TEHRAN Republican Congressman Bob Barr has written a letter to U.S. President George Bush, asking him to openly sanction the assassination of any world leader considered by the U.S. to pose a threat to its national interests and security.

Elaborating on the motion, the congressman from Georgia said, "The U.S. has already launched some plans with the ultimate aim of liquidating foreign political leaders; for example, we have tried several times to assassinate the Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi. Of course many Americans believe that the government is not involved in such actions, but the truth of the matter is that we get involved in such actions once in a while."

Barr further said, "I believe we should be open in what we do. The president has the power to issue such orders, and he must do it."

The Washington Times carried Barr's remarks in a story headlined "Saddam, Muammar, Fidel -- Watch Out." Defending the motion, the paper said that it would help to eradicate terrorism and free the American agents from prohibitions that currently limit their direct involvement in international assassination attempts and require them to act through intermediaries.

In his motion, Barr suggested that President Bush should rescind the previous executive orders issued by former U.S. presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan prohibiting direct involvement of U.S. agents in assassination attempts against world leaders.

In another development, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told the congressmen that the relations between Russia, China and North Korea with Iran, which the U.S. considers as "states of concern", are very complicated.

He added that the U.S. security organs should try more than before to prevent the transfer of missile technology to Iran and Pakistan.

Analysts believe that what Barr has now openly proposed for approval by Congress is nothing new. The world is already quite familiar with the full extent of the U.S. involvement in the assassination of world leaders like Patrice Lumumba, Salvador Allende and Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

The U.S. has also often hatched subversive plots, staged coups and waged military assaults against independent governments throughout the world. Staging a coup against the government of Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953, the military invasion of Panama, extending support to the Contras in Nicaragua, the Bay of Pigs invasion and the military aggression against the Dominican Republic, just to cite a few.

This is just a cross section of the atrocities committed by U.S. government against different independent states of the world. But one of the most heinous crimes perpetrated by the United States was the downing of an Iranian airliner that was flying through international commercial air corridors over the Persian Gulf.

Thus, there is enough evidence to prove that the U.S. has long been trying to impose its hegemony over other countries by resorting to international terrorism. However, the U.S. congressman has now proposed a motion to sanction such acts of terrorism.

The American citizens should not allow their politicians and lawmakers to further tarnish the U.S. image in the eyes of the world public. Indeed, if the motion is approved by the Congress, the U.S. will be recognized by nations across the world as a state that sponsors international terrorism.