When he announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by a Navy Seal team in Pakistan, President Barack Obama said, "Justice has been done." Mr. Obama misused the word "justice" when he made that statement. He should have said, "Retaliation has been accomplished." A former professor of constitutional law should know the difference between those two concepts. The word "justice" implies an act of applying or upholding the law.
Targeted assassinations violate well-established principles of international law. Also called political assassinations, they are extrajudicial executions. These are unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by order of, or with the acquiescence of, a government, outside any judicial framework.
Extrajudicial executions are unlawful, even in armed conflict. In a 1998 report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions noted that "extrajudicial executions can never be justified under any circumstances, not even in time of war." The U.N. General Assembly and Human Rights Commission, as well as Amnesty International, have all condemned extrajudicial executions.
In spite of its illegality, the Obama administration frequently uses targeted assassinations to accomplish its goals. Five days after executing Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama tried to bring "justice" to U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who has not been charged with any crime in the United States. The unmanned drone attack in Yemen missed al-Awlaki and killed two people "believed to be al Qaeda militants," according to a CBS/AP bulletin.
Two days before the Yemen attack, U.S. drones killed 15 people in Pakistan and wounded four. Since the March 17 drone attack that killed 44 people, also in Pakistan, there have been four drone strikes. In 2010, American drones carried out 111 strikes. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says that 957 civilians were killed in 2010.
The United States disavowed the use of extrajudicial killings under President Gerald Ford. After the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence disclosed in 1975 that the CIA had been involved in several murders or attempted murders of foreign leaders, President Ford issued an executive order banning assassinations. Every succeeding president until George W. Bush renewed that order. However, the Clinton administration targeted Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, but narrowly missed him.
In July 2001, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel denounced Israel's policy of targeted killings, or "preemptive operations." He said "the United States government is very clearly on the record as against targeted assassinations. They are extrajudicial killings, and we do not support that."
Yet after September 11, 2001, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer invited the killing of Saddam Hussein: "The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less" than the cost of war. Shortly thereafter, Bush issued a secret directive, which authorized the CIA to target suspected terrorists for assassination when it would be impractical to capture them and when large-scale civilian casualties could be avoided.
In November 2002, Bush reportedly authorized the CIA to assassinate a suspected al Qaeda leader in Yemen. He and five traveling companions were killed in the hit, which Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz described as a "very successful tactical operation."
After the Holocaust, Winston Churchill wanted to execute the Nazi leaders without trials. But the U.S. government opposed the extrajudicial executions of Nazi officials who had committed genocide against millions of people. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, who served as chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, told President Harry Truman: "We could execute or otherwise punish [the Nazi leaders] without a hearing. But undiscriminating executions or punishments without definite findings of guilt, fairly arrived at, would... not set easily on the American conscience or be remembered by children with pride."
Osama bin Laden and the "suspected militants" targeted in drone attacks should have been arrested and tried in U.S. courts or an international tribunal. Obama cannot serve as judge, jury and executioner. These assassinations are not only illegal; they create a dangerous precedent, which could be used to justify the targeted killings of U.S. leaders.
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She is deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her latest book, The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse was published earlier this year by NYU Press. See www.marjoriecohn.com.
Dr. Faheem Younus: Muhammad Never Tortured Prisoners of War
Robert P. Jones, Ph.D.: American Mythology in a Post-Bin Laden World
Gabor Rona: Was Killing Osama Bin Laden Legal?
Tom Hayden: An Expanding War in Pakistan
I cannot dissagree with you more. keep the politics out and look at the following;
If Osama was captured and held....
> How many attacks of innocent people and entities would take place to free him?
> How many rallies, riots, etc. would take place?
> How many children, families, etc.. would be kidnapped for trading with Osama?
> Why give time to make a marter of him?
> Why continue to spend ???? dollars through due proccess and red tape, etc.
> Why allow him to rank as Elvis, Michael Jackson, etc. with famous shrines, etc. to a person o f evil?
Sorry, but sometimes a decision must be made for the betterment of all. This decision eliminated a lot of unnecessary problems to many innocent men, women and children.
It was like removing a cancer from your body.
Thanks for doing it quick and ending it there.
Seems to me that depriving Al-Qaida of the man who holds them together and has been a major source of funding is a legitimate war aim.
Also, the Allies did consider killing Hitler, but only the fact that Hitler was such a strategic idiot (kind of like Rumsfeld) kept him alive. He was doing Germany more damage as its leader, hence why the Allies left him alone.
You compare apples and oranges, sorry!
Also, if you want to bring up the topic of declared war and soldiers, read up on the Geneva Convention - generally, those making war out of uniform are expected to be shot on sight, if I'm not mistaken.
The first reports I heard were that Osama had an AK-47. Did you hear varying reports too?
Did he personally kill those 3,000 people? Did you know that the CIA said they fabricated that tape in which he "admitted" guilt?
Hate liberty much?
Due Process is the Law. Read a book.
Have you ever read the constitution? You answer is there in black and white. Congress has the power to declare war. Do you not understand that?
This man needed to die...his death is justice for the families and a morale boost for the entire US population. THIS is (part of) what I hired President Obama to do...glad he finally got it done.