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By Stephen Lee

	Footnote Comics: Queen & Country Written by Greg Rucka, art by various. Published by Oni Press. What is this comic about? : Tara Felicity Chace is one of three "Minders" who carry out special operations for the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service, sometimes known as S.I.S. or MI6. She has been a Minder for three years and her superior is Paul Crocker, the Director of Operations, who used to be a Minder himself during the 1980s. Tara has conducted an assassination in Kosovo (Queen & Country #1-4), assisted an operation in Afghanistan (Q&C #5-7), and helped thwart a sarin-gas attack on U.K. nationals (Q&C #8-12). Recommended Reading : I liked this comic so much that the comics weren't enough and I had to track down DVDs of the 1970s British show that inspired it, The Sandbaggers. The first two Queen and Country storylines (collected in the Operation Broken Ground and Operation Morningstar graphic novels) complement each other very well; read these together and you should be hooked. Paul Crocker also stars in Queen & Country : Declassified, a limited series set during the Cold War. And if you like Queen & Country, you might like Whiteout, a limited series set in Antarctica that features a character similar to Tara Chace. For more information, visit OniPress.com or GregRucka.com. Topics in Operation Crystal Ball * A plot by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad * An informant from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) * A Hizballoh founder responsible for a station chief's death * Chemical weapon development in Sudan * Sarin gas * England in the 2002 World Cup Topics in Operation Morningstar * Press used as spies, killed in the line of duty * The Taliban and Afghanistan Topics in Operation Broken Ground * Assassinations * A former Russian general selling arms to be used in Chechnya Operation Crystal Ball (Q&C 8-12) Art by Leandro Fernandez Panel from Issue #8 : The Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Panel from Issue #8 : Buckley and Mugniyah. Panel from Issue #9 : The G.I.A. Panel from Issue #11 : Sudan and chemical weapons. Panel from Issue #9 : Sarin gas. Panel from Issue #12 : The 2002 World Cup. Operation Morningstar (Q&C 5-7) Art by Brian Hurtt and Christine Norrie Panel from Issue #5 : Press used as spies. Panel from Issue #6 : The Taliban. Operation Broken Ground (Q&C 1-4) Art by Steve Rolston Panel from Issue #1 : Assassinations. Panel from Issue #1 : Chechnya. All covers and panels are copyright Greg Rucka. Al-Jihad, a.k.a. the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (last updated March 16, 2003) (back to top) Sometimes known as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (as it is in Queen & Country), al-Jihad has operated since the 1970s and has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States' Department of State. Its focus has primarily been on overthrowing Egypt's government and on attacking the United States, which would make an attack on U.K. civilians, especially outside of Egypt, somewhat inconsistent with past behavior, as Paul Crocker and Donald Weldon themselves noted in #8. This Islamic separatist group is primarily based in Egypt and its main goal is to overthrow the Egyptian government and to replace it with an Islamic state. It also seeks to attack U.S. and Israeli interests in Egypt and abroad, and it has ties to Osama Bin Laden. According to the U.S. State Department, al-Jihad specializes in armed attacks against high-level Egyptian government personnel and car-bombings against U.S. and Egyptian facilities. The jihad was responsible for assassinating Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and claimed responsibility for attempting to assassinate other officials in 1993. It reportedly has not conducted an attack in Egypt since 1993 but reportedly planned an unsuccessful attack against the U.S. embassy in Albania in 1998. This group is based in Cairo but reportedly has a network outside of Egypt, including in the United Kingdom. For more on foreign terrorist organizations designated by the State Department, go here. Sources: The State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations, last updated January 30, 2003, is on-line here. al-Jihad is described in the appendix to the State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000 report, on-line here. Armed Islamic Group (last updated March 17, 2003 (back to top) Designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States' Department of State, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) is an Islamic separatist group seeking to replace Algeria's secular regime with an Islamic state. The GIA began operating after Algeria voided the success of the largest Islamic opposition party in 1991 legislative elections. The GIA has conducted its campaign on Algerian civilians and on foreigners living in Algeria. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika acknowledged in 1999 that about 100,000 people had been killed over the previous eight years as a result of the civil conflict between his government and radial Muslim groups such as the GIA. In addition, the GIA announced in 1994 that it intended to eliminate Jews, Christians and polytheists from Algeria and has reportedly killed about 100 people according to this plan. It also conducted an airplane hijacking in 1994, and a series of bombings in France in 1995. For more on foreign terrorist organizations designated by the State Department, go here. Sources: The State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations, last updated January 30, 2003, is on-line here. The Armed Islamic Group is described in the appendix to the State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000 report, on-line here. More background information on Algeria's internal dispute with separatist Muslims is available through the State Department's 2001 country report on human rights, on-line here. William Buckley and Imad Fayez Mugniyah (last updated March 17, 2003) (back to top) William Buckley's kidnapping and murder in 1984 was just the first of several hostage-takings by the Islamic Jihad, also known as Hizballah (Party of God). And that kidnapping is just one of many terrorist acts attributed to Imad Fayez Mugniyah, who was one of Hizballah's founders and may have ties to Osama Bin Laden. The CIA station chief in Lebanon, Buckley was kidnapped by three gunmen outside his apartment on March 16, 1984. Two months later, the Islamic Jihad (Hizballah) claimed to be holding him, and Buckley was then shown in a videotape filmed in January 1985. He reportedly died in June 1985 while in captivity, but his captors did not announce his death until October 1985, when they claimed that he had been executed in retaliation for Israeli acts against the Palestinian Liberation Organization that month. According to the final report of the independent counsel assigned to the Iran/Contra affair, the United States sold weapons to Iran in violation of U.S. law from the summer of 1985 through 1986 in an effort to get hostages released, and the United States wanted Buckley to be the first released, though he had already been dead for two months by the first exchange. The United States reportedly shipped arms to Iran three times in 1985 through Israel, and five more times in 1986 after President Ronald Reagan authorized such shipments; these shipments led to the release of three hostages in total. In addition to the hostage-taking, Hizballah also claimed responsibility for the April 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, in which 63 people were killed, including the CIA's Middle East director, the October 1983 simultaneous bombing of U.S. and French compounds, which killed 242 Americans and 58 French troops, and an April 1984 bombing of a restaurant in Spain that killed 18 U.S. servicemen. Hizballah is a radical Shi'a group formed in Lebanon dedicated to increasing its power in Lebanon. It is believed to have close ties to Iran and some considered it a front for Iran's state-sponsored terrorism. One of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, Mugniyah is the alleged head of Hizballah's security apparatus and is believed to be responsible for such acts as the October 1983 bombing and Buckley's kidnapping and death. Mugniyah was also involved in the June 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, during which an American passenger was beaten and fatally shot; Mugniyah was indicted by the federal government for his role in the hijacking. Imad Fayez Mugniyah It is unclear whether Mugniyah has ties to al-Qaeda. Ali Mohammed, who was arrested after the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania apparently reported that he had arranged a meeting between Mugniyah and Osama bin Laden, but whether Mohammed was lying is not known. Sources: Buckley's kidnapping is part of the State Department's list of significant terrorist incidents from 1996 to 2001, on-line here. Hizballah, aka the Islamic Jihad, is described in the appendix to the State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000 report, on-line here. Russell D. Buhite, Lives at Risk: Hostages and Victims in American Foreign Policy (Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1995). The FBI's most wanted poster for Imad Fayez Mugniyah is on-line here; the photo of Mugniyah comes from that poster. Mike Boettcher, U.S. renews bid to catch Beirut bombing suspect, CNN, October 10, 2001 (on-line here. A copy of the Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters is available on-line here. Sudan (last updated March 17, 2003) (back to top) Ruled by a military dictatorship that until recently was allied with a radical Islamic group, Sudan has been considered a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States Department of State since 1993 and is believed to have been developing chemical weapons for several years. Sudan covers an area almost the size of the continental United States in northern Africa, and it has been wracked by a long-running civil war that resulted in about two million dead over the 1990s. The fighting began as a reaction to the harsh Islamicization campaign imposed in 1983 by then-President Muhammad Nimeiri, which encouraged insurgents in Sudan's southern region. Several coups occurred in the mid-1980s, and then a military junta led by then-Colonel Omar Hassan al-Bashir with the help of the radical National Islamic Front took power in 1989. Under the shared rule of Bashir and the National Islamic Front, Sudan began imposing harsh applications of Islamic law and became a haven for terrorists in the early 1990s. Osama bin Laden and others reportedly resided in Sudan during this time; bin Laden is believed to have left Sudan for Afghanistan around 1996. Bashir declared a state of emergency in 1999 and apparently Relations with the United States were poor during the 1990s. The United States designated Sudan a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993, closed its embassy in 1996, and imposed sanctions on Sudan in 1997. It also launched retaliatory cruise missile strikes against the capitol of Khartoum after the East Africa embassy bombings in 1998. Sudan did nonetheless provide some cooperation to the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, but its support has been mixed. The United States continues to view Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism and renewed sanctions in November 2001. It noted in its Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000 report that Sudan "continued to be used as a safehaven by members of various groups" including al-Qaeda, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and HAMAS, with most groups using Sudan as a base for assisting allies elsewhere. The United States has also criticized Sudan in the past for not complying fully with United Nations Security Council resolutions passed in 1996 which demanded that Sudan end all support to terrorists. Sudan has also been attempting to develop chemical weapons, according to the CIA. In its report for the second half of 2001, the CIA stated that Sudan "has been developing the capability to produce chemical weapons for many years. It historically has obtained help from foreign entities, principally in Iraq." Sources: Sudan's role as a state sponsor of terrorism is described in the State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000 report, on-line here. The CIA's Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions for July 1 through December 31, 2001 is on-line here. The State Department's background notes on Sudan are on-line here. Ted Dagne, Sudan : Humanitarian Crises, Peace Talks, Terrorism, and U.S. Policy, Congressional Reserve Service, March 19, 2002 (Order Code IB98043). Sarin (last updated March 18, 2003) (back to top) Sarin is a nerve agent that overstimulates glands and muscles and thus makes people unable to breathe properly; people who have been exposed to large doses may suffer loss of consciousness, convulsions, paralysis and death. Sarin was originally developed as a pesticide in Germany in 1938; it may have been used during the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s, and it was used by the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo in its 1995 subway attack. Twelve people were killed and about 5,000 injured as a result of the March 20, 1995 terrorist action by Aum Shinrikyo. Since then, eight senior members were given death sentences and six others life sentences for the attack and for killing members who attempted to leave the organization; cases against leader Shoko Asahara were still pending as of 2002. The group lost its legal status as a religious organization in 1996 and was renamed Aleph formally in 2000; it also has been ordered to pay millions in compensation to victims. The group is reportedly under active surveillance by the Japanese government and has been considered a foreign terrorist organization by the United States since 1997. Sources: The Centers for Disease Control has a fact sheet on sarin on-line here and the Agency for Toxic Substances has information on nerve agents including sarin on-line here. Information on Aum Shinrikyo is taken from the State Department's 2002 International Religious Freedom Report for Japan, on-line here. England in the 2002 World Cup (last updated March 16, 2003) (back to top) This was a real game in the 2002 World Cup, though obviously the game went off in real-life without any known terrorist incident. England played Nigeria on June 12, 2002 and ended the game in a 0-0 tie, but England did well enough in its previous two matches to advance to the next round. England ultimately was beaten in the quarterfinals by Brazil. And yes, David Beckham, who is seen getting ready in the target locker room, did play in the England-Nigeria game. He plays middle forward and is married to Victoria Adams, formerly known as Posh Spice. He is also the soccer/football idol behind the 2002 independent movie "Bend It Like Beckham." Sources: Information about the 2002 FIFA World Cup is on-line here; details on the England-Nigeria match are on-line here. Journalists and Spies, Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty (last updated March 16, 2003) (back to top) Suspicions about whether a journalist is actually a spy have put several journalists at risk while reporting overseas. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was killed sometime in January or February 2002 by a Pakistani group that accused him of being a spy for the United States. Similarly, Associated Press reporter Terry Anderson was held as a hostage for seven years by a terrorist group that thought he was a CIA agent. Some have thus called on the United States government to bar all use of journalists for espionage activities. This would help assuage suspicions directed towards journalists, they say. United States Policy Towards Use of Journalists as Spies United States law generally forbids the recruitment of journalists as spies, but does allow it if the President or the CIA's director determines in writing that a waiver is necessary for the security interest of the United States. There apparently are no restrictions on intelligence operatives' posing as accredited journalists or on journalists' voluntary cooperation with intelligence operations. Thus, a CIA agent probably could pose or even work as a journalist just as David MacMillan apparently did in Queen & Country #5-7, possibly putting actual journalists at risk. Press advocates in the United States have urged greater restrictions on the government's use of journalists, especially since revelations in February 1996 that CIA regulations adopted in 1977 to prevent the recruitment of journalists actually included a waiver provision that has occasionally been used. "A statement of a formal exception – no matter how hedged or restricted – would simply be an acknowledgement to those who suspect us of being spies that 'yes, on occasion, you're right,'" Terry Anderson testified in a 1996 Senate hearing. The CIA adopted its regulations in early December 1977, a day after Senator Daniel K. Inouye called for legislation forbidding the use of journalists or clergy for espionage activities. The regulations also came amidst reports that the CIA was using such persons for espionage activities. A Senate report in April 1976 disclosed that about 50 American journalists were also employed by the CIA, and a New York Times series in late December 1977 also found that more than 30 American journalists had worked as paid intelligence operatives and that at least a dozen more were considered operational "assets." The issue came to light again in February 1996, when CIA Director John M. Deutch admitted at a Senate hearing that the CIA regulations had always allowed for the use of journalists as intelligence operatives in extreme circumstances, even though the CIA had no intention of using American journalists as agents or news organizations as cover at that time. The existence of this waiver provision came as a surprise to most journalists, and helped fuel a new debate on the use of journalists as spies. Nightline anchor Ted Koppel, for example, testified in the summer of 1996 that "I am unilaterally and categorically opposed to the notion of the CIA having the legal option of using journalism as a cover for its officers or agents … Those of my colleagues who have devoted a lifetime of striving for fairness and objectivity in their work, who have genuinely reported without fear or favor, will now have to settle for the assumption that they were just maintaining their cover." Congress then turned the general policy – and the waiver – into law with an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997. The policy's new status as law ensures that it cannot be changed as easily as an agency's regulation could have been. Still, it does not restrict in any way intelligence operatives from posing as journalists or from accepting the help of journalists, and press advocates have continued to demand stronger restrictions. Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty About 20 to 40 journalists have been killed each year since 1996, according to annual surveys by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonpartisan organization that monitors press abuses around the world and that annually reports on those journalists who are killed or imprisoned for reasons relating to their professional duties. Most of the journalists killed are local reporters; only 10 of the 366 journalists reportedly killed in the line of duty from 1993 to 2002 were American journalists working overseas at the time. The following chart shows the countries where the most journalists have been killed over the past seven years, with different colors representing the number killed in the corresponding year. As the chart shows, Columbia and Russia report the most consistent number of journalists killed each year. Afghanistan has not been friendly to journalists, either during the Taliban regime or afterwards. Still, few journalists were reportedly killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan before 2001; a reporter for the BBC World Service was killed in 1994, and one from the Iranian news agency was found murdered in 1998. Eight journalists were killed in 2001 while covering the fighting in late 2001, and another journalist was killed during an armed robbery at the house where he and other journalists were staying. Sources re U.S. Policy re Journalists and Espionage Activities: Nicholas M. Horrock, Use of press and clergy barred in proposed espionage charter, New York Times, December 2, 1977. David Binder, C.I.A. adopts regulation barring use of U.S. reporters to aid in spying, New York Times, December 3, 1977. John M. Crewdson, C.I.A. established many links to journalists in U.S. and abroad, New York Times, December 27, 1977. Tim Weiner, C.I.A. chief defends secrecy, in spending and spying, to Senate, New York Times, February 23, 1996. A May 2, 2002 press release from the Committee to Protect Journalists is on-line here, and Senate testimony is excerpted in a summer 1996 report on-line here. Sources re Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty: The Committee to Protect Journalists is on-line here; its report covering 2002 is on-line here. Afghanistan (last updated March 18, 2003) (back to top) Even before the events of late 2001, Afghanistan had known political chaos and violence for almost three decades, revolving around a decade-long Soviet invasion that ended in 1989 and left the country to even more years of civil war and tribal warfare. In 1996, the Taliban took control of the country and implemented a government based on an extreme form of Islamic interpretation. The Taliban was sanctioned by the international community for its harboring of terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden even before the September 11 attacks, and it was finally driven out of power in November 2001. A poor country with little industry, Afghanistan became the world's largest opium and heroin producer in the late 1990s and remains so today, even with the change in regimes. Opium cultivation and production did drop dramatically from 2000 to 2001 due to a ban imposed by the Taliban in July 2000, but the Taliban enforced this ban through methods considered draconian and unsustainable by the United States. The ban also did little to halt drug trafficking, as the Taliban did not halt the distribution of opium stockpiled from previous harvests, and the ban probably benefited the Taliban through the taxes on the opium that could be sold at a higher price due to the reduced supply. Now led by Hamid Karzai, the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan Government again banned the cultivation, processing and trafficking of opiates in January 2002 and has committed to developing alternative livelihoods for the country's opium farmers. Even so, opium poppy cultivation in 2002 again increased to levels near that of the early 1990s and the country is again the world's largest opium producer. Slightly smaller than Texas in terms of land size, Afghanistan is located in the Near East at the crossroads between the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Central Asia. The country is largely Muslim (85 percent Sunni Muslim, 15 percent Shi'a) and has long been divided amongst ethnic groups, the largest of which is the Pashtun ethnic group (about 38 percent of the population). Afghanistan has had a troubled time since the 1970s and especially since it was caught up in Cold War politics. For the past two decades, it has had the distinction of producing the world's largest-ever single refugee caseload each year. About a third of the country's population fled during the Soviet invasion, and though millions have returned since then, about 2.6 million refugees remained in exile in early 2000. The 40-year reign of Mohammad Zahir Shah, who took the throne as king when he was 19 years old after the assassination of his father, ended in 1973, when his cousin took power and established a short-lived republic. King Shah went to exile in Italy, staying there for the next 29 years until he finally returned in April 2002 to help create a new government for Afghanistan. The new republic that replaced King Shah lasted only a few years before it was itself overthrown in 1978, this time by a communist party. The Soviet Union then sent troops into Afghanistan in December 1979 to support the communist regime, thus beginning a decade-long struggle which ultimately emboldened the resistance (supported and trained by the United States and other countries) and sent about a third of the population fleeing the country as refugees. Negotiations to end the war culminated in the 1988 Geneva Accords, and the last Soviet troops withdrew in February 1989. The country then soon broke down into tribal warfare, which lasted for years and left a power vacuum that the Taliban filled in 1996. The Taliban, which literally means "religious students" and which refers to the educational background of the movement's leaders, controlled about 90 percent of the country at its peak. Taliban leadership, many of whom received training to fight against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, adhered to the Hanafi school of Sunii Islam and attended Deobandi-influenced seminaries in Pakistan; the Deobandi school seeks to purify Islam by discarding supposedly un-Islamic accretions to the faith and re-emphasizing the models established in the Koran and the customary practices of the Prophet Mohammed. The Taliban was ruled by Mullah Omar, Head of State and Commander of the Faithful, and a ruling council known as the Shura. The Taliban emerged as a power in 1994 and, with Pakistan's help, took the capital city of Kabul in September 1996. Overcoming the traditional segmentation of the various Pashtun tribes by emphasizing Islamism and targeting non-Pashtun ethnicities, the Taliban then imposed a strict list of regulations on the Afghan people and enforces these regulations through a religious police force under the control of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice and through Islamic courts. These restrictions had their greatest impact on women. Upon taking power in 1996, the Taliban immediately forbade girls to go to school and banned women from working outside the home, which had far-reaching impacts on health care services and education; some of these restrictions were reportedly eased in 1999. The Taliban also imposed rigid lifestyle restrictions on women, restricting them to their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative and requiring them to wear a burqa (a garment covering the body from head to foot with a small, lace-covered opening for the eyes) or risk a beating. The Taliban also banned music, movies and television on religious grounds. In 1998, the Taliban prohibited television sets and satellite dishes in order to enforce the prohibition, though this regulation was reportedly not strictly enforced. Regulations covered many aspects of daily life, including the length of a man's beard. According to Taliban regulations, men must have beards extending longer than would a fist clamped at the base of his chin or face beatings or imprisonment for 10 days. The United Nations condemned the Taliban government several times, beginning shortly after it came to power. In particular, the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions and a military embargo against the country once the Taliban began supporting and harboring terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization. During the Taliban's rule, the United Nations continued to recognize the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the anti-Taliban movement. Isolated from the international community, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was just one of a handful of conservative Islamist states and was recognized by only three countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. And even though Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was ruled by a fundamentalist Islamist government, there were some crucial distinctions between it and its neighbor, Iran. While both countries are fundamentalist Muslim, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was largely Sunni Muslim and entirely under religious rule, whereas Iran is largely Shia Muslim and has a secular government that has some independence from the totalitarian religious structure. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the United States moved to attack al-Qaeda forces located in Afghanistan and to drive out the Taliban government that supported them. U.S. and British forces began air strikes in early October 2001, and began ground attacks later that month. By late November, the Taliban had lost control of Afghanistan's major cities to the Northern Alliance forces. In December 2001, Afghan leaders meeting in Germany signed an agreement to establish a broad-based, multi-ethnic, post-Taliban government, beginning with an interim administration headed by Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai and culminating with emergency council meetings chaired by the former king. Sources: The State Department has collected information on Afghanistan on-line here, and the CIA World Factbook entry on Afghanistan is available on-line here. The State Department's 2002 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report on Afghanistan is on-line here, and the entire report and previous years' reports are collected here. Annual country reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch, Crisis of Impunity: The role of Pakistan, Russia, and Iran in fueling the civil war, available on-line here. Annual reports by the U.S. Department of State on human rights practices and on international religious freedom, available through the department and its archives here. United Nations Security Council resolutions and reports regarding Afghanistan are available here. A U.S. State Department chronology from September to December 2001 covering U.S. activity in Afghanistan is on-line here. An April 11, 2002 special briefing on the rebuilding of Afghanistan is on-line here. Assassinations (last updated March 16, 2003) (back to top) International law generally prohibits peacetime assassinations, and it is the officially stated policy of the United States and the United Kingdom (or at least its MI5 branch) not to conduct assassinations. However, at least in the United States, the ban on assassinations is not codified in law but in an executive order (EO 12333) that the President of the United States can change at will and without public knowledge or notice of a change. In addition, this policy does not define what an assassination is, and the United States has long distinguished assassinations as separate from military operations directed against enemy leaders in the course of self-defense. Assassinations in General Generally, assassinations are considered by international law experts as the murder of a targeted individual for political purposes, usually involving circumstances of a covert or "treacherous" nature. Whether the intended killing of an individual counts as an assassination or as a generally acceptable military operation depends on whether the relevant countries are at peace or war, the forces carrying out the killing, and the means by which the killing is carried out. During peacetime, the targeted killing of any individual, whether a combatant or not, is generally considered an assassination and is not permitted. However, countries at peace are still allowed to use military force under the inherent right of self-defense of nations, which is recognized in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. Taking an arguably broad view of its rights under Article 51, the United States has used military force in peacetime situations where a country's actions were considered a direct threat to U.S. citizens or national security. The United States has invoked this right in launching airstrikes against Libya in 1983, invading Panama in 1989, and launching airstrikes against Iraq in 1993, though the United States did not officially target specific individuals in these operations in order to avoid having these actions labeled assassinations that might not be permitted by EO 12333. Some critics say that the United States' view of Article 51 is overbroad, and that it was meant only to allow countries to repel either direct invasions or immediate, overwhelming threats under the Caroline standard established in the 1830s. During wartime, countries have more freedom to target and attack individuals who are involved in military operations. A combatant is considered a legitimate target at all times, and is denoted as such by his or her uniform, and so a military operation to kill such an individual is considered permissible, unless done through treacherous means. Thus, the successful attack by U.S. military planes on Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during World War II is generally considered an intended attack on an individual, but not an assassination. United States Policy U.S. policy towards assassinations has been shaped since the 1970s by an executive order first promulgated in 1977 by President Gerald Ford and re-implemented by presidents since then. Ford's Executive Order 11905 provided, in part, that "no employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination." That order was expanded by President Jimmy Carter beyond "political" assassination to all assassinations, and is now embodied in EO 12333, which was issued by President Ronald Reagan and maintained by subsequent presidents. Ford's original order came in the wake of a Senate committee investigation into allegations about United States-authorized assassinations. That committee, which was chaired by Senator Frank Church, concluded that the United States was directly linked to the assassination of Rafael Trugillo of the Dominican Republic and to assassination attempts of Fidel Castro of Cuba., and recommended laws that would prohibit assassinations in peacetime. No such laws were ever enacted, probably pre-empted by Ford's executive action. EO 12333 is open to much interpretation, perhaps intentionally so. It does not define assassination, which gives the United States some flexibility in its actions and allows it to pursue overt military operations even against specific individuals. It also does not define "engaging" or "conspiring," which arguably leaves room for the United States to encourage coup attempts as long as there are no specific plans for the killing of individuals. The order also has limited constraint on the President, since he can modify or overrule the executive order at any time and, because it involves security matters, he does not need to notify the public of the change. The president would not have such flexibility to lift the constraint on his power if the ban on assassinations was embodied in a law rather than an executive order. Effectively, the President has several options if he does wish to order the killing of a foreign leader. He can ask Congress to declare war, he can construe Article 51 to authorize the use of military forces in self-defense, he can narrowly interpret EO 12333 to allow actions as long as specific plans to kill individuals are not involved, and he can modify or overrule EO 12333 unilaterally. His ability to order the killing of a foreign leader visiting the United States, however, might be limited by other factors such as the general policy of not using military forces in the United States, which is given some effect by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. Sources: W. Hays Parks, Executive Order 12333 and Assassination, Army Lawyer (1989). Stephen T. Hosmer, Operations against Enemy Leaders (Rand, 2001). Lt. Commander Patricia Zengel, Assassination and the Law of Armed Conflict, Military Law Review, Volume 134, Page 123 (Fall 1991). Bert Brandenburg, The Legality of Assassination as an Aspect of Foreign Policy, Virginia Journal of International Law, Volume 27, Page 655 (1987). Boyd M. Johnson, III, Executive Order 12,333: The Permissibility of an American Assassination of a Foreign Leader, Cornell International Law Journal, Volume 25, Page 401 (1992). The British Security Service (MI5) is on-line here and its policy towards assassinations is on-line here. The Central Intelligence Agency's policy towards assassinations is on-line here. Chechnya (last updated November 3, 2002) (back to top) Chechnya, a small, oil-rich, predominantly Muslim republic in Russia's North Caucasus mountain region, has been the site of Russia's greatest internal dissension and military conflicts in the 1990s and the early 21st century. The first Russia-Chechnya military conflict lasted from 1994 to 1996, involved human-rights abuses by both sides, and ended with the Russian forces' embarrassing defeat. A second war began in August 1999, and arguably has continued into 2002. Still, violent struggles go on and the Russian government sporadically meets with Chechen leaders. In October 2002, Chechen rebels took control of a Moscow theater in October 2002 and threatened to kill hundreds of hostages one at a time until their demands were met. Russian military forces took the theater back by force within three days, killing about 40 rebels and more than 100 out of roughly 750 hostages in the process. The Russian-Chechen conflict has taken on a new aspect in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. On September 24, 2001, Putin called on Chechen rebels to stop contacts with international terrorist organizations, trying to link Russia's actions with the United States' actions against al-Qaeda. However, while there is some evidence of individuals or factions tied to terrorist elements, there is none of extensive ties between Chechens and al-Qaeda, a Bush administration official testified in May 2002. Chechnya's move to independence began without violence in 1991, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Chechnya then elected former Russian general Dzokhar Dudayev as president, and Dudayev declared the country's independence from Russia. Yeltsin had said in 1990 that Russia's various parts should "take as much sovereignty as you can handle," but now as President, he responded to Chechnya's action by declaring a state of emergency and sending in a small number of troops. The operation was ill-conceived, was not supported by the Russian Parliament, and ended embarrassingly when the troops were escorted out of Chechnya. For the next three years, Chechnya was effectively an independent country. It exported millions of tons of oil and contributed no taxes to the Russian government. Finally, the Yeltsin administration decided in the fall of 1994 to take action again against Chechnya. The action was described as a necessary act to rein in a separatist regime that harbored criminals who committed hijackings and other acts, but the Yeltsin administration also reportedly believed a war against Chechnya would play well in Russian domestic politics, especially with the then-growing popularity of an ultra-nationalist party. The Russian Parliament again condemned the action, but did not call for the troops' withdrawal as it had in 1991. More than 40,000 Russian troops entered the Chechen capital of Grozny in mid-December 1994 and then launched a massive artillery campaign on New Year's Eve. About half a million civilians were displaced during the next 20 months of war, and an estimated 50,000 civilians were killed. (The United States did not get directly involved with the conflict, believing the conflict was an internal affair and not recognizing Chechnya as anything other than a part of Russia.) Dudayev was killed by a Russian attack in April 1996, and was replaced by new leadership that opened new talks with the Russians. In August 1996, Russian and Chechen authorities negotiated a settlement that resulted in the near-complete withdrawal of Russian troops by elections held in January 1997. Chechnya retained its de facto independence, and a peace treaty was signed in May 1997. A second modern Chechen war began in August 1999, after Chechen commandoes began efforts to seize control of the neighboring republic of Dagestan, which has a sizeable Muslim population and which would provide Chechnya access to the Caspian Sea. Russian forces responded by launching air strikes and re-deploying large numbers of Russian forces, and the conflict escalated after Chechens reportedly bombed two apartment buildings in Moscow in September 1999. Russian forces claimed to control Chechnya by the spring of 2000, but military operations continued long past that date, with about 80,000 troops stationed there in early 2001. President Vladimir Putin announced In January 2001 that he would begin withdrawing troops and turn anti-separatist operations to special counterterrorist forces, but the withdrawal has proven slower than initially expected. Russian forces were criticized in both wars for human-rights abuses such as attacking civilians and deliberately attacking civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, and are now criticized for the alleged disappearances and torture of Chechen separatists. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights called in April 2000 for Russia to form a broad-based independent commission to investigate human-rights violations, but Russia had not done so as of early 2002. Sources: Anatol Lieven, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (Yale University Press, 1998). Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal, Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus (New York University Press, 1998). David Remnick, Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia (Vintage Books, 1998). The U.S. State Department's March 2002 background note on Russia is on-line here, and a human-rights report is on-line here. U.S. Ambassador Steven Pifer's May 9, 2002 statement to the Congressional Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe is on-line here. Steven Greenhouse, U.S. says Russian move is 'an internal affair,' New York Times, December 12, 1994. Michael Wines, Putin scaling down Chechen war despite new fighting, New York Times, January 23, 2001. Michael Wines and Sabrina Tavernise, Russia recaptures theater after Chechen rebel group begins to execute hostages, New York Times, October 26, 2002.			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