[LINK] OT: bin Laden is dead

[Roger Clarke]

Not that I really want to stir up an OT thread again, but ...

The White House PR flacks really did stuff it up badly.  Confident 
that only the US Administration had information about the mission, 
and/or as a result of talking one another up into over-excitement 
about it, they sexed up the initial statements about the attack.  And 
then they had to issue corrections.  According to the NYT (in the SMH 
on Sat 7 May):

"They were engaged in a firefight throughout the operation"

became

"The only shots fired at the Navy Seal team came at the beginning of 
the raid, when bin Laden's courier opened fire from the guesthouse. 
After the team killed the courier and a woman in the house, the 
Americans were not fired on again".

And

"[bin Laden] was engaged in a firefight with those that entered the 
area of the house he was in"

became

"[bin Laden] was not armed"

It's a fair bet that there *was* no code-word for 'bin Laden 
captured', because the team's mission was to send the code-word 
'Geronimo', for 'bin Laden killed'.

It's abundantly clear that the US President authorised, and the navy 
team committed, cold-blooded murder.

That may be Hollywood's idea of 'the real world', but it's not the 
law's.  The act is in breach of international law, and subject to 
prosecution in the International Criminal Court - unless of course 
you're sufficiently powerful to avoid being brought to trial:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crime

The claim the US may have had for the moral high ground in comparison 
with its adversaries clearly has no merit.  Put another way, the God 
who's on their side is the same Old Testament God as is on their 
adversaries' side.

Why do Democratic Presidents always seem to be even more bloodthirsty 
than Republican Presidents?

Maybe because they have to try harder to satisfy the bloodlust of the 
electorate?

Geronimo seems a good choice for the code-word, by the way.  He 
conducted revenge attacks against Mexicans and a few against US 
settlements.  And, after Geronimo surrendered to US forces, the US 
failed to comply with the conditions of his surrender.  White man, 
forked tongue.  Makes you proud to be one.

_________________________________________________________________________

Roger wrote on Mon, 2 May 2011 20:01:16 +1000
>Am I the only person appalled at Gillard's gloating over what looks 
>prettymuch like cold-blooded murder or a gangland execution? 
>Particularly when it's been dressed up as 'justice'?
>I thought Obama's speech was delicately balanced between the 
>realities of US politics and the ethics of killing killers.
>Gillard's comments weren't.
>Even our Foreign-Affairs-Minister-for-far-too-long managed to strike 
>the right note with 'It's not nice to relish the death of a person, 
>but it's understandable given the circumstances'.

And again on Wed, 4 May 2011 11:29:05 +1000
>And, after all that time, in a 'heavily defended' compound, with 
>lead flying everywhere, after the SEALs had had to fight their way 
>to the inner sanctum, there were *how* few dead and wounded??


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

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Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University