“March 20 2003
At around 2:00 pm today the first missiles fell on Baghdad, it appears from the news reports that it was an attempt at a surgical strike aimed at killing Saddam Hussein and several leaders of the Iraqi government.
There was an admission from the Australian Foreign Minister, that such an attack would be considered illegal if undertaken by Australia, but nonetheless he supported the action.
The betting has always been that if an opportunity presented itself to remove Saddam Hussein then it should taken rather than involve the country in a war. Equally, given the scenario, it would not come as a great surprise to find that someone is likely to make an attempt at killing one of the leaders of the “coalition of the willing”.
The TV was saturated with coverage which eventually gave way to normal programming when it was realised that no additional attacks would happen and there was thus nothing of importance to report.”
There are reports of other illegal assassinations undertaken by American forces on behalf of the state for example in:
"ASSASSINATION AND DISPLAY IN IRAQ:
THE KILLINGS OF UDAY AND QUSAI HUSSEIN IN INTERNATIONAL LAW" by
Professor Marjorie Cohn Thomas Jefferson School of Law JURIST Contributing Editor at
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forum/forumnew121.php
Another example being:
"Assassination ban 'no shield' for al-Qaida"
By SHAUN WATERMAN UPI Homeland and National Security Editor at: http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20050324-075226-2917r
What is the world coming to when states that we normally admire can not only get away with violating the law but when no one takes any notice?
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