft crashes in recent years. Many civilian and military aircraft currently in use are either ancient U.S. jets or Soviet-era relics.

Iran has placed some of the blame for its poor aviation safety record on sanctions imposed by the United States, claiming they have hampered efforts to perform maintenance and obtain spare parts.

The crash is Iran’s worst since February 2003, when a Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people aboard. That crash was a sign of how maintenance problems have also affected Iran’s military.

from Yahoo news

if Cheney and Bush weren’t so nefarious and secretive we wouldn’t be tempted to pin every odd death and disaster on their powers. I have to remind myself how incompetent they were at everything else.

For however incompetent they were/are, the assassins that would be ordered to do their bidding are (theoretically, at least) professionals. When I reflect on the nightmare that was that administration, I can’t help but recall just how small and petty they were, with a sense of hyper-Nixonian entitlement (”If the President does it, it’s not illegal”). If one were to travel back in time two years and tell people about the things that have since been revealed, you’d be called a nutcase paranoid and laughed out of the room.

Given the things that are being uncovered, it has become prudent to assume (if one is going to make any assumptions at all) the worst about Cheney and company. Given the curiosities surrounding the cases I listed, it’s really just sensible to wonder why they are as curious as they are.

…Committee Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said the hit team plan, which was never carried out, is among several intelligence operations that will be investigated as part of a broad inquiry into the CIA’s handling of disclosures to Congress about its secret activities…

…The House Intelligence Committee will examine concerns that the CIA failed to inform the Senate and House Intelligence committees about former President George W. Bush’s wiretapping program, harsh interrogation techniques and the destruction of interrogation videotapes, according to a committee aide.

The inquiry will also focus on the how the CIA handled disclosures about the 2001 downing of a small plane carrying American missionaries over Peru and on other cases, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly…

…Separately from the committee’s inquiry, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., will head an investigation into the details of the CIA plan to send out teams of killers, she said Friday…

US House launches investigation into CIA program

…Republicans have been trying to keep the heat on Pelosi who became embroiled in controversy over when she knew the CIA was using waterboarding on terrorism suspects.

“At no time will the Republicans of this committee agree to or take part in congressional Democrats’ efforts to tear down the CIA to provide cover for Speaker Pelosi,” said Representative Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the committee.

Republicans also took issue with Democrats saying the investigation would look into violation of the National Security Act, which could lead to criminal charges.

“In the absence of substantiated facts, to even speculate on potential criminal behavior shows that this is little more than partisan, political theater and continues the politicization of important intelligence matters by Democrats,” Hoekstra said…

Crazy Pete off his meds again.