Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said in an interview published Sunday that she would not have ordered the assassination of Osama bin Laden.
Marking the 15th anniversary of September 11 terror attacks, Stein instead told the Des Moines Register that she would have tried to bring the terror leader to trial in accordance with international law.
“I think assassinations … they’re against international law to start with and to that effect, I think I would not have assassinated Osama bin laden but would have captured him and brought him to trial,” Stein said while campaigning in Iowa over the weekend.
Stein also pointed to recent reports hinting at the involvement of some Saudi Arabian officials in the attacks.
“I think all evidence certainly points to bin Laden, but the 9/11 attackers had assistance and funding and bin Laden had assistance and funding.”
“What we should have done is declare a crime against humanity and pursued it, pursued the attackers and gotten the intelligence about who was behind this,” she added.
Stein also criticized the US foreign policy in the wake of the terrorist attacks 15 years ago, and accused both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump of being “war mongers.” She said that the tragedy “provided a pretext for the wrong wars, which have only gotten us into more trouble.”
The Green Party nominee has repeatedly offered a liberal critique of both major party presidential candidates throughout the White House race, highlighting issues such as climate change and economic inequality in addition to national security and foreign policy. And despite low polling and long odds, Stein has persisted in reaching out to disaffected voters who supported Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary and haven’t since warmed to Clinton.