Noam Chomsky’s statement on killing of Osama bin Laden

[Paul Mackin]

On 5/13/2011 11:38 AM, David Morris wrote:
> 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."

As Charlie Harper (Sheen) would say, what's  your point.

(I mean Noam's not David's)

P


> 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.
>