Jonathan Fanton and Kenneth Roth

About the author: Jonathan Fanton is chair of Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organization. Kenneth Roth is executive director of the same organization.

In times of national crisis, such as the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, politicians are tempted to adopt any policy that seems to address the emergency. However, rash actions such as lifting the 1976 ban on CIA assassinations often create more problems than they solve. Allowing targeted killings of foreign leaders would constitute a violation of human rights and compromise the democratic values that America represents. Although international laws allow nations at war to target enemy troops as well as their commanders, such laws would not permit the CIA to assassinate terrorists such as Osama bin Laden during America's war against...