Kill or Capture

Kill or Capture

Author: Daniel Klaidman

Publisher: HMH

Published: 2012-06-05

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 0547547781

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“Divulge[s] the details of top-level deliberations—details that were almost certainly known only to the administration’s inner circle” (The Wall Street Journal). When he was elected in 2008, Barack Obama had vowed to close Guantánamo, put an end to coercive interrogation and military tribunals, and restore American principles of justice. Yet by the end of his first term he had backtracked on each of these promises, ramping up the secret war of drone strikes and covert operations. Behind the scenes, wrenching debates between hawks and doves—those who would kill versus those who would capture—repeatedly tested the very core of the president’s identity, leading many to wonder whether he was at heart an idealist or a ruthless pragmatist. Digging deep into this period of recent history, investigative reporter Daniel Klaidman spoke to dozens of sources to piece together a riveting Washington story packed with revelations. As the president’s inner circle debated secret programs, new legal frontiers, and the disjuncture between principles and down-and-dirty politics, Obama vacillated, sometimes lashed out, and spoke in lofty tones while approving a mounting toll of assassinations and kinetic-war operations. Klaidman’s fly-on-the-wall reporting reveals who had his ear, how key national security decisions are really made, and whether or not President Obama lived up to the promise of candidate Obama. “Fascinating . . . Lays bare the human dimension of the wrenching national security decisions that have to be made.” —Tina Brown, NPR “An important book.” —Steve Coll, The New Yorker


Plotting to Kill the President

Plotting to Kill the President

Author: Mel Ayton

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9781612348803

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"A history of plotters, would-be assassins, and individuals who have threatened the lives of American presidents from Washington to Hoover and the story of the guards, agents, and officers who protected them"--


The President's Kill List

The President's Kill List

Author: Luca Trenta

Publisher: EUP

Published: 2024-05-31

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781399519496

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Investigates the US government's involvement in the assassination of foreign officials from the early Cold War to the present day.


Plotting to Kill the President

Plotting to Kill the President

Author: Mel Ayton

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2017-02

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1612348793

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Since the birth of our nation and the election of the first president, groups of organized plotters or individuals have been determined to assassinate the chief executive. From the Founding Fathers to the Great Depression, three presidents have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley. However, unknown to the general public, almost all presidents have been threatened, put in danger, or survived "near lethal approaches" during their terms. Plotting to Kill the President reveals the numerous, previously untold incidents when assassins, plotters, and individuals have threatened the lives of American presidents, from George Washington to Herbert Hoover. Mel Ayton has uncovered these episodes, including an attempt to assassinate President Hayes during his inauguration ceremony, an attempt to shoot Benjamin Harrison on the streets of Washington, an assassination attempt on President Roosevelt at the White House, and many other incidents that have never been reported or have been covered up. Ayton also recounts the stories of Secret Service agents and bodyguards from each administration who put their lives in danger to protect the commander in chief. Plotting to Kill the President demonstrates the unsettling truth that even while the nation sleeps, those who would kill the president are often hard at work devising new schemes.


President's Kill List

President's Kill List

Author: Luca Trenta

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2024-05-31

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1399519514

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From Fidel Castro to Qassem Soleimani, the US government has been involved in an array of assassinations and assassination attempts against foreign leaders and officials. The President's Kill List reveals how the US government has relied on a variety of methods, from the use of poison to the delivery of sniper rifles, and from employing hitmen to simply laying the groundwork for local actors to do the deed themselves. It shows not only how policymakers decided on assassination but also the level of Presidential control over these decisions. Tracing the history of the US government's approach to assassination, the book analyses the evolution of assassination policies and, for the first time, reveals how successive administrations - through private justifications and public legitimations - ensured assassination remained an available tool.


Critical Perspectives on Government-Sponsored Assassinations

Critical Perspectives on Government-Sponsored Assassinations

Author: Anne C. Cunningham

Publisher: Enslow Publishing, LLC

Published: 2017-07-15

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 0766084841

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State-sponsored assassinations have been used by the United States since the early twentieth century and became a major tactic used by presidential administrations in the 1980s to fight drug wars in South America. Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States has escalated its use of targeted killing. The CIA and Pentagon have employed the controversial practice more than ever before, and President Barack Obama’s administration increased drone-targeted killing and special forces dramatically. This text looks at both the history and current use of government-sponsored assassinations, providing thoughtful analysis from multiple perspectives about the issues, politics, and ethics behind state-sponsored killing to help students think critically about the issue today.


Hit List

Hit List

Author: Richard Belzer

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-06-07

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 162636284X

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Richard Belzer and David Wayne are back to set the record straight after Dead Wrong; this time they’re going to uncover the truth about the many witness deaths tied to the JFK assassination. For decades, government pundits have dismissed these “coincidental” deaths, even regarding them as “myths” as “urban legends.” Like most people, Richard and David were initially unsure about what to make of these ‘coincidences’. After all, events don’t “consult the odds” prior to happening; they simply happen. Then someone comes along later and figures out what the odds of it happening were. Some of the deaths seemed purely coincidental; heart attacks, hunting accidents. Others clearly seemed noteworthy; witnesses who did seem to know something and did seem to die mysteriously. Hit List is a fair examination of the evidence of each case, leading to (necessarily) different conclusions. The findings were absolutely staggering; as some cases were clearly linked to a “clean-up operation” after the murder of President Kennedy, while others were the result of ‘other forces’. The impeccable research and writing of Richard Belzer and David Wayne show that if the government is trying to hide anything, they’re the duo who will uncover it.


Top Secret America

Top Secret America

Author: Dana Priest

Publisher: Back Bay Books

Published: 2012-09-11

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9780316182201

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After 9/11, the United States government embarked on an unprecedented effort to protect America. The result has been calamitous: after ten years of unparalleled spending and growth, the result is that a system put in place to keep America safe may in fact be putting us in even greater danger-but we don't know because it's all Top Secret. In TOP SECRET AMERICA, award-winning journalists Dana Priest and William M. Arkin lift the curtain on this clandestine universe. From the companies and agencies keeping track of American citizens and the military commanders building America's first "top secret city" to a hidden army within the U.S. military more secret than the CIA, this new national security octopus has become a self-sustaining "Fourth Branch" of government. A tour de force of investigative journalism, TOP SECRET AMERICA presents a fascinating and disturbing account of government run amok and a war on terrorism gone wrong in a post-9/11.


Hunting the President

Hunting the President

Author: Mel Ayton

Publisher: Regnery Publishing

Published: 2014-04-14

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1621572072

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In American history, four U.S. Presidents have been murdered at the hands of an assassin. In each case the assassinations changed the course of American history. But most historians have overlooked or downplayed the many threats modern presidents have faced, and survived. Author Mel Ayton sets the record straight in his new book Hunting the Presidents: Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts—From FDR to Obama, telling the sensational story of largely forgotten—or never-before revealed—malicious attempts to slay America’s leaders. Supported by court records, newspaper archives, government reports, FBI files, and transcripts of interviews from presidential libraries, Hunting the Presidents reveals: How an armed, would-be assassin stalked President Roosevelt and spent ten days waiting across the street from the White House for his chance to shoot him How the Secret Service foiled a plot by a Cuban immigrant who told coworkers he was going to shoot LBJ from a window overlooking the president’s motorcade route How a deranged man broke into Reagan’s California home and attempted to strangle the former president before he was subdued by Secret Service agents. In early 1992 a mentally deranged man stalking Bush turned up at the wrong presidential venue for his planned assassination attempt The relationships presidents held with their protectors and the effect it had on the Secret Service’s mission Hunting the Presidents opens the vault of stories about how many of our recent Presidents have come within a hair’s breadth of assassination, leaving America’s fate in the balance. Most of these stories have remained buried—until now. Includes glossy photo signature of historic pictures and documents


Meltdown

Meltdown

Author: Katrina vanden Heuvel

Publisher: Bold Type Books

Published: 2009-01-09

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1568584334

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From the leading magazine on the left, an exose of the failures, lies and misdeeds that caused the financial collapse—and a plan for rescuing the country.