Assassination Politics

[grarpamp]

"I'm only accepting that machine the pentagon rejected - PAM
FutureMaps - to state the obvious, they don't need any 'prediction
market'. US govcorp can murder anyone they want at any time. - Rat"

"...the US Government had been planning a website that would enable
people to place bets on the likelihood of terrorist events. -
R.Sukumaran. 2004"

"A sufficiently large market predicting an individual's death is also,
necessarily, an assassination market - N.Szabo. 2015"

> http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3072985/  PAM Futures

> https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/07/save-the-pentagon-futures-market.html
> http://www.policyanalysismarket.org/


Assassination is not new.
Kings Princes and Governments are the biggest assassins in all of
history literally through to present day, and have and will surely always
be first to procure, order, patent, and deploy assassination technologies...
be it weapons and intel, to compensation expenses bounties rewards gold
brides and positions of power paid, to Letters Marque and Reprisal, from
Permits to Pirate and Plunder, to paying coders to develop RFP bid
submission sites for Blackwater contractors, and markets for same,
if Govt's can figure out a winning angle over each other, they will do it.
Behold thus!, it was not any cypherpunks who first invented and
used assassination... though some do claim to have figured out a
way to end Govt's use, and or monopoly use, of it. Govt's also like
to scream "copycat killer", people online are debating for years will
Govt's tech lead in such matters be copied by free markets as
defense and or peaceful influence?


Here are two recent stone cold assassinations done by Govt's,
surely bound to spark many future killings in the endless stream of
thousands years and thousands killings undertaken between Govt's,
often at expense of civilian lifes and resulting into the millions via
wars thus sparked...



Israel Informs US It Killed Iranian IRGC Colonel, Officials Infuriated
Over Media Leak

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-leak-fingering-israel-in-iranian-colonels-death-could-harm-trust-official-warns/
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/iranian-officer-killed-in-tehran-was-involved-in-plot-to-kill-israeli-diplomat-u-s-general-people-familiar-with-matter-say-11653536259
https://news.yahoo.com/irans-revolutionary-guard-says-determination-080533627.html

Israeli defense and intelligence officials have owned up to the brazen
assassination of a senior Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
(IRGC) officer, which took place in Tehran on Sunday. A pair of
unidentified gunmen drove up to IRGC Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei as he
sat in his car outside his home. The Quds Force colonel was shot five
times, and his death was quickly blamed on Israeli intelligence given
prior similar killings.

The NY Times days later reported that "The Israelis told the Americans
the killing was meant as a warning to Iran to halt the operations of a
covert group within the Quds Force known as Unit 840, according to the
intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
discuss classified information."
Banner of the slain IRGC colonel in Tehran after his killing, via AP.

It described, "Unit 840 is tasked with abductions and assassinations
of foreigners around the world, including Israeli civilians and
officials, according to Israeli government, military and intelligence
officials." Col. Khadaei was reportedly the deputy head of the covert
unit.

The Israelis didn't comment for the story, however the Times stressed
"But according to an intelligence official briefed on the
communications, Israel has informed American officials that it was
behind the killing."

The Israeli government is now said to be infuriated by the leak and
are calling for an internal US intelligence investigation. Knesset
member Ram Ben Barak, who heads the Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee, said "It mainly harms trust."

"We have very many close relationships and a lot of cooperation
between us, which all depend on trust, and when it is violated in some
way then it damages future cooperation," he said in an Israeli radio
interview Thursday. "I hope the Americans investigate the leak and
figure out where it came from and why it occurred."

There's currently speculation that the assassination was intended to
highlight Iranian covert efforts to kill Israeli officials and
civilians, something which Tehran has rejected. The timing, some
pundits have said, was meant to further disrupt the stalled nuclear
talks between Tehran and world powers in Vienna. A separate follow-up
Thursday report in The Wall Street Journal suggests the slain Quds
Force colonel was part of Iranian efforts to take out an Israeli
diplomat, however this cannot be confirmed.

    Iranian IRGC colonel assassinated in downtown Tehranhttps://t.co/X0HAADGqut
    — The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) May 22, 2022

"An Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officer shot and killed
outside his Tehran home led the group’s efforts to assassinate
opponents of Iran around the world, including recent failed plots to
kill an Israeli diplomat, an American general and a French
intellectual, according to people familiar with the matter," WSJ
writes citing anonymous sources.

President Ibrahim Raisi had vowed in a Monday speech revenge on
Israel, after semi-official ISNA news agency claimed that the Guards
uncovered and arrested spies backed by Israeli intelligence. The
reports were not commented on by Israel. "The thugs and terrorist
groups affiliated with global oppression and Zionism will face
consequences for their actions," Raisi had said.

The assassination is being widely viewed as the biggest foreign
sponsored attack inside Iran since the killing of top nuclear
scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020. Israel was widely acknowledged
as behind that killing which also took place in a Tehran suburb.






Israeli Forces Murdered Star Al Jazeera Journalist: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/24/middleeast/shireen-abu-akleh-jenin-killing-investigation-cmd-intl/index.html

Al Jazeera journalist and US citizen Shireen Abu Akleh was “shot dead
in a targeted attack by Israeli forces,” according to a new CNN
investigation. Mainstream U.S. media isn’t exactly known for casting a
critical eye at Israel, which makes CNN’s report all the more
explosive.

Abu Akleh, a star reporter in the region, was shot in the head by
Israeli forces on May 11 in the West Bank town of Jenin. She and her
al Jazeera crew were there to report on an Israeli raid on a refugee
camp.

Ten journalists contributed to CNN’s painstaking forensic
investigation, which drew on 11 videos, eight eyewitness accounts and
consultations with weapons and forensic audio experts.

In an anonymous interview with CNN, a senior Israeli security official
denied that Abu Akleh was deliberately killed: "In no way would the
IDF ever target a civilian, especially a member of the press.”

While CNN didn’t note it, according to Reporters Without Borders,
Israel has killed at least 30 journalists since 2000, including two
Palestinians shot by IDF snipers while reporting on protests near the
Gaza-Israel border in 2018.

    We interviewed 8 eyewitnesses, reviewed 11 videos from different
angles and worked with an experienced forensics team. All the evidence
points in one direction. at CNN https://t.co/pHwOk3VsCe
    — Celine Alkhaldi سيلين الخالدي (@celinealkhaldi) May 25, 2022

In the aftermath of Abu Akleh’s death, an Israeli military spokesman
said she was "filming and working for a media outlet amidst armed
Palestinians. They're armed with cameras, if you'll permit me to say
so.”

Later on the day of the incident, Israeli Foreign Ministry tweeted a
video of Palestinians wildly firing down alleys in Jenin, and wrote,
“Palestinian terrorists, firing indiscriminately” were the likely
killers of Abu Akleh.

However, CNN geolocated the images in the tweeted video to a spot 300
meters from Abu Akleh, and, based on various factors, firmly concluded
“the shooting in the videos couldn’t be the same volley of gunfire
that hit Abu Akleh and her producer.”

Indeed, CNN concluded “there was no active combat, nor any Palestinian
militants, near Abu Akleh in the moments leading up to her death.”

Weapons expert and British Army veteran Chris Cobb-Smith studied
images of bullet impacts on the tree where Abu Akleh stood before she
was killed. They form a relatively tight shot group.

"The number of strike marks on the tree where Shireen was standing
proves this wasn't a random shot, she was targeted," Cobb told CNN.

CNN’s study of acoustic evidence is even more damning:

    According to the Israeli army's initial inquiry, at the time of
Abu Akleh's death, an Israeli sniper was 200 meters away from her. CNN
asked Robert Maher, professor of electrical and computer engineering
at Montana State University, who specializes in forensic audio
analysis, to assess the footage of Abu Akleh's shooting and estimate
the distance between the gunman and the cameraman, taking into account
the rifle being used by the Israeli forces.

    The video that Maher analyzed captures two volleys of gunfire;
eyewitnesses say Abu Akleh was hit in the second barrage, a series of
seven sharp "cracks." The first "crack" sound, the ballistic shockwave
of the bullet, is followed approximately 309 milliseconds later by the
relatively quiet "bang" of the muzzle blast, according to Maher. "That
would correspond to a distance of something between 177 and 197
meters," or 580 and 646 feet, he said in an email to CNN, which
corresponds almost exactly with the Israeli sniper's position.

Video shows a relaxed scene moments before gunfire erupted. Jenin
residents smile, make small talk and smoke cigarettes as they watch
the al Jazeera crew led by Abu Akleh.

Like others on her crew, Abu Akleh, a 51-year old Palestinian-American
Christian who’s beloved in Jenin for her work dating back to the 2002
Intifada uprising against Israeli occupation, was wearing a blue
helmet and blue protective vest, each marked “Press.”

"There was no conflict or confrontations at all. We were about 10
guys, give or take, walking around, laughing and joking with the
journalists," said Salim Awad, who shot a 16-minute video that helped
capture the circumstances of Abu Akleh’s death. "We were not afraid of
anything. We didn't expect anything would happen, because when we saw
journalists around, we thought it'd be a safe area."

The al Jazeera crew thought they were exercising due caution.

"We stood in front of the Israeli military vehicles for about five to
ten minutes before we made moves to ensure they saw us,” reporter
Shatha Hanaysha told CNN. “And this is a habit of ours as journalists,
we move as a group and we stand in front of them so they know we are
journalists, and then we start moving.”

After fire erupted, killing Abu Akleh and wounding Al-Quds newspaper
journalist Ali Samodi, gunfire continued to rain down on those who
tried to render aid.

Israel’s violence toward Abu Akleh didn’t stop with her death.
Reportedly triggered by a Palestinian flag draping her coffin, Israeli
police “surg[ed] toward her funeral procession before grabbing and
roughing up some of the mourners, including those carrying the
coffin,” reported CBS News. In the mayhem, pallbearers dropped the
casket.

Fifty-seven House Democrats signed a letter to Secretary of State
Antony Blinken and FBI Director Chris Wray requesting a U.S.
investigation of the incident, writing, “As an American, Ms. Abu Akleh
was entitled to the full protections afforded to U.S. citizens living
abroad.”