Terrorism Rotten Apples and Terrorism

Terrorism

Rotten Apples and Terrorism

This is a difficult moral, ethical, and political dilemma. How does a country impose oversight on covert operations, and should a country impose oversight, especially during war times. After all, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II was also an act of mass murder, but it has always been justified by the fact it "saved lives" by ending the war early, rather than dragging it on for months or years.

Therefore, this is a difficult question. Who oversees the covert operations, and how do they remain impartial and removed from the agencies and operations themselves? How do they judge what is a necessary use of force to save lives, and what is unnecessary? All of these questions must be answered in this debate, and many more besides. Covert actions become something else of they are scrutinized so closely they give up their secretive nature. Thus, before you can oversee covert operations, definitions, guidelines, and rules must be established.

First, one must remember this particular assassination attempt took place in 1985, before the current technological advances in weaponry and guidance systems. Today, a targeted missile would probably be used, such as the missiles used in several attempts to assassinated Saddam Hussein and other dissidents in Iraq after the Iraq war began in 2002. These missiles are much more accurate than car bombs, and much more selective in their destruction. That does not condone assassination as a political tool, it simply notes that today, there probably would have been far fewer casualties, and the missile might have found its target.

According to the National Security Act of 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency is the federal agency responsible for covert operations.

This means that oversight would have to be accomplished by another agency, or by a new agency created by the government simply for that purpose. This agency could be responsible for general oversight of government policies, particularly overseas and internal covert operations, or it could be specifically responsible for only covert operations. The agency would have to report to a neutral board or group, rather than a governmental group, because that would help it maintain more autonomy and authority over operations.

Even in the absence of a governmental agency, there is another method to control these covert operations, and that is public opinion. As the news of many government atrocities has become known, there has been a great public outcry against these occurrences, and at least some times, this has led to modification of policies and covert actions. For example, when the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison became known, there was a moral outcry to stop the offensive practices and punish those who had participated in them. Obviously, covert actions are not going to become known overnight. However, as they do, the citizens can make their feelings known and cry out against these types of outrages, encouraging leaders to stop using these covert actions in the future.