The journal Foreign Policy on July 30 posted an article headlined, “Would the U.S. Consider Assassinating Putin?” conveying, on the face of it, a clear mortal threat to the President of Russia, and a window into the inner thoughts of some in the U.S. establishment.
The article carries the kicker, “When and why intelligence agencies target foreign leaders—and how it often backfires.” The author is Douglas London, “a former CIA operations officer, and the author of The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence.” The headline illustration, in bright red, with symbols evocative of precision targeting and destruction of the brain and head, is a special commission by the journal.
