Tag Archives: osama bin laden

Mark Wright

Tim Farron is right: Osama Bin Laden’s death was not a tragedy

By Mark Wright | Tue 1st September 2015 - 3:41 pm

Tim Farron was widely quoted on Monday, for perhaps the first time since his election as leader. The good news is that he was correct in his point. He was responding to a resurfaced quote from Labour leadership favourite, Jeremy Corbyn, who has said to Iranian TV that Bin Laden’s death was “a tragedy”, as it was unlawful and he should have been put on trial instead.

That the killing of Bin Laden was illegal has been a favourite proposition of the Galloway-ite hard left, so it isn’t a surprise to see them jump up and defend Corbyn. But I was surprised to see a few serious liberals, including Paddy Ashdown in the past, also voice this and criticise Tim for his intervention.

Their premise is that Bin Laden was a common criminal, and thus “due process” should have been followed, with him legally arrested and brought to trial. But this view is based on a foundation that is both legally dubious, and naive in practicability.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 86 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s statement on the death of Osama Bin Laden

By Helen Duffett | Mon 2nd May 2011 - 10:50 am

Nick Clegg has issued a statement on the death of Osama Bin Laden, who was killed in a US operation in Pakistan last night.

From the Deputy Prime Minister’s website:

There will be a great sense of relief today that Osama Bin Laden, a man who wrought so much destruction and who spread such a vile, hate filled ideology, can no longer do so.

This successful US operation is a major step forward and a serious blow to Al Qaeda but it does not mean that the struggle against terrorism is over. We will all need to continue to be as vigilant

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

Deraa, not Abbottabad, is where the future is being shaped

By Mark Pack | Mon 2nd May 2011 - 10:49 am

The death of Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad has triggered a wave of speculation about what it may mean for the future of Al-Qaeda and international terrorism.

Leafing through the history of other terrorists movements, by far the most likely answer is “not much” for the death of one key individual rarely causes terrorist organisations or networks to collapse. Moreoever, in Al-Qaeda’s case it is a much more decentralised network than other groupings which survived the death of one or more key individuals.

More relevant are the continuing protests in Deraa and elsewhere in Syria. For the Syria government has been, alongside …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

How to defeat Al Qaeda

By Mark Pack | Wed 10th November 2010 - 8:55 am

The cover of Bruce Riedel’s The Search for Al Qaeda shows a group of armed men working their way up a hillside overlooking a beautiful valley that stretches away to rolling hills. It captures the wonder and the tragedy of Afghanistan in one frame.

The book itself is similarly crisp, packing a wide-ranging history of Al Qaeda and its key figures into only 150 pages of moderate size print. It is penned by an ex-CIA man of thirty years service who was frequently closely involved with the figures and events painted in the book, but not so closely as to make the reader fear it is more a justification of his career than a fair account of events.

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Posted in Books and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 3 Comments
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