President Obama says its great news for peace and democracy.

The trouble with people like Bin Laden is that the best thing is to drag them out into the street and put a bullet in them,...it is the only way of dealing with those kind of people.....

Maggie, No self respecting person is ever easy with an unarmed person being shot. On the other hand no sane person would plan mass killing of innocents all over the world. The old saying " Live by the sword die by the sword" is most appropiate.While we plan hugh aid programs to help the less fortunate in our world, there those among use who even as I type this are plotting to harm us all. There is no easy solution. We are fortunate to have the kind of people who can pick up a 60 sec phone call and follow it to a conclusion. Anybody who watched the horror unfold as thousands died in the twin towers can only say some measure of justice has been done, but there is more to be done.

Well said Rf.

Beebusy, I have to disagree with you re 'No self respecting person is ever easy with an unarmed person being shot'.
I hope I am a self respecting person, but without going into detail, I have been in more than one position were another life was in my hands and I therefor I am able to say what I would have done in the Bin Laden incident.
I also worked with members of the SAS and SBS for several years (no I was not a member and would not pretend to be, never near brave enough) and although they did not openly talk about incidents (I worked with them for almost 1 year before I even found out they were special forces) I did learn something of what they did purely by default.
What I will say is a repeat of a previous post, as far as a terrorist is concerned if they are not completely naked and even then, you can't be absolutely sure they do not have a 'trigger' to a weapon that can be remotely detonated, they should be killed.
But I do see how it looks to those who do not know, so in no way having a go at you.
As to myself, even if he had been totally naked, unconscious and tried to a chair, the best decision would still have been to kill him.
Just imagine all the hassle if he had been taken alive. Imagine all the hostage taking that would follow to try to get his release and all the PR he could push out in a trial.
Taken live many more would die.
Because it's a very sick world, unfortunately sometimes morality has to take a back step to what makes sense.
Turning the other cheek (I am not referring to anything you said) often means getting another kick in the other ball!

If I was in charge of a list to put down others like BL it would be quite a long list.
To keep this world from total chaos, right or wrong, sometimes people 'Have to play God'!

Can't disagree with anything you've said Greek or you BB but it would have been nice and tidy if he'd had a gun or even a 'trigger' shows how safe he felt!

Yep cannot disagree, if I had entered that compound I would have shot him. Our trouble is we have a conscience they do not. It takes a certain amount of cowardice to tie a person up then cut his throat and film it for the masses. To plant roadside bombs that could destroy anything passing by.Snipers shooting children, wounded people lying in the road, even the water buttes. This is not fighting for freedom or an ideal this is sadistic, depraved humans at their worse.Dont think this is all removed from us, just glance across the water at Ireland.We allow a man who slaughtered hundreds to return to Libya saying there there you are sick go home!! when we should have made him pay the penalty for his actions. We have brought this on our selves.As a society we cannot even punish our children for wrong doing, we cannot defend that which is dear to us,we cannot speak freely about our concerns without being arrested as some kind of "ist" We cannot allow sharpening a pencil with a penknife!! risk assesment,offensive weapon, litigation?? I have no answers but as a nation we have questions and we must voice them.

The operation was clearly a 'kill operation'. It was what any group like the SAS would do. I saw Paddy Ashdown appearing to bad mouth the killing of Bin Laden on Question Time last night. He was the commander of a Special Boat Services unit and later in charge of a Commando Company in Belfast. He ought to know what happens.

Where was the fuss when terrorists took over the Iranian embassy and took hostages? The SAS went in and killed 5 of the 6 terrorists.

After the SAS assault ended, the last surviving gunman, Fowzi Nejad, posed as a hostage and was escorted outside the embassy with the others. There, a real hostage quickly identified him as one of the attackers. An SAS soldier began to take him back inside the building, allegedly to be shot. He was prevented from doing so when it was pointed out to him that the world's media was watching.

There was controversy over the deaths of some of the terrorists, especially of Shai and Makki. They were guarding the Iranian hostages, and towards the end of the raid the hostages persuaded the men to surrender. Hostages witnessed them throw down their weapons and sit on the floor with their hands on their heads when the SAS troops entered the room. Weapons being thrown out of a window and a white flag were seen by video cameras outside.

Ahmad Dadgar, a hostage at the time (confirmed by two other hostages) said (of the SAS):

"They then took the two terrorists, pushed them against the wall and shot them. They wanted to finish their story. That was their job." [They might have] "had something in their pockets, but they certainly had no weapons in their hands at the time."

At a coroner's inquest the SAS were cleared of unlawful conduct by a jury. One of the soldiers said that he thought Makki was going for a gun, and another said he thought Shai had a hand grenade and shot him in the back of the neck.

If you wanted to live outside of the UK , which place would you choose ? I know it would depend on individual circumstances.


All this talk as made me think about it.

The USA

Bin Laden should have been arrested and tried. given an ASBO, politely requested to turn up in court, asked to undergo a rehabilitation course and introduced to the families of his victims so he could understand the error of his ways and then given a new identity, that home in Kensington and Chelsea and a community service order involving working with young people in a mosque.
In other words, British justice.

Al-Qaeda has confirmed the death of its leader Osama Bin Laden in a statement posted on jihadist internet forums.

Hays,

You seem to me to be condoning the actions of the Israeli special forces methods of treating the Palestinians.

But condemning the Israelis for not conforming to international law and standards of engagement.

Or do you have one blind eye when you think it useful?

Shooting the raghead in the eye works for me.

PS.

Dil,

From recent reports there was not a massacre or obvious resistance.

There are stun guns etc. which could have rendered BL unconscious and carried out.

They carried the body and/or perhaps even other bodies.

Another suspicion is that in unlawful killing or killings an independent forensic post-mortem is held when possible.

The resistance to the incursion seems to have been minimal.

The same rights which the Americans and British wish for themselves should be shown to all members of the human race.


The opinions expressed by some posters on this board remind me of remarks I have be made by members of of "racial groups".


I repeat I am not sad BL is dead, but see no virtue in the way it was effected.

Perhaps, some believe in James Bond or have played too many unrealistic computerised war games.

"Shooting the raghead in the eye works for me."

The suggestion now is that he was shot in the back of the head and that is why there is a large part of his front skull and brain missing; small entry wound and big exit wound due the types of bullets that special forces use. He was shot in the chest and the shot in the back of the head may have been a 'coup de grace' shot after he fell.

..Al Qaeda has confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden and vowed to launch revenge attacks on the US and its allies.

A statement posted on jihadist websites warned that happiness over the terror chief's demise would soon be turned on its head.

The group described itself as a "curse" on America, promised bloodshed and also called on Pakistan to rise up in revolt.

An audiotape purporting to be of bin Laden speaking a week before his death is set to be released shortly.

The authenticity of the statement is not possible to confirm independently but it was posted on sites known to be used by the group.


It said: "We stress that the blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is precious to us and to all Muslims and will not go in vain.

"We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries.

"Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness. Their blood will be mingled with their tears.

"We call upon our Muslim people in Pakistan... to rise up and revolt to cleanse this shame that has been attached to them by a clique of traitors and thieves ... and in general to cleanse their country from the filth of the Americans who spread corruption in it."

The announcement paves the way for al Qaeda to name a successor to bin Laden, with his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri the most likely candidate.

The confirmation followed claims by US officials that it had been planning an attack on the U.S. rail network to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

The plot was apparently uncovered as US agencies went through information seized from bin Laden's compound after he was killed in a raid by Navy Seals.


"We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the US rail sector, but wanted to make our partners aware of the alleged plotting," Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matthew Chandler said.

The idea - outlined in handwritten notes from the compound - was to tamper with a the track so that a train would fall into a valley or from a bridge, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security bulletin.

However, there was no indication from the intelligence whether further plans were drawn up for the scheme or if steps were taken to carry it out.

Fox News cited a source as saying the plan was more aspirational than concrete and mentioned services in New York, Washington DC and Chicago.

The source said the evidence taken during the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Monday considered the possibility of targeting a train travelling at 500mph - a speed that no locomotive in the US is capable of reaching.


Details of the alleged plot emerged as Pakistan's army broke its silence over the raid, acknowledging its own "shortcomings" in efforts to find bin Laden.

However, military chiefs threatened to review co-operation with the US if there was another similar violation of Pakistani sovereignty.

The army statement was in sharp contrast to the initial response to the raid by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who had hailed the operation as a "great victory".

In another revelation likely to further strain ties between Islamabad and Washington, CIA agents reportedly watched bin Laden from a safehouse in Abbottabad after his compound was discovered last August.

US officials said intelligence-gathering was so exhaustive that the CIA asked Congress to reallocate tens of millions of dollars to fund it.

"The CIA's job was to find and fix," the Washington Post quoted one US official as saying, using special forces terminology for locating a target.

"The intelligence work was as complete as it was going to be, and it was the military's turn to finish the target."


A Pakistani intelligence official has said that one of bin Laden's wives claims she had been living in the compound for six years.

The Yemeni-born woman - one of bin Laden's three wives currently being interrogated in Pakistan - did not say whether the al Qaeda leader had also been living there since 2006.

UN human rights investigators have called on the US to disclose the full facts surrounding bin Laden's death, in particular whether there had been any plan to capture him.

They said in certain exceptional cases deadly force may be used in "operations against terrorists" but "the norm should be that terrorists be dealt with as criminals, through legal processes of arrest, trial and judicially-decided punishment".


Bin Laden was unarmed when shot in the head by US commandos.

The White House's shifting story of the attack has raised doubts about US assurances that special operations forces were prepared to take him alive.

An opinion poll of more than 5,000 people surveyed in Pakistan shows that 66% of respondents do not believe that the person killed by US Special Forces was bin Laden.

The YouGov poll adds that three-quarters disapprove of the US operation and over half think it will result in "further violence against the US".

In New York on Thursday, US President Barack Obama visited Ground Zero to honour those killed in the attacks on the Twin Towers.

Today, Mr Obama will travel to the Fort Campbell US army base in Kentucky to meet members of the Navy Seal team that were involved in the operation.
...

Isn't the parrot a candidate for Bin Laden's job with freddiefewbrains as his spin doctor ?

Britain will be targeted for a bombing during the 2012 Olympic Games imho.

Fred, your comment 'There are stun guns etc. which could have rendered BL unconscious and carried out.' i now just plain silly.

The last thing I want to be worrying about when flying into such a dangerous and unknown situation would be 'Did I put my stun gun on charge last night?' I would simply want to get in, do the job and get out alive with minimal risk to the team.

Yeh and give them their own passport

apart from the actual logistics of getting BL out of pakistan in one piece, there would then be huge problems in all sports of ways (just think about it) in keeping him alive and safe and putting him on trial and so on all the way down the line

morally, it was probably wrong to shoot him, but i'm sure it was actually much the best and least risky solution for the rest of the world ..... the end assuredly justified the means