Licence to kill (concept)

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This article is about the concept. For the James Bond film, see Licence to Kill.

There are at least two known meanings:

• A licence to kill can be defined as an official sanction by a government or government agency to a particular operative or employee to initiate the use of deadly force, presumably in furtherance of the government's aims or policies, or in carrying out the operative's assigned missions and presumably in an assassination or covert context rather than in an overtly military context.Template:Ref
• Another use of the term is found when talking about assisted suicide, or discontinuance of life support, editorialists may use the phrase, possibly pejoratively, in reference to government sanction of either action. Template:Ref

While the idea of a licence to kill is known to us from the James Bond novels and films, and has been used at least once by a headline writer[1], in reality, the legitimacy of deadly force usage from country to country is generally controlled by statute law, particular and direct executive orders, the common law, or military rules of engagement.

The actual existence of a "licence to kill" is debated. Some feel that the term is a mere literary device, popularized by novels and films, while others believe that such a licence exists in at least some countries, whether in the military, police or counter-intelligence services. In the literary sense, the licence is presumed to be a discretionary one, distributed rarely and requiring extensive training to obtain, and it is only granted to a handful of covert agents of a state, in the interest of national security. The agent is not necessarily expected to kill the enemy as part of a mission, but may receive immunity from prosecution for doing so, if, in the agent's estimation, it is necessary to complete the mission.

In reality, such licences may run afoul of the laws of war: the covert agent would almost certainly be considered a spy or perhaps even a common criminal if murder is committed in a foreign country. For this reason, few governments, if any, are willing to disclose the existence of a licence to kill.

Similar is the Fifth Freedom, possessed by Third Echelon agents in the Splinter Cell series of computer games.

Notes

1. Template:Note CBS News story A December 4,2002 story from the CBS News website (www.cbsnews.com) on the CIA having been granted a "license to kill" (US spelling) with meaning essentially as given in the first definition.
2. Template:Note This meaning was used by at least Mark Alexander in this opinion piece which was widely replicated, with meaning essentially as given in the second definition.

See also

• A 2000 BBC television documentary by Olenka Fenkiel, also shown on ABC, about murder of women in Pakistan in situations involving divorce or adultery. [2]
• USA Today editorial DeWayne Wickham editorial of November 6, 2001 arguing against the CIA "license to kill" authority.