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54% Of Japanese Think Bin Laden Should Have Been Arrested

A new Gallup International poll has asked people around the world about the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. According to the numbers posted by Kyodo News and the Economist, Japan stood out as a country where many people thought the United States should have arrested Bin Laden instead of gunning him down.

On a global basis, 42 percent of the respondents said they would have preferred to see bin Laden arrested rather than killed.

Slightly more than half of those surveyed said they felt sure that the man killed in the raid was the world’s most wanted person. Of the remainder, 22 percent believe that the operation was staged and 24 percent did not respond.

In Japan, 22 percent of respondents supported the killing, 10 percent opposed it and 1 percent had not heard of the news.

Percentage of people who think Osama Bin Laden should have been arrested rather than killed in last month’s raid in Pakistan:

Japan: 54%
Finland: 50%
Italy: 45%
Russia: 42%
America: 18%

{democracy:492}

[hat tip to Adamu]

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54 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 12, 2011 at 9:35 am

Categories: General Japan Tags:

Tony D

Considering I wasn’t there, I don’t really think I can vote in that sort of poll. “Should” and “could have been” are two very different things…
Tony D

Considering I wasn’t there, I don’t really think I can vote in that sort of poll. “Should” and “could have been” are two very different things…
Wardog Of Razgriz

Well it really depends if he was really there…
Guy

This photo is hilarious. Bin Laden sitting right behind tiny Obama, Kan sleeping right in front of tiny Obama, Edano looking bored…
Vernonreaper

haha 18% in usa. and america is the number #1 justice system.
Vernonreaper

haha 18% in usa. and america is the number #1 justice system.
Vernonreaper

haha 18% in usa. and america is the number #1 justice system.
http://profiles.google.com/bdowling Brendan Dowling

America’s justice system is probably the fairest and most generous to the accused in the world. Japan’s on the other hand, has something like a 99% conviction rate. Most accused criminals are pressured to confess until they break, so there is never a trial. A lawyer is not allowed during questioning. I think detainees can be held for something like 14 days without notifying any family or anything.

In Japan, I’m sure they could convict him. They’d force him to sign a confession in Japanese. And he’d be executed before anyone knew about it.

In America, he’d have the best celebrity lawyers and the trial would be dragged out for years.
http://profiles.google.com/bdowling Brendan Dowling

America’s justice system is probably the fairest and most generous to the accused in the world. Japan’s on the other hand, has something like a 99% conviction rate. Most accused criminals are pressured to confess until they break, so there is never a trial. A lawyer is not allowed during questioning. I think detainees can be held for something like 14 days without notifying any family or anything.

In Japan, I’m sure they could convict him. They’d force him to sign a confession in Japanese. And he’d be executed before anyone knew about it.

In America, he’d have the best celebrity lawyers and the trial would be dragged out for years.
http://profiles.google.com/bdowling Brendan Dowling

America’s justice system is probably the fairest and most generous to the accused in the world. Japan’s on the other hand, has something like a 99% conviction rate. Most accused criminals are pressured to confess until they break, so there is never a trial. A lawyer is not allowed during questioning. I think detainees can be held for something like 14 days without notifying any family or anything.

In Japan, I’m sure they could convict him. They’d force him to sign a confession in Japanese. And he’d be executed before anyone knew about it.

In America, he’d have the best celebrity lawyers and the trial would be dragged out for years.

http://www.billowykimono.com Senor Science

“America’s justice system is probably the fairest and most generous to the accused in the world.”

Not if you’re poor and/or a minority.
http://www.billowykimono.com Senor Science

“America’s justice system is probably the fairest and most generous to the accused in the world.”

Not if you’re poor and/or a minority.
Anonymous

If OBL is tried in America there won’t be any fair trial, considering his background during the Cold War, among other matters. No lawyer would want their names and reputation tarnished by defending an insurgent leader and an enemy of the state.

http://tepido.org LB

A hypothetical trial of OBL might not have been objectively “fair”, but it would have been far more fair than the judgment OBL passed on the victims of Al Qaeda. For that reason alone I would have really liked to have seen him in the dock. But skipping the trial and sentencing phases and going direct to the execution… I can live with that.

If he had gone on trial, it would have been a military court, so there would not have been any problem with ordering someone to represent him. Even in a civilian court, I am sure there would have been a volunteer legal team, if for no other reason than to show the world that even in the US, OBL would be represented by counsel.

Now, whether they would have actually tried to win…

Day-Bee-Toe

Japan’s on the other hand, has something like a 99% conviction rate.

Those (both Japanese and non-Japanese) who love to quote this number seem somehow they don’t realize its obvious implication: prosecutors do not prosecute a suspect unless they are 100% sure that s/he is guilty. This number do not mean that there are extremely many false conviction in Japan but it rather means that there are extremely many criminals who was not somehow prosecuted, convicted or punished.
Day-Bee-Toe

Japan’s on the other hand, has something like a 99% conviction rate.

Those (both Japanese and non-Japanese) who love to quote this number seem somehow they don’t realize its obvious implication: prosecutors do not prosecute a suspect unless they are 100% sure that s/he is guilty. This number do not mean that there are extremely many false conviction in Japan but it rather means that there are extremely many criminals who was not somehow prosecuted, convicted or punished.

joe

Guilt has nothing to do with anything here. Prosecutors only send up the cases they know they can win. Sign a confession and you are “guilty”, it doesn’t matter if the confession was forced.
joe

Guilt has nothing to do with anything here. Prosecutors only send up the cases they know they can win. Sign a confession and you are “guilty”, it doesn’t matter if the confession was forced.

Day-Bee-Toe

Okay, then leave from this Stalinist state where evil policemen and prosecutors rule. They will perhaps convict you for murder and sentence to death? If your story is true, it is the only rational consequence. Why do you insist to stay here?

Greg

God I love this line of argument. It’s the same BS we heard in the years following the September 11th, 2001 attacks in the United States. “Don’t like what the president and government are doing to your rights? Then move to France or Canada!”

When you actually care about your home country, you don’t leave whenever you find something you don’t like – you try to improve it.

yankdownunder

How do you know Joe is Japanese?

Greg

I don’t think I said anything about Joe being Japanese. If I implied it anywhere in my comment, it was a mistake or poor wording and should be ignored.
Greg

I don’t think I said anything about Joe being Japanese. If I implied it anywhere in my comment, it was a mistake or poor wording and should be ignored.

Day-Bee-Toe

It’s the same BS we heard in the years following the September 11th

No, it isn’t. Although many pseudo-liberals love to depict Japan as a Stalinist police state, in fact they know it isn’t despite of many problems in the jurdcial system. This is my point. I won’t live in North Korea. I won’t live in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Similarly, no foreigners wouldn’t live in Japan if the circumstance is so terrible. In other words, the joe doesn’t seriously believe what he is saying.

When you actually care about your home country, you don’t leave whenever
you find something you don’t like – you try to improve it.

Are you saying 脱北者 aren’t caring their home country?
Day-Bee-Toe

It’s the same BS we heard in the years following the September 11th

No, it isn’t. Although many pseudo-liberals love to depict Japan as a Stalinist police state, in fact they know it isn’t despite of many problems in the jurdcial system. This is my point. I won’t live in North Korea. I won’t live in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Similarly, no foreigners wouldn’t live in Japan if the circumstance is so terrible. In other words, the joe doesn’t seriously believe what he is saying.

When you actually care about your home country, you don’t leave whenever
you find something you don’t like – you try to improve it.

Are you saying 脱北者 aren’t caring their home country?

http://tepido.org LB

Signing a confession if you didn’t do the crime is a really bad idea anywhere, not just in Japan. Granted, you might have a better chance of proving that the confession was forced in some other countries, but I don’t know of anywhere on the planet where a claim after the fact of “I didn’t really do it, the confession I signed my name to was forced!” is going to be accepted without a lot of scrutiny.

Also, no-one even in Japan is convicted based on confession alone – there has to be corroborating evidence. There have been cases where the evidence has not been scrutinized too closely due to the fact that there was a confession, true. But it is also true there have been cases where there was circumstantial evidence but no confession (the Lucy Blackman case) and the defendant was not convicted.

Ponta

”America’s justice system is probably the fairest and most generous to the accused in the world”→
”The World Justice Project released its 2010 ‘Rule of Law Index’ ranking the top 11 developed countries based on its citizens’ access to civil justice. The US ranked the lowest.”（US justice system failing/Published: 15 October, 2010,/Russian Today） The World Justice 2010 ‘Rule of Law Index’PDFhttp://worldjusticeproject.com/sites/default/files/WJP%20Rule%20of%20Law%20Index%202010_0.pdf
JS

“America’s justice system is probably the fairest and most generous to the accused in the world. ”

I dunno, I think the prisoners (and their families) in Gitmo would have something to say about that.
JS

“America’s justice system is probably the fairest and most generous to the accused in the world. ”

I dunno, I think the prisoners (and their families) in Gitmo would have something to say about that.
Stereo

I think it is a typical American culture to say something as if it is true even when the speaker is not certain if it is true. Such behavior is called a lie outside the US.
“Most accused criminals are pressured to confess until they break, so there is never a trial.”
There is a trial even if the accused has confessed. In the trial, other evidence than the confession is required to convict the accused. The large number of confessed cases makes the conviction rate high in Japan. On the other hand, if you include the plea bargains, the conviction rate in the US is well above 90%. There is no plea bargain in Japan.
“A lawyer is not allowed during questioning.”
What do you mean by questioning?
“I think detainees can be held for something like 14 days without notifying any family or anything.”
Totally wrong. An arrested person can contact a lawyer at any time, who can inform the case to the family.
“In Japan, I’m sure they could convict him. They’d force him to sign a confession in Japanese.”
How? You sound quite absurd.
You say US government killed OBL, just because it is not confident he could be found guilty in the court. Your assumption makes it very clear that US judicial system is a joke.

http://profiles.google.com/bdowling Brendan Dowling

“Such behavior is called a lie outside the US.”
So, you’re calling me a liar? I believe everything I wrote is at least partially true. That’s at worst deceptive.

“What do you mean by questioning?”
Questioning is any conversation that has a question in it. You can also call it interviewing or interrogating.

“How? You sound quite absurd.”
Torture is one way to extract a confession. It’s been a Japanese institution in the past.

“…US government killed OBL, just because it is not confident he could be found guilty in the court. ”
OBL was a military target, not a criminal suspect. He was treated as such by the U.S. military. I do not believe confidence in the U.S. criminal justice system had anything to do with it. Gen. Hideki Tojo wasn’t tried in a civilian court either.

“… US judicial system is a joke.”
The U.S. judicial system regularly proves itself to be a joke. Take, for example, the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
http://profiles.google.com/bdowling Brendan Dowling

“Such behavior is called a lie outside the US.”
So, you’re calling me a liar? I believe everything I wrote is at least partially true. That’s at worst deceptive.

“What do you mean by questioning?”
Questioning is any conversation that has a question in it. You can also call it interviewing or interrogating.

“How? You sound quite absurd.”
Torture is one way to extract a confession. It’s been a Japanese institution in the past.

“…US government killed OBL, just because it is not confident he could be found guilty in the court. ”
OBL was a military target, not a criminal suspect. He was treated as such by the U.S. military. I do not believe confidence in the U.S. criminal justice system had anything to do with it. Gen. Hideki Tojo wasn’t tried in a civilian court either.

“… US judicial system is a joke.”
The U.S. judicial system regularly proves itself to be a joke. Take, for example, the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

“OBL was a military target, not a criminal suspect. ”
Tell that to the FBI.

“ Gen. Hideki Tojo wasn’t tried in a civilian court either. ”

Tojo couldn’t be tried in a civilian court because he did not actually break any U.S. or Japanese laws.

Bin Laden, on the other hand, was directly wanted by U.S. Federal law enforcement for specific crimes. (Murder of U.S. Nationals Outside the United States; Conspiracy to Murder U.S. Nationals Outside the United States; Attack on a Federal Facility Resulting in Death)
http://www.japanprobe.com James

“OBL was a military target, not a criminal suspect. ”
Tell that to the FBI.

“ Gen. Hideki Tojo wasn’t tried in a civilian court either. ”

Tojo couldn’t be tried in a civilian court because he did not actually break any U.S. or Japanese laws.

Bin Laden, on the other hand, was directly wanted by U.S. Federal law enforcement for specific crimes. (Murder of U.S. Nationals Outside the United States; Conspiracy to Murder U.S. Nationals Outside the United States; Attack on a Federal Facility Resulting in Death)

http://profiles.google.com/bdowling Brendan Dowling

“Such behavior is called a lie outside the US.”
So, you’re calling me a liar? I believe everything I wrote is at least partially true. That’s at worst deceptive.

“What do you mean by questioning?”
Questioning is any conversation that has a question in it. You can also call it interviewing or interrogating.

“How? You sound quite absurd.”
Torture is one way to extract a confession. It’s been a Japanese institution in the past.

“…US government killed OBL, just because it is not confident he could be found guilty in the court. ”
OBL was a military target, not a criminal suspect. He was treated as such by the U.S. military. I do not believe confidence in the U.S. criminal justice system had anything to do with it. Gen. Hideki Tojo wasn’t tried in a civilian court either.

“… US judicial system is a joke.”
The U.S. judicial system regularly proves itself to be a joke. Take, for example, the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Nb

OBL should’ve been captured and tortured for information. A quick death is too good for him.
Anonymous

No one was stopping Japanese people from arresting him, if they felt strongly about it they should have gone and done it.

Seriously though, since they have not yet released the video of what went down we don’t know if he even tried to surrender. It seems like there would be no way to even possibly arrest him unless he was compliant or unconscious. You have to assume that since he is the leader of a terrorist organization sworn to kill all Americans he would have tried attempt to kill you by any means possible. The only safe way to approach him would be to shoot first unless you were sure he wanted to surrender.
TofuUnion

The question should be Do you believe Osama Bin Laden got killed by the US.
The reason why he wasn’t arrested could be because he had already died of illness several years ago.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/164930/iran-claims-osama-died-of-illness-long-before-us-raid/
Hotaru

As an ignorant American I feel that we should have let people insert their credit cards into a waterboarding machine that will waterboard him for 1 second per $100. We should have also televised it so that we can make more money. We need to get out of debt and fund these wars somehow.
lovely

he should have been arrested so that he could explain his actions.
http://nihonburp.com Michael Warren

*Puts on conspiracy hat* Well you know guys he wasn’t there to be arrested, He is safe and sound at George W Bush’s ranch, where they both are giving each other high fives and laughing about how they made air travel a massive hassle. They do this whilst watching videos of the TSA grope fliers
Anonymous

god the merciful
Stereo

Lets see what happened to major terrorists in Japan.
Asahara Shoko, Leader of AUM shinrikyo: Arrested
Kato Tomohiro, Stabber of Akihabara: Arrested
Daidoji Masashi, Leader of bombing of Mitsubishi HI: Arrested
Kwon Hyi-ro(Kin Kiro), Hijacker of Fujimiya Hotel: Arrested
5 hijackers of Asama Sanso Hotel: All Arrested

http://tepido.org LB

True, but how many of those were hiding in a safe house in a hostile* foreign country? How many Red Army Terrorists has Japan tried to arrest in Pyongyang?

*Even if not diplomatically/officially hostile, Pakistan is still largely “Indian Territory” for US troops.

Stereo

If they ask Japanese if it was appropriate to raid the safe house in the foreign country, majority would say no. I think the Japanese are pretty much consistent in that a perpetrator should not be killed but arrested, and that law enforcement should not go beyond its boarders.
Stereo

If they ask Japanese if it was appropriate to raid the safe house in the foreign country, majority would say no. I think the Japanese are pretty much consistent in that a perpetrator should not be killed but arrested, and that law enforcement should not go beyond its boarders.

http://tepido.org LB

True, but how many of those were hiding in a safe house in a hostile* foreign country? How many Red Army Terrorists has Japan tried to arrest in Pyongyang?

*Even if not diplomatically/officially hostile, Pakistan is still largely “Indian Territory” for US troops.

Guy

I can’t stop laughing at the doctored photo of the White House situation room with everyone watching the progress of the SEALS, including Osama sitting behind Barack, ha ha, and Kan sleeping in front of Barack, ha ha
Supercub

Interesting to note that the US tried to arrest OBL for several years prior to 9/11, but could not execute a plan to do so. The US was reluctant to launch a kill misson. This was clearly a kill mission, despite some vague noice from the Obama administration about arrest. Certainly killing OBL was legal under both international and US law. Questions of morality are subjective.

Stereo

Why is it legal under both international and US law? Is it legal under Pakistani law, too?

http://tepido.org LB

Sorry, but did you really just use “law” and “Pakistan” in the same sentence?

Samue l welsh

best to kill terroists rather than let em live.
Samue l welsh

best to kill terroists rather than let em live.
Samue l welsh

best to kill terroists rather than let em live.

54% Of Japanese Think Bin Laden Should Have Been Arrested

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