The US government claims to have killed the leader of Al-Qaeda today. A profoundly mysterious official enemy is now, allegedly, dead.
What a shame they could not capture and put the man on trial, if there was sufficient evidence to secure a lawful conviction. Instead, the world's most powerful state murdered bin Laden in an extrajudicial killing -- he was killed by a gunshot to the head (consistent with a professional assassination).
A trial, no matter how problematic, could have proved whether or not he was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, while providing answers to questions raised by the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11. A trial would also have demonstrated that the US retains the moral high-ground. Unfortunately neither of these things have been achieved by shooting bin Laden in the head, silencing him forever.
Many people around the world, including ordinary citizens, senior officials in US and allied governments, and prominent commentators the mass media, are declaring this "justice". The majority of people in the West seem to agree, evidently having had have had their sense of "justice" eroded to the point where they are satisfied with a trial by media. Those proclaiming "justice" are in effect accepting that if politicians and the mass media say somebody is guilty, that person must therefore be guilty, and as long as the right people say so no trial is necessary to properly scrutinise the facts.
Not everybody feels comfortable with the images of Americans cheering and waving flags in the streets, chanting "USA". They are celebrating an event which seems to warrant a more sobre reaction. An unarmed old man was killed by a unit of heavily-armed Navy Seals with air support. He was seen by many as a terrorist, and by others as a freedom-fighter standing-up to invincible enemies. He was killed in his home which looked more like a prison than a fortress.
In 2001, the 11 September attacks were cited as the single official reason for invading Afghanistan. American and British officials claimed that the government of Afghanistan was "harboring" bin Laden, but logic dictates that there was no specific evidence for this -- because of course apparently nobody knew where he was located. In reality, most of the alleged 9/11 attackers were nationals of Saudi Arabia. Now we are informed that bin Laden was located in Pakistan, so when is the invasion? Such blatant double-standards are symptomatic of false reasons being cited to justify what can accurately be described as illegal military operations with self-evident imperial objectives.
Al-Qaeda ("The Base") was created by the CIA in Afghanistan in the 1970s during the Cold War. Since 2001, Osama bin Laden has been a bogey-man figure, pointed to by politicians and the mass media while targets in the "War on Terror" shifted from place to place.
SOURCE
Osama bin Laden Killed: 'Justice Is Done,' President Says
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-killed/story?id=13505703
BACKGROUND
CIA created al-Qaeda and gave $3 BILLION to Osama bin Laden
http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=0228
The truth about the US conquest of Afghanistan
http://www.thedebate.org/thedebate/afghanistan.asp
FURTHER READING
Osama bin Laden corpse photo is fake
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-photo-fake
"The Insider" mailing list article, 02 May 2011.
