Noam Chomsky Calls Bin Laden ‘Unarmed Victim,‘ Says He Deserved ’Fair Trial’

According to “philosopher” and “cognitive scientist” Noam Chomsky, U.S. leaders violated international law in their pursuit and subsequent assassination of Osama bin Laden.  In a piece for Guernica, Chomsky wrote:

It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial.

Like Michael Moore, Chomsky clearly believes that bin Laden – an “unarmed victim” – deserved a “fair trial.”  Bizarrely, Chomsky identifies Osama and the others who perished alongside him as mere “suspects,” as he claims that the U.S. has never furnished the proper evidence needed to definitively pin the terror attacks on bin Laden and his cohorts.

Chomsky seems to believe that bin Laden’s involvement in Sept. 11 is unsubstantiated, but we’ve known about bin Laden’s fatwa (declaration of war) against America since at least 1996.  And, in a 2004 video release, bin Laden, himself, took credit for his involvement in the attacks.

But, it gets worse.  According to Chomsky, George W. Bush’s crimes “uncontroversially…exceed bin Laden’s.”  As if this absurd assertion weren’t enough, Chomsky also attempts to gain reader sympathy for the Pakistani government:

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic.

This comparison is perplexing, considering the fact that bin Laden was a wanted fugitive who has never been considered a national leader in Pakistan.  George W. Bush was an American president.  The idea that the Bush assassination he outlined mirrors, in the slightest, bin Laden being found and rightfully murdered in his non-native Pakistan is a tough sell (and a terrible analogy).  If protecting one's nation is a crime, then labeling George W. Bush "guilty" is certainly appropriate.

You can read Chomsky’s piece in full here.