Terminate with extreme prejudice
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Terminate with extreme prejudice is a euphemism for execution (playing on the expression "termination with prejudice" of an employment contract). In a military intelligence context, it is generally understood as an order to assassinate. It's meaning was explained in a New York Times report on an incident during the Vietnam War.[1]
According to Douglas Valentine in his book The Phoenix Program (1990), the Central Intelligence Agency routinely used the term during the Vietnam War when sacking its locally hired operatives. In cases of extreme misconduct, an assassination ("termination with extreme prejudice") was ordered.
The term was used the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, in which Martin Sheen's character, Captain Willard, is ordered to terminate "the command" of the allegedly insane Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) with "extreme prejudice."
The term is also apocryphally used regarding organized crime assassinations where the assassin is expected to give little regard to preventing injury or death to those nearby the intended victim, with such collateral damage being explicitly encouraged in this specific instance. It is meant to demonstrate that those who ordered the assassination are particularly on edge.[citation needed]
In the email marketing industry, the term refers to immediate cancellation of a customer's account with little or no concern for the revenue they contributed, "business" they operate, or emotions of the customer. These cancellations are usually swift in nature and are often criticized for the guilty until proven innocent appeals process with companies. A policy such as this is necessary to abate unsolicited bulk mailers and uphold the integrity of the legitimate email sender.[citation needed]
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- ^ Details of Green Beret Case Are Reported in Saigon, Terence Smith, The New York Times, August 14, 1969 "...suggested that he either be isolated or 'terminated with extreme prejudice.' This term is said to be an intelligence euphemism for execution."
