Obama to announce Osama is dead

[GSG]

No wonder we got Bin Laden

 

[Ratt Mhule]

Al Qaida confirms Bin Laden's death, threatens to retaliate

 

Article

[The Dude]

No doubt they plan on retaliating. It will be a lot harder to pull off something even close to the scale of 9/11 nowadays. Plus they just lost a tactical GENIUS in bin Laden. Say what you will about him being a crazy f#ck (and he was) but he was brilliant at what he did. Very doubtful someone with that much influence, money, charisma, ect. replaces him. This was a huge victory on our part. Huge. A lot bigger than a lot of people think.

 

And for the "skeptics", get over it, he's as dead as disco.

[The Dude]

THIS JUST IN!

 

Exclusive photo of the moment bin Laden was found!

 

 

 

 

 

[zoogs]

Now the hand-wringing begins. The big question: Was The Killing of bin Laden Legal?

 

Who. Freaking. Cares.

 

I get that we're a nation ruled by law, and that we are supposed to be acting like "the good guys." In this instance, I couldn't care less what happened in that room when the SEALs broke in. I don't care if he was armed or unarmed, asleep or awake, reading a book or taking a crap. They put a bullet in his chest and they put a bullet in his brain. He likely died within seconds. He deserved far worse.

 

+1 to Who Freaking Cares. That's the American in me.

 

It is interesting though. I live with some housemates who are from Europe, and recently when we were talking about this one of them asked aloud, "I wonder if it is legal for them to kill Osama." (I just typed Obama by accident...now I can't laugh at the Fox people who did it, or accuse them of doing it on purpose. It really is a bit tricky...)

 

As Americans, we are very close to the 9/11 tragedy and it burns in our hearts still. I think a great majority are celebrating. But there's a dispassionate, objective view to take too. You have to ask, if you take out the names and countries and locations, was this the right precedent to set for something that is OK for a country to do in the world?

 

"It's a complicated question as a legal matter," said Steven Ratner, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. "A lot of it depends on whether you believe Osama bin Laden is a combatant in a war or a suspect in a mass murder."

 

I think it is fairly clear that he SHOULD BE a military target, but I do see how it's a bit more complicated as to whether he actually is.

 

Complicating the picture is that bin Laden was indicted in Manhattan U.S. District Court in 1998 for conspiracy to attack U.S. defense installations, said David Scheffer, director for the Center for International Human Rights at the Northwestern University School of Law.

 

Can you be both? A former indictment should not prevent you from later becoming a military target in a war, the war we are waging on Al-Qaeda.

 

Scheffer said if the Navy SEALs were ordered to kill bin Laden without trying first to capture him, it may have violated American ideals if not international law.

 

"It seems to me that with the character of our society, it might have been more consistent with American values to have at least ordered his capture with rules of engagement," he said.

 

Lastly, I do kind of agree with this, but we have very limited information about the circumstances of the operation. It is very hard to make a judgment here.

[zoogs]

THIS JUST IN!

 

Exclusive photo of the moment bin Laden was found!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ha! Where is this photo from?

 

By the way: Al-Qaeda confirms bin Laden's death: statement

[The Dude]

I dunno, someone posted it on another forum. LOLOLOLOLOL I can't get over it. Haha

[The Dude]

I'd say it's more of a question of whether or not entering Pakistan was legal. I believe the UN said it was, but I certainly have to read up on all that some more. I didn't think there was any question he was a legitimate military target. Again, I haven't done much reading on all this yet, just kind of my thoughts.

[knapplc]

I understand the question of legality. We stated that he was not armed, but "resisting." What does that even mean? That we said "Come here" and he didn't immediately comply? Hard to say, and we'll never, ever get a full explanation.

 

I have family in Paris and they're hearing the same thing. Basically the world seems to have suddenly got religion on whether or not things are "legal," but only in this instance. Basically, only because it's America who did it.

 

Funny thing, though - Britain, whose press seems to be alternately praising America for this or bashing America for going into Pakistan without permission and/or killing an unarmed man/men. But England's hands are far from clean - look up their own version of events during the "Troubles" in Ireland during the 80s & 90s and see how they dealt with foreign nationals who resisted their sovereignty. Also, look no further than French activity in Libya as we speak for their country's true feelings on such activity.

 

 

 

To be brutally honest, in this one instance, I do not give a rat's ass whether bin Laden was armed or unarmed, resisting or complying, asleep or awake. That bullet entering his brain was the single most just and righteous act of this young century so far. Trial be damned. Law be damned, even. I don't care. In this single, lone instance, the ends justify the means. No more, no precedent, nothing of that sort. Just this one time.

 

I sleep very well at night knowing with a sober mind and realistic understanding what likely happened in that room. I have zero qualms about it. Leave the hand-wringing for those who need to sell newspapers. For me, this was exactly what should have happened. End of story. Bye, bye. See ya later.

[The Dude]

Hear hear.

 

Couldn't agree more actually. As far as I'm concerned he was fair game since he ordered the operation to smoosh those planes into those buildings. He declared war, and died in said war. I'm glad he's fish food.

[Haspula]

 

found this on another forum

[husker rob]

anyone hear of the new drink that is available at the bars now?

 

its called the Bin Ladin

 

2 shots and a splash of water

[knapplc]

Members of congress are now seeing the bin Laden photos.

 

 

Washington (CNN) -- More members of Congress are seeing something cleared for only a select group of Americans: Photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse.

 

Republican Sen. James Inhofe told CNN's Eliot Spitzer on Wednesday he saw about 15 photos of bin Laden's body, most taken at the al Qaeda leader's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Three were taken on a naval vessel from which bin Laden was buried at sea after the May 2 U.S. commando raid.

 

"Pretty gruesome" is how Inhofe described photos of brains hanging out of bin Laden's eye socket. The wound either entered or exited an ear, the Oklahoma senator said.

 

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