The Killing of Soleimani Was Not an ‘Assassination’

Since the strike on Qasem Soleimani, newsrooms have debated whether to use the term “assassination” to describe it. Numerous stories, including from the New York Times and NPR, have called the killing an assassination, as have politicians such as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. NPR’s public editor explained the publication’s policy: “While we have not mandated the word’s use, it has been used in our coverage in headlines and in our stories. We feel it is an appropriate use of the word, which is defined as the killing of a political leader by surprise.”

The killing of foreign political leaders has a fraught history in the United States, detailed by the 1975 Senate Church Committee. That committee’s report implicated the American government in a number of political assassination plots, most notably against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The Church Committee concluded that “short of war, assassination is incompatible with American principles, international order, and morality,” and in 1976 President Gerald Ford signed an executive order banning political assassinations. But since then, presidents have distinguished between assassinations and “targeted killings,” arguing that the latter are necessary and permissible.