Whether something is ethical or not depends on whether it conforms with approved standards of social and professional behavior. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/unethical)

Now social behavior conformity would be defined through two means, the media and our daily contact with people. Depending on the type of people in that glimmer of society and the level of terrorism (September 11th terrorism would probably send people into a rage) it is very likely a linching or some other means of people-based jury/executioner would happen, which would mean killing someone and making their body disappear would be within those norms. Media/TV norms would be about the same, depending on which half hour of tv you're watching. In some situations public execution is accepted.

As for professional behavior, that would depend on what division of the CIA is performing this behavior. Obviously the Research and Analysis branch would be abnormal in this situation, but the branches responsible for covert operations and paramilitary actions might have a few Standard Operating Procedures for exactly this sort of thing.

So I can see many situations in which this would be ethical and justified, but as a blanket answer, and for what society should expect from our government, I'd say unethical.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency


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