It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination,
multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears
to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably
could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no
opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them.
In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended
and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects.” In April 2002, the head
of the FBI, Robert Mueller, informed the press that after the most intensive investigation in history, the FBI could say no more than that it “believed” that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan, though implemented in the UAE and
Germany. What they only believed in April 2002, they obviously didn’t
know 8 months earlier, when Washington dismissed tentative offers by the
Taliban (how serious, we do not know, because they were instantly
dismissed) to extradite bin Laden if they were presented with
evidence—which, as we soon learned, Washington didn’t have. Thus Obama
was simply lying when he said, in his White House statement, that “we
quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda.”
Nothing serious has been provided since. There is much talk of bin
Laden’s “confession,” but that is rather like my confession that I won
the Boston Marathon. He boasted of what he regarded as a great
achievement.
There is also much media discussion of Washington’s anger that Pakistan
didn’t turn over bin Laden, though surely elements of the military and
security forces were aware of his presence in Abbottabad. Less is said
about Pakistani anger that the U.S. invaded
their territory to carry out a political assassination. Anti-American
fervor is already very high in Pakistan, and these events are likely to
exacerbate it. The decision to dump the body at sea is already,
predictably, provoking both anger and skepticism in much of the Muslim
world.
1 Comments in Response to Noam Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death
How dare this author question the right and morality of the US or its President, to invade any sovereign nation, for any reason real or imagined, without a declaration of war. The collateral damage caused by agent orange, depleted uranium, and land mines is the price that nation must pay for the US bringing peace, justice, and freedom to them , whether they want it or not.