WAS KILLING OF OSAMA BIN LADEN LEGAL UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW?

Since the death of Osama bin Laden Sunday, administration officials have repeatedly said that the task to kill him complied with domestic and international law. "Let me make something very clear," Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress on Wednesday, "the operation in which Osama bin Laden was killed was legalized. He was the head of al Qaeda, an organization that conducted the attacks of Sept. 11. He admitted his involvement."

But as new details of the operation emerge, and some Pakistani leaders protest the U.S. incursion into their state, legal experts say the administration must more forcefully lay out its case. Law lecturer Kenneth Anderson, who specializes in legal issues related to war and terrorism, said that differing management accounts as to whether bin Laden was armed or invite to surrender or even involved in a firefight have muddled the legal discuss and left the administration open to international criticism.

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