"After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden, and took custody of his body."

Robert Chesney
Sunday, May 1, 2011, 11:43 PM
So stated the President just now.  I would be extraordinarily surprised if anyone serious raised a legal objection to this [UPDATE: Or will some argue that the CIA, as opposed to the military, cannot lawfully carry out such operations? Of course, it may turn out that CIA provided the intel, and JSOC provided the trigger-pullers...]

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

So stated the President just now.  I would be extraordinarily surprised if anyone serious raised a legal objection to this [UPDATE: Or will some argue that the CIA, as opposed to the military, cannot lawfully carry out such operations? Of course, it may turn out that CIA provided the intel, and JSOC provided the trigger-pullers...]

Robert (Bobby) Chesney is the Dean of the University of Texas School of Law, where he also holds the James A. Baker III Chair in the Rule of Law and World Affairs at UT. He is known internationally for his scholarship relating both to cybersecurity and national security. He is a co-founder of Lawfare, the nation’s leading online source for analysis of national security legal issues, and he co-hosts the popular show The National Security Law Podcast.

Subscribe to Lawfare