Fidel Castro: Bin Laden's Killing 'Abhorrent'
Cuban leader Fidel Castro called the death of Osama bin Laden an "abhorrent" assassination, warning in an article Thursday that it would reap "hatred and vengeance" against the United States.
"Whatever actions may have been attributed to bin Laden, the assassination of an unarmed human being surrounded by his family constitutes an abhorrent act," he said, writing in the Cuban press.
Castro, the revolutionary icon who led the island nation for decades, warned that after an initial period of euphoria, the U.S. public would wind up criticizing the use of methods that "far from protecting citizens, ends up multiplying the feelings of hatred and vengeance against them."
"Assassinating him and sending him to the depths of the sea shows fear and insecurity, (and) turns him into a much more dangerous figure," he said of Bin Laden.
The mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States was shot dead early Monday by U.S. commandos in a daring raid on his hideout deep inside Pakistan.
After initially saying bin Laden was armed when he was shot, U.S. officials have since corrected their initial account to say he was unarmed but resisting when a U.S. Navy SEAL team shot him in the head and chest.
His Yemeni wife was shot in the leg, while three other men and a woman were killed in the lightning raid, which lasted less than 40 minutes and was carried out without the knowledge of the Pakistani government.
Castro, 84, said U.S. President Barack Obama "has no way to hide the fact that Osama was executed in the presence of his children and wives."
"How will he prevent the women and children of the person who was executed extra-legally and without trial from explaining what happened?" he asked.
Source: Agence France Presse
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