Yes, the US Congress has authorised the use of military force against al Qaeda. That might absolve the US military forces of domestic liability for their actions.
But what absolves the US of its liability to the people of Yemen for the infringement of Yemeni sovereignty and the deaths of and injuries to innocent civilians or the damage to property?
What if Badawi had been in England, or Italy, or New Zealand? Would it have been right for the US to launch a drone strike then? If it is not right in those places, why is Yemen any different?
The US is at war with al Qaeda, not with Yemen. Yemen was not offering support for Badawi - he was an escaped prisoner there.
If I can't explain or justify the lawfulness of the US drone strike - despite having a higher degree in international law from a western University and more than 30 years background working with western military and law enforcement - then what hope does the local Yemeni Imam have in convincing the angry youths of his mosque not to retaliate against the US in response to this attack?
The US needs to study the ancient Greek myth of the Hydra.
1
As I read the preponderance of “bleeding heart” comments below, I found myself wondering if high schools and colleges no longer teach the concepts of “national security”. Stop worrying about the world’s citizens. I guarantee you they’re not worrying about you.
2
As others have noted, that this strike is part of the U.S. anti-AQAP operation, which is separate from our refueling/"targeting" support of the Saudi/UAE coalition that intervened in the Yemeni civil war in March 2015 on the side of the former government.
It is very important for Americans to understand, however, that this strike happened in Marib province, which is under the control of pro-former government tribes and aligned with the Saudi/UAE coalition.
Think about that - a senior Al Qaeda operative, accused of plotting the Cole bombing, was freely moving about territory under the control of the Saudis. The strike did not occur in provinces with a long-time AQAP presence such as al-Bayda or Hadramout.
Shocking, I know, that our Saudi/UAE "allies" would be harboring a senior AQAP operative responsible for the deaths of American sailors.
Your tax dollars at work.
He who lives by the sword will die by the sword. We don't live in a world where everyone behaves in a civilized, moral manner. The attack on the USS Cole was a cowardly, dastardly, and premeditated attack: we should show just as much justice and compassion to those who visited death and destruction upon us.
1
He was a terrorist who killed Americans. It's good that he's dead. It's not all that complicated.
2
You don't actually know that he was a terrorist who killed Americans, do you? In fact, all you know is that intelligence agencies have *accused* him.
Would you also be comfortable with other countries using air strikes to kill, without trial, Americans who, according to *their* intelligence agencies, had killed their citizens?
How is it the US can fly over a sovereign country and start bombing its citizens? The US is the terrorist in this case. (And many others.)
2
“Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole" from Donald Trump in describing the death of Jamal al-Badawi sounds a lot like a banana republic dictator puffing up his bloated strongman image. America's military honor and accomplishments speak for themselves. They need no artificial boasting, only make-believe pretenders need recourse to such crass tactics.
Well, we spent $1,000,000 and we got one guy. And if someone tipped us off, the informant got $5,000,000 unless Trump stiffed him.
1
I shed no tears.
1
I'm guessing that will create another 1,000 terrorists. Imagine the good we could do with a little charity.
2
A good friend of mine lost three of his fellow bunk mates in that terrorist attack. He now wears their dog tags around his neck in their memory.
1
If Donald Trump’s heel spur wasn’t bothering him that much, he might have tried out the path of finding people who do evil, and getting rid of those people in the interest of the public good.
But DT doesn’t know much of specific moral good vs evil. He rather sees life as a contest of accumulation of visually attractive belongings, neglecting actual productivity or contribution to society with any significant personal creativity.
He is neglectful of being a serious American leader. His currency at the moment is ironically the other party’s investment’s proclaimed dividends. Hear him now thank our military for accomplishing a task that involved the disciplined behaviors of thousands of government employees who preceded him. Oh yes let’s keep the government shut down, so that we can continue to find criminals against our military. This is not making sense.
Is “The Donald” Making No Sense ?
Or have we stopped asking that question ?
Do we recall twenty years ago we joked about this guy as a not- very-serious guy ?
Has he changed much ?
A commenter pointed out that Marib Province is controlled by forces loyal to Saudi Arabia and the Saudi's could have turned him over to us. This would have been preferable so that Badawi could have been put on trial. Being judge, jury and executioner is not how we carry out justice.
>>> "Being judge, jury and executioner is not how we carry out justice."
Sadly, actually, it is. At least, we *claim* that our extrajudicial killings are "just."
You would think Trump would avoiding touting military accomplishments in Yemen while he is aggressively and chaotically trying to eliminate US military involvement throughout the entire Middle East. Jamal al-Badawi isn't exactly a "mission accomplished" moment. The thoughtful citizen would probably wonder "Who else is still wandering out there? Why are troops leaving if we're still killing terrorists from two decades ago?" At least, that's what I'm asking myself. I thought Badawi was still in prison.
2
Part of me wants to revel in the destruction of a terrorist. Revenge is sweet!
The other part of me wants to know how this is going to ameliorate the situation. Does killing bin Laden or this guy really accomplish much beyond populist retribution? We've created a couple of martyrs, and their memory will help recruit more terrorists.
Instead of playing tit-for-tat, we should be trying to understand and counter the forces that drive the terrorist mentality. In the minds of these people, we are the bad guys and they are fighting a valiant struggle against anti-Muslim hegemony. Do we really think we're going to blunt that kind of thinking with another assassination?
We should encourage women to run the world. Maybe the thinking might be more nuanced?
7
This was about justice, period. And, yes, my guess is that Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher would have done the same.
Like Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher etc...
@Bill McGrath
Say what?
Let me ponder this- a suicide attack by the enemy ( killing innocents) is a "cowardly attack". But, a drone strike by our forces ( killing innocents) is a brave and wonderful thing. I see the distinction - one is us and the other is "them" . Make perfect sense , seen that way.
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@jack8254
Our drone strike killed an animal intent on killing more innocents. The Islamic Extremists want to pervert their religion under guise of justifying the killing of innocents.
While those self-declared morally pure may decry the killing of those that would do us harm, I contend this is the morally right thing to do. It is unfortunate that evil finds sanctuary in the sanctimonious ideology of the left.
It may be best just to stay in your safe spaces on campus and let the adults maintain your freedom for you.
“The bombing foreshadowed the even deadlier attacks by Al Qaeda in Washington and New York on Sept. 11, 2001.”
We wouldn’t want anyone to be able to openly state what the motivations were for the September 11 attacks, would we?
Manipulating the masses just isn’t the same when you know that there’s another side to the story.
4
Well, Mr. President, perhaps we need a wall in Yemen too?
1
When are we going to investigate the attack on the USS Liberty?
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@John Taylor
It has been investigated but I am sure you know that. Don't let facts get in your way John.
Thank you bringing up the USS Liberty.
1
Score another one for Team America...
1
This is the sort of special ops win we used to hear about seemingly on a weekly basis during Obama's years... I don't know if it's Trump's failure to manage or his failure to communicate but something has changed.
If Mr. Badawi did participate in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, then justice was served. However, the timing and manner of his death suggests a political motivation. It comes at a time when there is intense pressure for the United States to distance itself from the Saudi Government, to stop arms sales to them, and to de-escalate the conflict in Yemen.
3
I find no joy nor jubilation in the man accused of plotting the 2000 bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole was killed by an American airstrike. While his death will not bring back the lives stolen from those 17 sailors or their families and loved ones, at the very least justice has been rendered and some sense of satisfaction has been met. I'm sure these words have little if any comfort for those who were directly impacted by this attack. Even though it took 18 years to accomplish this mission, I am grateful that the U.S. military did not forget nor fail in this directive.
5
>>> ". . . at the very least justice has been rendered and some sense of satisfaction has been met."
Only if you think execution of a suspect without trial is "justice" and find satisfaction in using an air strike to administer it.
Doesn't seem much like civilized behavior, to me.
1
@Douglas
I understand your perspective Douglas, however, is the bombing of a Navy destroyer without any prior warning resulting in the deaths of 17 sailors and wounding 39 others any more or less civilized behavior?
It seems that Marib Province is controlled by forces loyal to Saudi Arabia. Saudi's could have turned him over to us. Why are we spending billions of dollars to assist the Saudi Bombing of Yamen, if the Saudi's are harboring our enemies?
5
It didn't take long -- or take much -- to make extrajudicial killing of "suspects" standard operating procedure with wide acceptance among Americans, did it? Just a couple of presidential administrations.
Is this who we are? Yes, it is, and most of us appear to be untroubled.
7
These troubling extra-judicial killings are always responsible for unjustifiable "collateral murder."
2
Tangentially related, but the inability to stop the Cole bombing, after an initial attempt was unsuccessful after the terrorist boat literally SANK because it was so laden with explosives, is infuriating.
I highly highly recommend reading Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars" for a tale of our Middle Eastern misadventures.
The utter hubris and silo'd thinking of the CIA that led to Bin Laden's rise in the 1980s still, even nearly 20 years after 9/11, makes me angry beyond reason.
Good riddance to Badawi and his ilk. Hopefully we get out of the region and do less to encourage any more of his compatriots.
4
By most legal standards, this would be considered an extrajudicial execution of a suspect without a trial. But to be fair, the only proof that this even happened consists of a few tweets from the US military and the President. If this is good enough for the author, who simply updates us on what people are saying on twitter rather than doing his due diligence, then I suppose it's good enough for the American public.
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@Diego It is not good enough for me. If Jamal al-Badawi was implicated in the USS Cole attack, it is incumbent on a society based on the rule of law to attempt to bring him into a courtroom. There, he should and must have had a scrupulously fair trial in accordance with the law.
As a retired United States Navy sailor I have no use for any one who attacks a United States Navy ship. However we must do these prosecutions by the book, in accordance with the law.
This is not to protect the likes of al-Badawi. This is to protect all the rest of us. In a nation of laws, where the law is supreme, all have rights. Every one. Abrogate that concept at your peril.
7
@Diego, in what world is this person a civilian, and in what world do we give the enemy trials before lawful military operations against them? As a top ranking member of an armed group - al Qaeda - which the Congress has explicitly authorized use of force against, he qualifies as someone with continuous combatant function and is therefore a lawful target anywhere and at any time by any military at war with al Qaeda.
That is not at all an extrajudicial execution, but a lawful military operation.
(under both U.S. law and under the ICRC Guidance on civilian DPH, which summarizes customary and statutory law current for dealing with armed groups like al Qaeda).
People who no matter what try to paint any and all military operations as unlawful are either ignorant of the law, ignorant of the context, especially when the group is exactly that which attacked on September 11th and for which Congress authorized all necessary military force.
3
@Diego
This is not a criminal trial, this is a military situation.
Here is a quick note from Wikipedia:
"An enemy combatant is a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, directly engages in hostilities for an enemy state or non-state actor in an armed conflict.Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an insurrection the term "enemy state" may be replaced by the more general term "Party to the conflict" (as described in the 1949 Geneva Conventions Article 3)"
2
Since Trump doesnt believe his own intelligence agencies when he doesnt want to why should we believe this? Trump lies all the time so why should we believe this? Its possible that some senior intelligence officer just made this all up out of thin air in order to get promoted. Even former Mayor Guiliani said that "the truth is not the truth".
12
I suggest that we offer any remnants of Al Qaeda amnesty in return for their appearing in public and renouncing terrorism. First of all, if some accept the amnesty, it will narrow down the ones remaining to be captured/killed. Secondly, if they all accept amnesty, we can stop spending billions of dollars and thousands of man-hours of intelligence searching for these people, and we can instead dedicate some of those resources towards our real threats: China, Russia, and North Korea. Our nation has a lot better things to do with its resources than to hunt down a bunch of has-been's.
5
Imagine your suggestion if ISIS wrote it, for example:
'I suggest that we offer any remnants of the US Army in Syria amnesty in return for their appearing in public and renouncing democracy.'
How many Americans would do that? I think it would be the same on the other side.
1
@Sal Fladabosco
The answer to the unasked question is always "No".
It didn't show the world "Our GREAT MILITARY" by just selling Saudis the bombs and refueling their planes to bomb and starve the children of Yemen. Now I guess we can just bomb whoever we like so no one dare question or dare call us what we are, an evil empire, led by a deplorable man that we elected. And the US is our evil empire, we own it. But why am I surprised? We owned the evil of indigenous genocide, slavery and nuking civilians.
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@Newell McCarty
Actually it is the State Department that approves foreign sales of arms , not the DoD.
1
Assassination as revenge , used as judge jury and executioner, by Americas CONSTITUTIONAL Democracy to mete out justice.........20 years after a ,virtually, untraceable and unverifiable HATE crime against the US...........This is NOT POLICY of American origin !!!
4
I agree with most of the posters here ie technically a just thing but it would not have been necessary if we did not get involved in the region in the first place resulting in untold death and destruction.
Also in past administrations, notably Obama, when under his watch Bin Laden was killed, you had some faith it was true.
In the chaos now in the Pentagon, who knows what really happened.
17
Sounds like misinformation meant to justify US aid to Saudis. And to counter the accidental killing of civilians in Yemen.
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Guilty until proven innocent! What have we become? Also what about the justice for the cowardly attack on the USS Liberty?
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@Keystone
It is rather sad how few people remember the USS Liberty, and the preposterous excuses given for the attack.
3
I'd love to hear President Trump's explanation for calling the attack on the Cole cowardly: the guys that did that explicitly gave their lives, the guys that bombed him risked a good bit, but protected by millions of dollars of training, equipment, and support, and the guy who tweeted has never done a brave thing in his life, to my knowledge.
And I agree with the general sentiment here: we are bombing in Yemen? Only someone stupid could imagine that forcing an unprecedented percentage of our GDP into weapons of mass destruction (which fighter planes and missiles absolutely are) is actually making us safer...that and my favorite new meme: Fake Christians, people who forget all about turn the other cheek, drive the usurers out of the temple, and live by the sword dire by the sword, but remember to vote for anyone who sells build a wall and reverse Roe vs Wade
20
So does this feel good story make up for cutting and running from ISIS in Syria? does if help Trump justify assisting with deaths of civilians in Yemen?
And why was al Queda not attacked before 9-11 if US knew it had attacked a military target?
Maybe the press and historians will ask that hard question.
2
@LVG ISIS lives in the Middle East. If we pull out, by a certain deadline or not, they will just re-enter Syria. The only solution is permanent occupation.
@LVG It is actually an easy question. As you apparently have forgotten or not researched, although the Clinton and Bush administrations did not do nearly enough to attack al Qaeda pre-9/11, Clinton did launch 2 cruise missile strikes against suspected Al Qaeda targets, only to be attacked by the far left and right for attempting to divert attention from his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
You should also bear in mind that finding Al Qaeda targets is not as easy as locating a target in an actual country.
7
@nhhiker
with your family and dollars, not mine.
1
Due process under Trump: We think we killed the suspected plotter of an attack almost a quarter century ago. Any collateral damage...say a child or two?
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Often wondered where Bin Laden's, Egyptian Doctor side kick is, and of course the ISIS leader. Who we at one time had in the slammer.
3
So, this justifies all of the innocents that have either died directly or indirectly from our support of this war?
7
What about the plotters of the invasion of Iraq? When do they get brought to justice? This unprovoked attack resulted in more innocent civilian deaths than any other comparable recent action.
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@Xoxarle Yes. It's estimated that a half million innocents were killed and untold injured and lives ruined, plus, of course, all the military casualties on both sides. The crime of the century. So far.
2
This operation appears to be part of Operation Yukon Journey, a classified operation ostensibly intended to provide, according to Robert Karem, assistant secretary of international security affairs for the Pentagon, about 50 U.S. military personnel to assist the Saudi military with "pilot advising, refueling and intelligence".
In reality, these airstrikes in Yemen are much more than the rather benign description of involvement offered to Congress, they in fact appear to be deceptive.
It's not as if disclosing US military operations in Yemen would have endangered military personnel, it's obviously known there, but it would have endangered the fiction offered by DOD as to their true purpose thereby avoiding oversight.
This is all so reminiscent of the "secret" war in Laos during the Vietnam War.
22
@GerardM, your post sounds very informed and throws around a lot of mission names and terms in an effort to equate this with the secret war in Laos. But this is actually much simpler. It has nothing to do with the Saudi war in Yemen, it's the U.S. war against al Qaeda, which Congress authorized in 2001. The person killed was a high level al Qaeda militant, such people have continuous combat function, the operation is both legal internationally, legal nationally, and a lawful use of military force.
If you want to debate whether we should still be at war with al Qaeda, or whether such tactics are useful, or whether its time to end the war, that's a possibility. But throwing around a lot of security sounding jargon to try to pretend that something secret or unlawful is going on is just junk.
1
Revenge on terrorists may make one feel good, but curing the cause of terrorists would be more profitable. Edmund Walsh, the founder of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University published "Total Power" in 1948 after his service at the Nuremberg trials. He noted that economic inequality and desperation are the root causes. People who have nothing to lose can be mobilized for terrorism to express their frustration and desperation.
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@John Franz
As David Halbestram noted in his "The Best and the Brightest" Father Edmund Walsh, a Jesuit, was also a fervent anti-communist and reportedly influenced the thinking of the Jesuit-educated Senator Joseph
McCarthy encouraging him to undertake a
crusade against ‘known communists’ in the US government.
As to "economic inequality and desperation" being a root cause of terrorism, that may be true in some cases. but it sure wasn't of the 9/11 terrorists, including bin Laden, who all came from comfortable to wealthy backgrounds.
12
@John Franz
Short of establishing a caliphate and destroying Israel, they won't be satisfied.
12
Yemeni
This guy .... almost 20 years ago was indicted.
We cannot use this kill as a reason for genocide in Yemeni.
America should help Yemeni
We r not and this isn’t an excuse to rejoice that we used our weapons in this forlorn country.
9
Actually, we should be proud of doing what needed to be done and finally catching up with this guy.
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@Tom Schwartz
At what cost to the people living in Yemen?
3
@Tom Schwartz: "Proud"? How sad, if not pathetic, that America would take pride in an extrajudicial killing of any suspected criminal. So much for America's vaunted "rule of law" nonsense. We follow rules and legal norms only when they suit our interests, whether they are personal or national, economic or military. The hypocrisy and deceit that frequently dishonor the actions and inaction of our elected and non-elected leaders, policy-makers, and decision-makers are hardly matters in which we should take pride.
For better or worse, America seems to have taken on the role of the world's secular God, in that like the alleged divine version, it's role is to serve as the judge, jury and executioner of those the USA considers to be terrorists and/or other miscreants insofar as concerns our economic and military interests. Thus, concepts such as "due process" and "justice" have no relevance whenever America exercises this role, as in the case of Mr. al-Badawi. While this should be shocking in any nation with a constitution that protects due process rights and promotes justice, Americans learned long ago to ignore and circumvent their own Constitution when it suits their interests to do so.
2
Since when are we bombing in Yemen? Is there Congressional authority?
23
@R Bailey The US has been active in various offensive covert counterterrorism operations in Yemen for some years. This is not directly connected with the Saudi / Houthi civil war in Yemen, in which the US is providing support for the Saudi side rather than being involved directly in active operations. If I’m right here, the Times should have made this clearer in its report.
8
@R Bailey Yemen is a failed state, so there's no one to tell us we can't.
All CENTCOM needs is authorization from the Commander-in-Chief. And for good reason. If every airstrike had to be authorized by committee, nothing would get done.
@R Bailey, there has been Congressional authority since October 2001 for attacking and destroying al Qaeda.
Ah yes, I feel better now!
I guess this airstrike makes up for the school the US bombed in Syria and killed a bunch of children in an airstrike a year or so ago.
And, ah yes, I guess this makes up for the group of 12 year old boys gathering wood outside a village in Afghanistan that were gunned down by an American helicopter's .50 caliber machine gun.
And, for sure, this must make up for the thousands and thousands and thousands of civilian Iraqi's, Afghani's and Syrian that the US has sponsored death and destruction on for 17 years.
I think this also makes up for the conversion of a bunch of ancient, beautiful cities into rubble. For sure!!
I feel so much better now having read that somebody that we are not even sure actually bombed that destroyer is now dead in American air strike.
48
You’re thinking of Russian actions, Michael.
7
Syria??? The civilian deaths there are the fault of the US??? Any deaths there are solely the fault of the county's dictator.
12
@Tom Schwartz This is correct. Almost all of the death and destruction in Syria can be attributed to Bashar al-Assad and Putin.