Ahmadi-nejad said he was not speculating, but had proof. “We have precise information that they killed him, not as a move in the fight against terrorism, but to feed the propaganda mill inside American society to win votes in the elections,” Ahmadi-nejad said. He seemed to think the presidential elections were this year, instead of next year, 19 months away.
Ahmadi-nejad’s comments contradicted the remarks last week of Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi, who said he had proof that bin Laden actually died “long ago” of a natural illness.
Ahmadi-nejad, however, said Iran had proof that bin Laden had been captured “long” ago by the US military. He didn’t say why the Americans would hide the fact they had captured bin Laden.
Mohammad-Javad Larijani, the chief of human rights for the Judiciary, said the Americans had violated international law by killing bin Laden in a “unilateral execution.”
Larijani said, “This is banned by international law. It is against fairness and justice. Even the most notorious terrorist should be put on trial. He should have a fair trial, a way to defend himself.”
There is no such international law saying that suspects cannot be killed. Iran has often killed suspects resisting arrest by Iranian authorities.
Larijani repeated the state mantra that the United States supported Al-Qaeda for years before the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001.
Larijani said, “No country in the world should put itself in the position to interrogate a person, to indict a person to pass judgment and to put it into action unilaterally.” He did not mention that Iranian officials have threatened on multiple occasion to send troops into Pakistan unilaterally to pursue members of the Baluchi Jundollah rebel band.
Ahmadi-nejad was speaking to an anti-terrorism conference convened in Iran. He charged that the Americans have gone beyond the terrorism of bombs and guns and were now engaging in economic terrorism as well.
He said Africa and Latin American are wealthy but suffer from backwardness as “the West plunders their assets.”
He said Obama was trying to cover gaps in his budget by printing “worthless dollars.” He said, “America is trying to plug its ballooning budget deficits from the pockets of other nations.” He has been using this theme frequently in speeches this past month. He has not yet explained how inflating the American dollar by printing more currency would harm mainly foreign holders of the dollar when Americans hold 90 percent of the world’s dollars.