It is not true that Pakistan has not objected. It voiced its deep concern. But it the intergovernmental agreement was still validly in force that is a red herring.

ASSUMING that someone is a combatant is not a valid logical step.

If the killing needed to be lawful under international law (which I assert it did need to be as otherwise there is anarchy and rule by might) then the distinction or otherwise made by Islamic law between on the one hand a politician or religious leader or on the other hand a combatant is not in point any more than US law. It is the international law on the point that matters, and we have not got the evidence yet.

My concern was and to some extent still is the potential for US hegemony to move into brute force domination. I require my fate to be determined by English law, not John Wayne cultural imperialism.

GFS, I am not sure you have got my drift - and alternatively I am not sure of your expertise on some things.

I think we see eye to eye on ObL's potential status as apostate.

If the present US accounts of the death are accurate, was that a battlefield death for Islamic purposes or not? The importance of the question is that apparently the ceremony carried out before the burial at sea was one that was not for a battlefield death - which in turn somewhat undermines the US justification for the shooting - but more importantly that it was incorrect in Islamic law should have been followed.   Civilised countries do not defile the bodies of their fallen opponents.

I am clear (from the internet) that Islam permits in some cases and in some ways burial at sea. Two questions follow.

First, was this a case in which Islamic law permitted burial at sea? If not, then as a matter of Islamic ritual there was a defilement.

Second, if Islamic law permitted this burial at sea, were the requirements - eg lowering on a rope, use of a clay vessel, attempts to circumvent predation etc - followed.

I suspect we need an Islamic scholar to examine these things if we want to know the answers. Some, I suspect, simply don't want to know.