State Sponsored Assassination CultureSARTRE Indeed, who could expect any President to be responsible for their own safety? Surely, policy decisions made as a government could not possibly have any bearing on the lunatics that harbor ill will towards our fearless leaders. Refreshing your memory, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy got whacked. Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan were targets of serious assassination attempts. With all the Secret Service trial and tribulations experienced in the last years, the popular assessment is that the Praetorian Guard bodyguards have become a dysfunctional band of self-indulgent thrill seekers. How much money is enough to spend on Presidential security? Some, like ousted Secret Service Director Julia Pierson, presumably would say a price tag cannot be placed on keeping the leader alive and safe from assassination. Though, Pierson failed to provide fresh start for Secret Service that administration wanted, proves that the culture of political privilege deems their importance to be most costly. Homeland Security requested $1.49 billion in operating funds for the Secret Service, a $60 million dip from last fiscal year. But even spending-conscious Republicans said that was too much. So Congress instead agreed to a rare increase over the administrations request, giving the agency $1.53 billion. Such benevolence must come from a motivation to avoid another national tragedy. Absent in budget hearings is a serious debate if the propensity for violently eliminating presidents comes from pragmatic power political expediency as opposed to the usual conclusion that madmen (or women) are acting alone. Well, it is a nice myth if keeping the public living in a dream is the intent. Names like Lawrence, Guiteau, Czolgosz, Fromme and Moore do not carry the same notoriety as icons of assassination like Booth and Oswald, but official accounts paint them all as deranged. Heads of state are far more cautious and seldom fall into the trap that their greatest danger comes from lone guns. There is good reason for Argentina president claims US plotting to oust her. Argentinian opposition politicians have accused the countrys president, Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner, of being completely out of touch with reality after she gave a rambling televised address in which she claimed the US may be behind a plot to overthrow her government and possibly even assassinate her. If something should happen to me, dont look to the Middle East, look to the North, Fernndez said during the address on Tuesday night, in which she alluded to an alleged plot against her by local bankers and businessmen with foreign help. Is Ms. Fernndez paranoid or just expressing a healthy appreciation of practices that have long been condoned? When FDR approved Operation Vengeance, the killing of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, it was during WWII. The NDAA Actually Gives Obama the Legal Authority to Kill. Just ponder the perversion in the meaning of the term legal. Examples of killing the king in history usually means the victor won the war. Somehow justifying NDAA methods as acceptable demeans every citizen who pledges their allegiance to a constitutional republic. The New York Times confirms that the Secret Kill List Proves a Test of Obamas Principles and Will, but that begs the theoretical question what authority endows the right to even accept that a kill list is principled, much less a sensible decree of any government? Just where does the moral imperative enter into the craft of statesmanship? Mr. Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret nominations process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical. He had vowed to align the fight against Al Qaeda with American values; the chart, introducing people whose deaths he might soon be asked to order, underscored just what a moral and legal conundrum this could be. Those American values in the 21st century have little in common from those practiced at the inception of the country. Covert agencies on missions of foreign intrigue are commonly practiced. The use of special forces and ex-military contractors seek to enjoy the cover and exoneration that fighting terrorists is the biggest growth industry on the planet. Delineating war loosely without a declared and defined enemy state provides broad discretion to place any antagonist in the crosshairs. Truth Lies Deception and Cover-ups argues The Presidents Kill List and State Sponsored Assassination is far more dangerous and frequently employed than publicly admitted. If the Kill List nominally exists in the interest of National Security it is fair to predict that, particularly in a country that estimates its own domestic enemies (who are tracked with their surveillance systems) to be in the order of millions it would be easy to tack journalists or whistle-blowers on to such a list. This would not be because journalists and whistleblowers present a risk to National Security but, they present a risk of embarrassing the ruling elite in the government, government agencies, government contractors and the financial giants (or other cronies that lurk in the shadows and pull the strings of politicians and other officials with influence). Recall the evidence surrounding the Suspicions Growing Over Death of Journalist Probing NSA and CIA Abuses. The malicious culture that routinely orders foes neutralized by means once considered abhorrent, now defy restraints of civilized society. When the Obama administration was exposed spying on journalists earlier this year, the investigative reporter blasted what he referred to as the presidents war on journalism. The Obama administration has clearly declared war on the press. It has declared war on investigative journalists our sources, he said during a recent TV interview, blasting the administrations lawless behavior, obsession with secrecy, and vicious persecution of whistleblowers. Beyond simple criticism, though, Hastings openly said it was time for journalists to fight back. Government cover-ups operate as bait-and-switch sophistry. Exposing corruption once was the pursuit of the art of refined reporting. Now, serious investigative journalism is a threat to any imperial administration. Revealing and documenting subversion is viewed as endangering the Oval Office. Threats to authoritarian presidents are not limited to high-powered rifles. Without regard to life and limb, earning a place on the enemy list is becoming deadly serious. If the Secret Service has the charge to protect the life of the President, the entire military-intelligence-security complex functions as a hit squad for the institution of the presidency itself. While conflicting factions within the government vie for their own parochial seats of power on a continuous basis the precarious real national security declines. Blowback against the country is evident in every foreign policy arena. Such resentment unsurprisingly places the President in a self-induced greater risk of retaliation. However, it must be acknowledged that the successful presidential assassinations (and several of those that failed) aimed their fatal bullet at an office holder who defied the ruling cabal that actually controls the financial and economic establishment. It is difficult to believe that a truly independent and patriotic warrior could ever campaign through the election process and vote count to become President. The enormous entourage that protects the Chief Executive has grown to become its own cottage industry. Lost in the concern for protecting one man is that the White House Continuity of Government Plan makes the elimination of a President merely a lateral move. Since responsible citizens value the life and safety of legitimate authority, the task of reversing the State-sponsored assassination culture is imperative. When your own government conducts their Murder Inc. bureau as part of their survival plan, people need to question the degree of loyalty which that same government deserves. Clint Eastwoods latest movie production American Sniper about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle will hopefully compliment In the Line of Fire in which he starred as a secret service agent present at the JFK assassination. The other side of the assassination equation is mostly ignored. Sorrowfully, government officials are locked into a denial mindset that disassociates any relationship and connection between increased levels of risks to officials and the sanctioned killings approved by their governments. Review 82 pages of a list of assassinated heads of state. It is hard to believe that such a record of terminal violence will end any time soon. Royal guards have an impossible task, no matter how much their budget allows. Until the power structure gets religion and renounces their evil ways, the system will never permit a civilized society. Assassination is wrong and adopting such an approach only invites backfire threats. Keeping the President safe begins in implementing moral conduct and renouncing the killer elite mentality. Original article archived here SARTRE is the pen name of James Hall, a reformed, former political operative. This pundits formal instruction in History, Philosophy and Political Science served as training for activism, on the staff of several politicians and in many campaigns. A believer in authentic Public Service, independent business interests were pursued in the private sector. Speculation in markets, and international business investments, allowed for extensive travel and a world view for commerce. SARTRE is the publisher of BREAKING ALL THE RULES. Contact batr@batr.org 