Rules of engagement
The strike on bin Laden has been widely celebrated in the US, even though there are strong grounds to regard it as illegal.
— Section 5(g) of Executive Order 11905 signed by Gerald Ford in 1976 states ‘No employee of the United States government shall engage in or conspire to engage in political assassination’.
— The order was reiterated by Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, although the latter bombed Gaddafi’s compound in 1986.
— US special forces could have been justified, however, if their intention had been to arrest bin Laden and then were forced to fire in self-defence.
Money migrations
The National Institute for Economic and Social Research calculated that migrant workers from Eastern Europe have added 0.62 per cent to UK GDP in 2009. How others have calculated the benefits of migration to the UK economy:
£6bn a year: Home Office/DWP, 2006
£1bn a year in reduction to UK trade deficit: Ernst & Young Item Club, 2006
£54.
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