The 1976 Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities, also known as the (Idaho Senator Frank) Church Committee, revealed past Central Intelligence Agency plots to assassinate Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Congo’s Patrice Lumumba, and Chile’s General Rene Schneider.
The Committee concluded that
“… assassination is incompatible with American principles, international order, and morality. It should be rejected as a tool of foreign policy.”
In response to the Church Committee findings, President Ford signed Executive Order 11905 which forbid government employees from engaging in political assassination:
“No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination”
Ford’s successors Carter and Reagan would issue their own Executive Orders prohibiting political assassinations as a tool of foreign policy.
The assassination of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, raises a number of questions.
- What if a political assassination would prevent a war or a holocaust?
- Is assassination just an extension of war?
- Would the outrage following a political assassination deter or create terrorists?
- Where do we draw the line regarding moral and ethical boundaries in the pursuit of national interest?
Gerald Ford’s principled stand on these questions has been made moot by Trump’s belligerence.
Sources
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11905-united-states-foreign-intelligence-activities
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2025-11-20/cia-assassination-plots-church-committee-report-50-years
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11905-united-states-foreign-intelligence-activities
https://www.prindleinstitute.org/2022/03/can-assassination-ever-be-the-right-thing-to-do/
Thanks and a tip of the hat to the Official website of Ali Khamenei for the image.
