Liberal Justice Stevens: Bin Laden Hit Was Justified, Legal

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens considers the killing of Osama bin Laden justified and legal, the Washington Wire blog of The Wall Street Journal reports. Stevens, a liberal jurist who wrote opinions upholding the rights of Guantanamo detainees, affirmed the lethal U.S. raid’s legality during remarks at a Northwestern University law symposium dinner Thursday in Chicago.

Retired Justice John Paul Stevens: Appropriate to remove enemy trying to attack U.S. (Getty Images Photo)

An attendee the Journal interviewed quoted Stevens as saying that the covert raid on the Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound where bin Laden lived was “to remove an enemy who had been trying every day to attack the United States.”

“I have not the slightest doubt that it was entirely appropriate for U.S. forces to do,” Stevens said.

Stevens said is “proud” of the Navy SEALs team that carried out the raid and of President Barack Obama for authorizing the operation.