Noam Chomsky’s statement on killing of Osama bin Laden

[David Morris]

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2011/05/international-law-is-made-by-powerful-states/

Noam Chomsky:  "It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a
planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of
international law."

Contrast that with, say, the United Nations Security Council:

"Recalling the “heinous” terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in New
York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, as well as the numerous
attacks perpetrated by the Al-Qaida network around the world, the
Security Council welcomed today the news that Osama bin Laden would
never again be able to perpetrate such acts of terrorism.

Expressing its deepest condolences to the victims of terrorism and
their families, the Council stressed the need for the full
implementation of all its resolutions and statements on terrorism,
notably resolutions 1267 (1999), 1373 (2001), 1624 (2005), 1963 (2010)
and 1904 (2009), as well as other applicable international
counter-terrorism instruments."

[...]

Long story short, neither Osama bin Laden nor the government of
Pakistan has any standing in international law to complain. Bin Laden
was not, in international legal terms, a “criminal” who we have to
attempt to apprehend. He was an ongoing threat to international peace
and security who the nations of the world were urged to “combat by all
means” and the whole point of the Security Council is that it
overrides national sovereignty.