U.S. Covert Operations

In response to the article “U.S. OKs Covert Operations That May Kill Foreigners” (by Robin Wright, Part A, Oct. 14), I was appalled at the legislation that would permit the Bush Administration to perform “Clandestine operations even if they threaten the lives of foreign figures.” Despite the fact that the Administration denies that it is a change of policy, it allows the government to assassinate any foreign threat and blow it off as an accident or just something that happened as a result of an attack. The entire idea is ludicrous because it basically gives the Bush Administration the power to kill any foreigner who poses a threat to the United States with total disregard to the present or future effects that it will have on the country.

One reason for the redefining of this order, your article states, is because “the Bush Administration has clearly felt cramped by the restrictions during its first two foreign policy crisis this year--the hostage crisis in Lebanon and the effort to remove Noriega from power in Panama.” I can’t believe that the government would feel so cramped that it would have to resort to legalizing killing in order to make America look better.

Don’t get the wrong idea, I am not anti-American by any stretch of the imagination, but I am just questioning the morality of the Bush Administration to justify something so severe as assassinations to be made legal. When is America going to stop playing the role of “policeman of the world” to benefit itself rather than looking at the global picture? With the approval of these deadly operations, not only would it jeopardize the state of America and its foreign policy, but it could cause irreversible damage to the world.

ERIK T. GLASSEN

La Jolla