On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 3:51 PM National Security Archive <[email protected]> wrote:
> Release of Senate Report on CIA Efforts to Assassinate Foreign Leaders > Caused Major Scandal; Prompted New Legal Restraints on Targeted U.S. > Murders. Assassinations Report Remains Relevant as U.S. Targets Venezuelan > Leader. > > > > > > > > > <https://default.salsalabs.org/T41d09c94-ed13-4748-8e5c-7fb899d43aa7/12238b38-d371-4bc9-b2b2-ab5a3bdb144f> > Release of Senate Report on CIA Efforts to Assassinate Foreign Leaders > Caused Major Scandal; Prompted New Legal Restraints on Targeted U.S. > Murders Assassinations Report Remains Relevant as U.S. Targets Venezuelan > Leader > > *Washington D.C., November 20, 2025* - Fifty years ago today, a special > Senate Committee led by Idaho Senator Frank Church lifted the veil of > secrecy on the clandestine efforts of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) > to target specific foreign leaders for assassination. The Church Committee > overcame intense pressure from the Gerald Ford White House to withhold > publication of the report, which exposed CIA operations to “neutralize” > leaders such as Fidel Castro in Cuba, Patrice Lumumba in Congo, and General > Rene Schneider in Chile, and generated a major scandal over the ethics of > U.S. foreign policy and the compatibility of unaccountable covert > operations with a democratic society. > > To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Church Committee report, the > National Security Archive is posting a small selection of documents on > efforts by the Ford Administration to keep the report secret and Senator > Church’s commitment to ensuring that the American public would learn what > the CIA was doing in their name but without their knowledge. These include > records about CIA director William Colby’s pressure on President Ford to > block publication of the report and the failed White House effort to > persuade Church not to do so. The records are drawn from a comprehensive > Digital National Security Archive collection on the CIA scandals in 1975 > compiled and edited by John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi. > > The 50th anniversary of the release of the assassinations report comes as > the Trump administration is openly threatening to kill Venezuelan president > Nicolas Maduro and following a series of deadly attacks by the Pentagon on > “unlawful combatants” aboard small boats in the Caribbean that were > allegedly carrying drugs. Over the last two months, the U.S. military has > targeted and killed more than 80 crew members aboard the vessels using > drones and Hellfire missiles. > > The Church Committee report detailed an array of covert efforts to > assassinate foreign leaders, including plots to kill Fidel Castro with > toxic cigars, exploding seashells, and hypodermic needles disguised as > ballpoint pens, and the ensuing scandal was one of several the CIA faced > for its misconduct in the mid-1970s. Among other things, the Committee > found that assassination was “incompatible with American principles, > international order, and morality” and said it “should be rejected as a > tool of foreign policy.” > > The impact of the *Alleged Assassination Plots* report was immediate and > consequential. Public outrage forced the CIA and the White House to retreat > on the use of assassination as a tool of covert operations. In response to > the report, on February 18, 1976, President Ford signed Executive Order > 11905, which stated: “No employee of the United States Government shall > engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.” Successive > presidents have issued similar executive orders barring the practice. > > “Senator Church’s insistence on publishing the assassinations report > effectively ended officially sanctioned murder of foreign leaders as a > policy tool for nearly half a century,” said National Security Archive > senior analyst Peter Kornbluh. “Now, the Trump administration seems ready > to return to the dark days of CIA assassination plots and extrajudicial > executions.” > > > https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2025-11-20/cia-assassination-plots-church-committee-report-50-years > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39383): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39383 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116401554/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
