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Yet another obligatory AP (Assassination Politics) reference: If a person is really interested in helping out "starving children" he may be able to do far more good by purchasing the death of the local tyrant(s), rather than (just) buying more food.

The problem is that assasination rarely leads to the installation of a government that is any better. In most cases it gets worse.

In the past the US excuse for supporting bloodthirsty murderers like Pinochet, Saddam, Marcos and Noriega was that the alternative was worse.

In cases like Eritrea or Ethiopia the average term of office of any given despot tends to be rather short in any case. In most cases its a case of there being little to choose between the leaders of the various factions and that ending the war on any terms is better than allowing it to continue.

We've all heard these arguments, but are they true? Who says so, and how can they be certain? Jim's suggestion has never, to my knowledge, been tried on a consistant, large, scale. When all conventional alternatives have been tried and fail, what have we or the starving children got to lose? I'm sure there are qualified mercinaries available at the right price to put together wetwork operations, just look in soldier of fortune. I once had a hand in establishing a non-profit. Perhaps we can name it SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) after Ian Flemming. Is it legal for citizens of the U.S. to engage in contract killing of foreign military, politations, etc? How about U.S. or foreign non-profits? In a related matter, I used to be an avid RC modeler. By marrying a single-board computers, DGPS (Differential GPS) and Giant Scale Remote Control technologies it now appears straightforward to produce inexpensive consumer cruise missiles capable of accurate (<10 meter radius) delivery of 10 kg. explosive, gas or biological payloads over several hundred km. for less than $10,000 each. Both reciprocating and miniature jet engines are available. Might make cheaper alternative to mercinaries. -- Steve PGP Fingerprint: FE 90 1A 95 9D EA 8D 61 81 2E CC A9 A4 4A FB A9 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Snoop Daty Data | Internet: azur@netcom.com Grinder | Voice: 1-702-655-2877 Sacred Cow Meat Co. | Fax: 1-702-658-2673 7075 W. Gowan Road, #2148 | Las Vegas, NV 89129 | --------------------------------------------------------------------- Just say NO to perscription DRUGS.