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Issue 265, Friday 27 May 2011 - 23 Jumad al-Akhar 1432

Legality of Bin Ladin killing drowned out by US euphoria

This month the US boasted about killing Usama Bin Ladin at a compound in Pakistan more than nine years after the start of the war in Afghanistan. Like many others, Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Labour Leader, Ed Miliband, both said that his demise had made the world a safer place and it was a significant step in the fight against global terrorism. But behind the euphoria, little was discussed about legality of the extra- judicial assassination.

Although details of the execution put out by the White House were sketchy and often contradictory, the US attempts to justify targeted killing during an armed conflict as the lawful right to use force “consistent with its inherent right to self-defence” under international law in response to the 9/11 attacks. But the UK position is less clear. When asked in Parliament whether the assassination was carried out within the confines of a proper legal authority in international law, Cameron said: “It was a US operation with US troops, so it is entirely a matter for that country.”

Yet extra-judicial killings are nothing new. They were practised by European powers in the colonial era and the US and the Soviet Union during the cold war. The biggest culprit in recent years has been Israel, which has carried out targeted assassinations for more than three decades. The most recent case was the killing by Mossad agents of a Hamas leader in Dubai last year, when it provoked most concern not about its legality but because Israeli agents were caught using passports from European countries, including the UK and Ireland. Like the US, Israel asserts it is a legitimate form of self- defence against terrorists.

Critics of targeted assassinations view them as incompatible with international law, which prohibits extrajudicial killings that lack due process. The case of Israel’s killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004 provoked international condemnation, including from the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.

Several international lawyers have already questioned the legality of the US targeted assassination of Bin Ladin, which was carried out in the mission under orders to kill, rather than capture, even when he was found to be unarmed.

The reaction by Amnesty International has so far only been to ask the US and Pakistan to clarify aspects of the operation in Abbottabad. It specifically requested information on the status and whereabouts of those who were with Bin Ladin and the circumstances of his killing. “US forces should have attempted to capture Usama bin Ladin alive in order to bring him to trial if he was unarmed and posing no immediate threat,” said Amnesty senior Director, Claudio Cordone. Bin Ladin’s sons have also questioned the legality, suggesting that he should have been arrested, citing the examples of former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, and Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic.

A further worrying aspect comes from a report by the House of Commons library, prepared for MPs that suggested the assassination may come to be seen as a precedent for “targeted killings” by states in the future. Bin Ladin’s killing has “significant implications” for how the US and other countries deal with terrorist suspects and such methods could be seen to be “accepted politically”, it argues.

It can be said increasing use of attacks made by unmanned aerial vehicles (known as drones) in places like Pakistan and Libya are a further development in targeted killing without officially being at war.

The world after Usama: the ‘dim’ prospects for sanity?

Usama Bin Ladin executed by the US

What’s in a name?

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