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Terminate with Extreme Prejudice: An Expose of the Assassination Game, Its Killers and Their Paymasters.
The cost of a bullet can be as little as eight cents. Assassination has long been more common than anyone (particularly anyone in government) likes to admit—it is the great-untold secret at the heart of the nation-state. As President George W. Bush continues to introduce Hollywood cowboy terminology like “dead or alive” and “bring it on” into our international political discourse, we are entering a new era of assassination where the “eight-cent option” has been given a new and disquieting legitimacy.
Belfield’ s darkly fascinating exposé of the business, its hired killers, and their paymasters, includes excerpts from CIA, Al-Qaeda, and Soviet assassination manuals. Placing the most important hits of our time in their proper historical context and examining the business from a remarkably objective yet honest standpoint, Belfield shows how assassinations, while posited by governments and the United Nations as random, isolated acts of violence, are in fact quietly sanctioned examples of ruthlessly strategic statecraft. He offers an eye-opening account of how Kennedy made the Vietnam War inevitable by the elimination of President Diem; and clear evidence of assassinations where the official version simply is not true, including those of Bobby Kennedy, Yitzhak Rabin, and WPC Yvonne Fletcher.
Belfield’ s darkly fascinating exposé of the business, its hired killers, and their paymasters, includes excerpts from CIA, Al-Qaeda, and Soviet assassination manuals. Placing the most important hits of our time in their proper historical context and examining the business from a remarkably objective yet honest standpoint, Belfield shows how assassinations, while posited by governments and the United Nations as random, isolated acts of violence, are in fact quietly sanctioned examples of ruthlessly strategic statecraft. He offers an eye-opening account of how Kennedy made the Vietnam War inevitable by the elimination of President Diem; and clear evidence of assassinations where the official version simply is not true, including those of Bobby Kennedy, Yitzhak Rabin, and WPC Yvonne Fletcher.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionCrime
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
7 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Richard Belfield
23 books4 followersBritish television producer/director, author and playwright.
He is a Director of Fulcrum TV, a well established independent production company in London.
During the 1990’s, he was the New Statesman’s Internet correspondent.
He is a Director of Fulcrum TV, a well established independent production company in London.
During the 1990’s, he was the New Statesman’s Internet correspondent.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 2, 2011
$3 in the clearance pile at Borders. Pre-bankruptcy.
I liked this book, I did. It's a lot of history I wasn't alive for, so I come away thinking I learned quote a bit.
It was interesting stuff, in particular that half the chapters while I was reading (albeit slowly.. you might notice the logjam in my "currently reading" pile here is just shy of thirty books...) were eerily relevant. There's a chapter on Khadafi, Quadafi, Ghadafi, whatever the spelling of that world leader's name may be this week. In the book it was Quadafi, but ABC news as of today (April 1 as I write this) Anyway, ABC news has moved to spelling his name with something whose lead-off batter is the letter 'G'. But it was oddly topical, considering the book is from 2005.
There is the occasional formatting oddness (and a penchant for "try and (verb)" which I always cringe at, (I prefer "try to"--although there is one "try to" so it's not consistently line-edited) as well as a tendency not to format things the same between the abundant footnotes (really, a plethora) and the main text, (Al Jihad in the text three pages later is Al-Jihad, and a guy named el-Banna is al-Banna in the footnotes) (Is indisciplined a word? p. 297) and the occasional spot where the material is repeated in (a) the footnote (b) the lead off quote and (c) a previous chapter. Which was a bit much. (it's a quote from Lyndon Johnson about Diem).
Typo-wise I found some stuff you could write off to house style (using out numbered not outnumbered, well protected for well-protected, eye witness, market place, and so on. A fair number of spots I feel the urge for a hyphen but there isn't one (blood soaked toga, noble minded, clear thinking, self respect, etc.)
Bu then some guy that's not dead is referred to as a martyr, and I can't compute on that one. A footnote refers to "Al Qaeda suspects are always told...." when it's pretty clear to me that while they may be suspects to us, the folks who are receiving training from Al Qaeda are members, if not the presidents of the club, but they're not suspects, grammatically if they're receiving training from the terrorist group. Anyway.
I'd say there are ten to twenty typos. Your basic missing words or bad verb tenses (one or two each), the weird missing hyphens, the non-compound words, and the "try and" and "try to" inconsistencies. The most glaring typo being the Champs Elysees minus the second 's'. For a UK book, that should have been seen and fixed. (p. 180), particularly considering this is a retread of the author's previous 'Princess Diana was assassinated probably by the Crown' material. That section cites all kinds of figures, one of them in English, the rest in metric. Why it's not consistent?
A few statements are debatable word choice-- without Hirohito, "his successor would not have carried the same authority and the war would have dragged on," p. 247. I'd argue for 'could' here, but that's me. Would on my planet expresses greater certainty. Could is speculation. Elsewhere there's a usage of "casuistry" that doesn't work for me. The word he's looking for is smoke and mirrors or some kind of chicanery, not an examination of moral principles and arriving at a logical conclusion. (p. 152)
There was also the interview from 2003 with Nabawy Ismail who said that Al-Jihad was dangerous in Egypt in 1981. (That's the year Sadat was assassinated, and here this guy is saying he knew they were dangerous a good twenty-plus years later. Wow. He's smart.) Anyway, Sadat's successor was... drum roll... the recently oustered Hosni (or Hosny) Mubarek.
And what with the now-current U.S. - Libya intervention a la Bill Clinton's barrage of million-dollar cruise missiles--now Obama, and Reagan had something to do with Kadafi back when he had a 'K' in his name, and the other chapter alleging ties between Thatcher, Reagan, and a seemingly irrelevant chapter about PFC Yvonne Fletcher that is then tied into Libya when the Reagan administration bombed the back in the good old days...
But there's a great quote about Libya being irrelevant (from Vince Canistraro) and it's the country "we" like to kick when we're mad at Syria, who is the real problem: "It's like kicking the cat."
There is also a stunning Sadat quote having to do with Israel (his peace initiative, etc. He's the only Arab leader (as of 2005 obviously) to have spoken to the Israeli parliament) -- Israel could have peace if they would give back the lands taken in 1967 (correct me if I'm wrong this is the Yom Kippur War and the land includes the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights--the area still being settled and disputed), and if they would recognize the human rights of Palestinians.
(think on this one, because the bar has now been raised to "recognize Palestine's right to exist), but think -- we could have had twenty plus years of peace in the area, or might have it Sadat had lived. And been listened to.
There are also some fascinating parallels between the right wing killing of Yitzak Rabin and the right wing killing of Sadat. Both groups sought out approval from religious authorities and old doctrine was dredged up to justify it.
They just happened to be different religions.
We also get coverage of Al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda's second (Bellfield translates this as 'The Base' but I thought it was 'The Network' anyway). There's a mention or two of the Muslim Brotherhood vs. Gadhafi, the IRA, the British (vs. the IRA), Hitler, and Franz Ferdinand (not the musical group).
According to this book, Kalid Sheik Mohammad started talking immediately. (which conflicts with the waterboarding stories based on my recollection.)
Structurally, the book reminds me of Washed Up--as both are largely anecdotal and not a lot of historical order.
And apparently the CIA was behaving badly in the 1960s. That was of course recent news as well.
(to us).
I liked this book, I did. It's a lot of history I wasn't alive for, so I come away thinking I learned quote a bit.
It was interesting stuff, in particular that half the chapters while I was reading (albeit slowly.. you might notice the logjam in my "currently reading" pile here is just shy of thirty books...) were eerily relevant. There's a chapter on Khadafi, Quadafi, Ghadafi, whatever the spelling of that world leader's name may be this week. In the book it was Quadafi, but ABC news as of today (April 1 as I write this) Anyway, ABC news has moved to spelling his name with something whose lead-off batter is the letter 'G'. But it was oddly topical, considering the book is from 2005.
There is the occasional formatting oddness (and a penchant for "try and (verb)" which I always cringe at, (I prefer "try to"--although there is one "try to" so it's not consistently line-edited) as well as a tendency not to format things the same between the abundant footnotes (really, a plethora) and the main text, (Al Jihad in the text three pages later is Al-Jihad, and a guy named el-Banna is al-Banna in the footnotes) (Is indisciplined a word? p. 297) and the occasional spot where the material is repeated in (a) the footnote (b) the lead off quote and (c) a previous chapter. Which was a bit much. (it's a quote from Lyndon Johnson about Diem).
Typo-wise I found some stuff you could write off to house style (using out numbered not outnumbered, well protected for well-protected, eye witness, market place, and so on. A fair number of spots I feel the urge for a hyphen but there isn't one (blood soaked toga, noble minded, clear thinking, self respect, etc.)
Bu then some guy that's not dead is referred to as a martyr, and I can't compute on that one. A footnote refers to "Al Qaeda suspects are always told...." when it's pretty clear to me that while they may be suspects to us, the folks who are receiving training from Al Qaeda are members, if not the presidents of the club, but they're not suspects, grammatically if they're receiving training from the terrorist group. Anyway.
I'd say there are ten to twenty typos. Your basic missing words or bad verb tenses (one or two each), the weird missing hyphens, the non-compound words, and the "try and" and "try to" inconsistencies. The most glaring typo being the Champs Elysees minus the second 's'. For a UK book, that should have been seen and fixed. (p. 180), particularly considering this is a retread of the author's previous 'Princess Diana was assassinated probably by the Crown' material. That section cites all kinds of figures, one of them in English, the rest in metric. Why it's not consistent?
A few statements are debatable word choice-- without Hirohito, "his successor would not have carried the same authority and the war would have dragged on," p. 247. I'd argue for 'could' here, but that's me. Would on my planet expresses greater certainty. Could is speculation. Elsewhere there's a usage of "casuistry" that doesn't work for me. The word he's looking for is smoke and mirrors or some kind of chicanery, not an examination of moral principles and arriving at a logical conclusion. (p. 152)
There was also the interview from 2003 with Nabawy Ismail who said that Al-Jihad was dangerous in Egypt in 1981. (That's the year Sadat was assassinated, and here this guy is saying he knew they were dangerous a good twenty-plus years later. Wow. He's smart.) Anyway, Sadat's successor was... drum roll... the recently oustered Hosni (or Hosny) Mubarek.
And what with the now-current U.S. - Libya intervention a la Bill Clinton's barrage of million-dollar cruise missiles--now Obama, and Reagan had something to do with Kadafi back when he had a 'K' in his name, and the other chapter alleging ties between Thatcher, Reagan, and a seemingly irrelevant chapter about PFC Yvonne Fletcher that is then tied into Libya when the Reagan administration bombed the back in the good old days...
But there's a great quote about Libya being irrelevant (from Vince Canistraro) and it's the country "we" like to kick when we're mad at Syria, who is the real problem: "It's like kicking the cat."
There is also a stunning Sadat quote having to do with Israel (his peace initiative, etc. He's the only Arab leader (as of 2005 obviously) to have spoken to the Israeli parliament) -- Israel could have peace if they would give back the lands taken in 1967 (correct me if I'm wrong this is the Yom Kippur War and the land includes the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights--the area still being settled and disputed), and if they would recognize the human rights of Palestinians.
(think on this one, because the bar has now been raised to "recognize Palestine's right to exist), but think -- we could have had twenty plus years of peace in the area, or might have it Sadat had lived. And been listened to.
There are also some fascinating parallels between the right wing killing of Yitzak Rabin and the right wing killing of Sadat. Both groups sought out approval from religious authorities and old doctrine was dredged up to justify it.
They just happened to be different religions.
We also get coverage of Al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda's second (Bellfield translates this as 'The Base' but I thought it was 'The Network' anyway). There's a mention or two of the Muslim Brotherhood vs. Gadhafi, the IRA, the British (vs. the IRA), Hitler, and Franz Ferdinand (not the musical group).
According to this book, Kalid Sheik Mohammad started talking immediately. (which conflicts with the waterboarding stories based on my recollection.)
Structurally, the book reminds me of Washed Up--as both are largely anecdotal and not a lot of historical order.
And apparently the CIA was behaving badly in the 1960s. That was of course recent news as well.
(to us).
July 10, 2015
Judulnya, The Assassination Business: A History of State-Sponsored Murder sudah jelas lagi bersuluh - pembunuhan terancang musuh menjadi ketagihan yang menggerogoti tubuh daulah. Sekali daulah memutuskan untuk membunuh musuh secara terancang - ia menjadi solusi tunggal apabila berdepan dengan masalah saingan sama ada musuh luar atau dalam.
Bagaimanapun, pembunuhan terancang oleh sekelompok perisik dan agensi perisikan yang sebenar tidaklah seperti filem siri Bond atau Bourne. CIA atau MI6 umpamanya tidaklah bersifat kerahsiaan yang tidak mungkin ditebuk jurnalis - kalau tidak, buku ini tidak mungkin diterbitkan!
Realitinya, pembunuhan terancang terkait rapat dengan birokrat dan politikus yang ghairahkan kuasa mutlak. Birokrat pula tidak mungkin dipisahkan oleh hal-hal yang bersifat birokrasi - iaitu surat, minit mesyuarat, bil dan sebagainya - sekali gus pada satu masa, rahsia yang disimpan itu bakal diketahui umum juga.
Kerana itu, Jawatankuasa Church yang ditubuhkan Senat dapat membongkar pembabitan Amerika Syarikat (AS) dalam pembunuhan terancang dari Guatemala sehingga Vietnam, dari pasca Perang Dingin lalu kembali ke dekad-dekad rusuh Perang Dunia. Tidak sukar untuk mengesahkan AS memang dalang di sebalik pembunuhan terancang atau penggulingan kuasa demokratik tetapi yang menjadi gendala ialah apakah Presiden mereka dapat dibuktikan mengeluarkan arahan berkenaan.
Buku oleh produser rancangan televisyen, Richard Belfield ini, mendedahkan sisi buruk negara yang kononnya mendokong demokrasi itu. Rancangan pembunuhan upahan yang membawa kepada penggulingan kuasa kerajaan demokratik di Guatemala telah menghumbankan negara itu ke kancah kudeta dan perang saudara berdekad-dekad lamanya serta menyentap puluhan ribu jiwa pemimpin oposisi, wartawan dan peguam akibat pembunuhan upahan. Sejak 1950-an itu, Guatemala tidak pernah pulih lagi.
Malah, kesialan AS itu turut menjangkiti sekutunya, Britain, apabila agenda AS untuk menggulingkan pemimpin Libya, Muammar Ghadaffi menelan korban seorang pegawai polis Britain - kerana sekumpulan politikus merasakan kematian pegawai keselamatan Inggeris boleh memicu kemarahan Eropah kepada Ghadaffi.
British sendiri tidak terkecuali menjadi pemain dalam jenayah itu - mangsanya adalah jirannya sendiri, iaitu Ireland. Malah, puteri yang disayangi oleh dunia - Puteri Diana juga tidak terkecuali meskipun buku ini tidak banyak mendedahkan kaitan M16 dalam tragedi di terowong di Paris, sebaliknya bukti lebih menjurus kepada keghairahan paparazzi.
Bagaimanapun, ada perbezaan antara fakta tentang pembunuhan upahan yang diadakan oleh Barat dengan dunia Islam. Perbincangan pembunuhan upahan baik yang dikaitkan dengan AS, Britain, Belgium atau Russia, ia disokong oleh bukti yang jelas dan terang.
Dalam konteks dunia Islam terutamanya pembunuhan terancang yang kononnya oleh gerakan al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun di Mesir, hampir tidak ada bukti yang kukuh - ceritanya diambil (dan diakui sendiri oleh pengarang) daripada ejen AS yang mempunyai sikap prejudis terhadap gerakan Islam.
Malah, ia juga agak kontradiks dengan kenyataan pengarang sendiri kerana pada satu tempat, beliau menegaskan tidak mustahil al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun terlibat dalam aktiviti bersifat radikal dan terbabit dalam pembunuhan upahan, tetapi pada tempat lain pula, beliau menganggap gerakan itu sebagai moderate.
Buku The Assassination Business: A History of State-Sponsored Murder ini ialah akaun penting terhadap solusi pembunuhan terancang yang sudah menjadi ketagihan yang tidak dapat diubati dalam agenda politik dan ekonomi negara kuasa besar.
Bagaimanapun, pembunuhan terancang oleh sekelompok perisik dan agensi perisikan yang sebenar tidaklah seperti filem siri Bond atau Bourne. CIA atau MI6 umpamanya tidaklah bersifat kerahsiaan yang tidak mungkin ditebuk jurnalis - kalau tidak, buku ini tidak mungkin diterbitkan!
Realitinya, pembunuhan terancang terkait rapat dengan birokrat dan politikus yang ghairahkan kuasa mutlak. Birokrat pula tidak mungkin dipisahkan oleh hal-hal yang bersifat birokrasi - iaitu surat, minit mesyuarat, bil dan sebagainya - sekali gus pada satu masa, rahsia yang disimpan itu bakal diketahui umum juga.
Kerana itu, Jawatankuasa Church yang ditubuhkan Senat dapat membongkar pembabitan Amerika Syarikat (AS) dalam pembunuhan terancang dari Guatemala sehingga Vietnam, dari pasca Perang Dingin lalu kembali ke dekad-dekad rusuh Perang Dunia. Tidak sukar untuk mengesahkan AS memang dalang di sebalik pembunuhan terancang atau penggulingan kuasa demokratik tetapi yang menjadi gendala ialah apakah Presiden mereka dapat dibuktikan mengeluarkan arahan berkenaan.
Buku oleh produser rancangan televisyen, Richard Belfield ini, mendedahkan sisi buruk negara yang kononnya mendokong demokrasi itu. Rancangan pembunuhan upahan yang membawa kepada penggulingan kuasa kerajaan demokratik di Guatemala telah menghumbankan negara itu ke kancah kudeta dan perang saudara berdekad-dekad lamanya serta menyentap puluhan ribu jiwa pemimpin oposisi, wartawan dan peguam akibat pembunuhan upahan. Sejak 1950-an itu, Guatemala tidak pernah pulih lagi.
Malah, kesialan AS itu turut menjangkiti sekutunya, Britain, apabila agenda AS untuk menggulingkan pemimpin Libya, Muammar Ghadaffi menelan korban seorang pegawai polis Britain - kerana sekumpulan politikus merasakan kematian pegawai keselamatan Inggeris boleh memicu kemarahan Eropah kepada Ghadaffi.
British sendiri tidak terkecuali menjadi pemain dalam jenayah itu - mangsanya adalah jirannya sendiri, iaitu Ireland. Malah, puteri yang disayangi oleh dunia - Puteri Diana juga tidak terkecuali meskipun buku ini tidak banyak mendedahkan kaitan M16 dalam tragedi di terowong di Paris, sebaliknya bukti lebih menjurus kepada keghairahan paparazzi.
Bagaimanapun, ada perbezaan antara fakta tentang pembunuhan upahan yang diadakan oleh Barat dengan dunia Islam. Perbincangan pembunuhan upahan baik yang dikaitkan dengan AS, Britain, Belgium atau Russia, ia disokong oleh bukti yang jelas dan terang.
Dalam konteks dunia Islam terutamanya pembunuhan terancang yang kononnya oleh gerakan al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun di Mesir, hampir tidak ada bukti yang kukuh - ceritanya diambil (dan diakui sendiri oleh pengarang) daripada ejen AS yang mempunyai sikap prejudis terhadap gerakan Islam.
Malah, ia juga agak kontradiks dengan kenyataan pengarang sendiri kerana pada satu tempat, beliau menegaskan tidak mustahil al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun terlibat dalam aktiviti bersifat radikal dan terbabit dalam pembunuhan upahan, tetapi pada tempat lain pula, beliau menganggap gerakan itu sebagai moderate.
Buku The Assassination Business: A History of State-Sponsored Murder ini ialah akaun penting terhadap solusi pembunuhan terancang yang sudah menjadi ketagihan yang tidak dapat diubati dalam agenda politik dan ekonomi negara kuasa besar.
May 26, 2016
Not for me, I guess. Writing was dry, and the over-abundance of illustrative examples and not enough time spent drawing connections made reading this an exercise in remembering lots of names.
Read
November 25, 2017This is a pretty good book. It explores a dozen or so of the most famous assassinations and assassinations attempts and seeks to explain whether or not assassination as a tool is something that works, or if it instead is counterproductive to what one is seeking to accomplish. By the end of the book you will definitely have some interesting thoughts rolling around in your head.
Read
January 20, 2011Really liked the info on Operation El Dorado Canyon. Great line about going after Qadaffi as "kicking the cat"
Want to read
February 17, 2011The book is a litany of failed and successful assassinations. Got boring after a short while. Basically, governments are pretty dumb when it comes to assassinating its enemies.
January 18, 2016
Interesting overview of various assassinations (or conspiracy theories that the author surmises could have been assassins).
July 27, 2024
Really interesting - a lot of cause and effect in history that you don’t realise.
October 27, 2010
An intriguing look at the use of assassination through history as a political tool - from the Hashshashins and the murder of Julius Cesar to 9/11 and the use of drones / guided missiles to take out terrorists responsible for it.
It gets a little repetitive at times, repeating examples used in previous chapters, but if that is the only major fault there is obviously not a lot else to complain about.
Those looking for endless detail of particular assassinations will be a little disappointed. While covering previous assassinations (including farcical failures as well as successes) the book focuses on the political side of things.
It gets a little repetitive at times, repeating examples used in previous chapters, but if that is the only major fault there is obviously not a lot else to complain about.
Those looking for endless detail of particular assassinations will be a little disappointed. While covering previous assassinations (including farcical failures as well as successes) the book focuses on the political side of things.
January 28, 2008
Insanely detailed book about state sponsored assassination. A conspiracy theorist's nightmare. I thought the book was balanced and insightful on several levels, offering a history of the both circumstance and causation for proposed assassinations of world leaders. Provides perspective on global politics,
April 28, 2009
a detalied read on the dynamics of assassination and the paymasters deniability or fear impact. enjoyed reading up on JFK the so called "preisdent of peace" (my arse), princess di's death and the hashishin (did i spell that right?)! er... the c.i.a. parts were interesting too. bunch of cunts!
March 18, 2010
This book is full of fascinating details related in a conversational manner that manages to make the gruesome, often infuriating subject into an entertaining read. The material is thickly footnoted and apparently accurate, though the author's presentation occasionally comes across as personal bias.
March 3, 2012
The book title is a little misleading as a large portion of the book is dedicated to the targeting of lawful and unlawful combatants. The targeting of which is NOT considered an assassination by U.S. or international law. Other than that the book is OUTSTANDING!
November 10, 2014
Quick background on the assassination business, mainly the state-sponsored part but also some stuff about islamic assassinations.
The author sometimes dips into conspiracy theory territory, but in all it's a good read.
The author sometimes dips into conspiracy theory territory, but in all it's a good read.
December 21, 2009
this is pretty damned interesting.
March 6, 2013
If I had any capacity to be outraged left, this book would certainly inspire it.
October 10, 2013
I really enjoyed reading this book about the history and the theory of assassination. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the real history of spying.
January 20, 2015
Although slow at times (having to swap to the appendices often) was a pretty good book, albeit a bit dated considering the Arab Springs and rise of ISIS
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews