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Obama Wants Nuremberg Trial for bin Laden

Plan to avoid making terrorist a martyr, and US an outlaw

By Sam Biddle, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 19, 2008 7:10 AM CDT

(Newser) – Barack Obama would use the post-war Nazi war crime trials at Nuremberg as a model for bringing Osama bin Laden to justice, to avoid making him into a martyr, the Boston Globe reports. Obama described the plan at a news conference after meetings with his freshly formed group of national security advisers, which includes three members of Bill Clinton's cabinet—Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, and William Perry.

Obama explained the proposal as "a way that allows the entire world to understand the murderous acts that he's engaged in and not to make him into a martyr and to assure that the United States government is abiding by the basic conventions that would strengthen our hand in the broader battle against terrorism."

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., talks with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during a foreign affairs round table discussion in Washington Wednesday, June 18, 2008.... (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., wants a Nuremberg-style trial for Osama bin Laden if he is captured alive, June 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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Obama Wants Nuremberg Trial for bin Laden

Plan to avoid making terrorist a martyr, and US an outlaw

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