Editing CIA A Study Of Assassination (1953) (section)

===EMPLOYMENT ===

Assassination is an extreme measure not normally used in clandestine 
operations. It should be assumed that it will never be ordered or authorized by 
any U.S. Headquarters, though the latter may in rare instances agree to its 
execution by members of an associated foreign service. This reticence is 
partly due to the necessity for committing communications to paper. No 
assassination instructions should ever be written or recorded. Consequently, 
the decision to employ this technique must nearly always be reached in the 
field, at the area where the act will take place. Decision and instructions 
should be confined to an absolute minimum of persons. Ideally, only one 
person will be involved. No report may be made, but usually the act will be 
properly covered by normal news services, whose output is available to all 
concerned.