RE: Noam Chomsky's statement on killing of Osama bin Laden

[cfabel]

I don't think, though I haven't looked lately, that "Assassination"  appears
in the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Conventions, the Hague
Conventions, international case law or the Statute of the International
Criminal Court.

C. F. Abel
Chair
Department of Government
Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacogdoches, Texas 75962
(936) 468-3903




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Paul Mackin
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 10:47 AM
To: David Morris; pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: Noam Chomsky's statement on killing of Osama bin Laden

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.
>