Thank god lawyers had no say in this one; if they did,the US taxpayer could be forced to fund Bin Laden's case, a New York legal firm could get rich defending a mass murderer, Jeffrey Robinson would get his head on TV on innumerable occasions using his legal standing to assert some kind of moral high ground, and, worst of all, Bin Laden could escape conviction.

In addition, stories of his maltreatment in captivity would likely emerge, oddball legal people would volunteer their services and appear on the ABC as 'experts', and, in the blink of an eye, BL would become some kind of heroic victim and the Americans would be portrayed the villains yet again by his supporters and the political Left.

Justice doesn't always require Lawyers.

Lawyers are always looking to stir the pot. Judged by the International Law regarding to Armed Conflict (which applies to American Forces - but not ours "apparently" - we are to be held to a much higher duty of care), the SEALS acted appropriately. They were confronted with a person they recognised as the leader of a group of suicide bombers. How precisely were they to ascertain he was not armed? If he'd been equipped with a bomb, everyone in the room would have died... Immediate action was called for (based on the evidence to hand) and the indicated deadly force used. Simple.

Soooo... the fake Bin Ladens have been pensioned off by the fakers in the Pentagon, the fakers in the Whitehouse and the fakers in the US State Department.

What hurts me though is the way in which our fawning federal politicians are forced to give lip service to these myths.

It was just time to exorcise the ghost of Bin Laden in order to boost Obama and get the obvious theft of Libya's oil wealth off the front pages.

Such is life in the Empire.

Thank God criminal justice has been metered out on a mass murderer and a menace to human society.

Another thread of pointless navel gazing.

That Osama was an on going threat to many lives is not in question, neither is the fact that the seals had to fight their way into the compound, neither is the fact that they were expecting resistance from Osama himself, neither is the fact that the operation was well outside US jurisdiction and there was no time for negotiations.

Given this the decision to shoot Osama is justified unless the seal was ordered to not to take him prisoner. The information from the white house is that the seals were instructed to "capture or kill" this thread is pointless unless some evidence is provided to the contrary.

The American military seems to work on the principle of "The end justifies the means and to hell with the rule of law". As far as we can tell, in the matter of the assassination of Osama bin Laden, he had very little opportunity to surrender and the SEALs had orders to kill him anyway.

So much for the American justice system. God is on their side, that is all that matters.

David