Pakistan

Abbottabad debacle: ‘Bin Laden raid not an assassination’

US Attorney General says Bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan was a "kill or capture mission".

Afp May 13, 2011

LONDON: The US commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden was “not an assassination”, US Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday after the al Qaeda leader’s sons denounced the operation.

Holder told the BBC that the raid on Bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan on May 2 was a “kill or capture mission” and that his surrender would have been accepted if offered, but that the safety of US Navy commandos was paramount.

“What happened to Bin Laden was not an assassination,” Holder said.

“I think the action that we took against him can be seen as an act of national self-defence. You have to remember it is lawful to target an enemy commander,” he said.

The top US legal official said there was no indication that Bin Laden was going to surrender and it was believed he could be wearing a suicide vest.

“It was a kill or capture mission. If there was a possibility of a feasible surrender then that would have occurred, but their protection, that is the protection of the force that went into the compound, was uppermost in their minds,” said Holder.

“This is a man who swore he would never be taken alive. There were some indications that perhaps he wore a suicide vest, there are indications that perhaps there were weapons in the room.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (2)

Khawaja Faraz | 13 years ago | Reply @Julia Afaghi Simmons: what you know about genocide...tell me what you know about US president declaring Crusade to be brought on Muslims when just a few hundred started jehad and bringing entire world along to crush Adghanistan for 3000 killed at WTC? ever had statistics of killed in Pakistan with DRONES...Bombs? in Afghanistan with bullest...carpet bombing????? here is my request go out tell your president that Muslims do not hate Americans...but the American Policies....killing Osama the leader of Al-Qaida & supporting Al-qaida's baby to execute Qadafi.......

Julia Afaghi Simmons | 13 years ago | Reply the way in which Osama Bin Laden was executed is broadcast to USA citizens to prepare their minds for other executions and torture of anybody who is against policies of USA -- not just enemy Commanders. The Nazi Germans brought their genocides unto the German people in a similar way that made their crimes acceptable to the masses. Now we see that NATO & US/UN are trying to execute Gadhafi with the crowds of citizens cheering them on: it has become a Roman arena with people cheering the gladiators on to death. Throwing Osama's body to the sharks in ocean is similar to how they would throw the gladiators body into the lions or the jews into the furnaces.

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