Kathie Obradovich

The Des Moines Register

DES MOINES — Jill Stein, the Green Party's candidate for president, said Sunday in Iowa that she would not have assassinated Osama bin Laden but would have brought him to justice for his role in the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

“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,” said Stein.

Bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, was shot and killed by U.S. special forces during a raid at a residence in Pakistan in 2011. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and a failed attack that downed a passenger jet in Pennsylvania, killed nearly 3,000 people. Today, tens of thousands of people have become ill and thousands have died from illnesses attributed to the attacks.

Stein made her comments in an interview before her first Iowa campaign appearance, a rally that attracted more than 150 on the grounds of the Iowa State Capitol. The organizer and several of the speakers were former national delegates of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. During the rally, Stein argued for a renewable energy and jobs program that she says would eliminate fossil fuel use in the U.S. by 2030.

Arrest warrants issued for Jill Stein, running mate after N.D. protest

She has called for deep cuts in military spending as a way to pay for domestic programs, including having the federal government assume $1.5 trillion in student debt. During her rally remarks, she referred to both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as “war mongers.”

She said the 9/11 attacks “provided a pretext for the wrong wars, which have only gotten us into more trouble.” Stein said rather than go to war, she would take a “targeted” approach to tracking down terrorists and bringing them to justice for crimes against humanity.

“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,” she said. Stein cited a recent article by former Sen. Bob Graham of Florida in The New York Times that noted the still-murky role of Saudi Arabia in assisting terrorists.

“What we should have done is declare this a crime against humanity and pursued it, pursued the attackers and gotten the intelligence about who was behind this,” she said.

She said the United States and Saudi Arabia armed and trained warlords and other rebels as a way to combat the Soviet Union and that led to the creation of today’s jihadist movement. “And boy, did it backfire; I mean, in a horrific and tragic way,” she said.

Stein has been polling at 2% to 3% in Iowa. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, who has polled as high as 12% in Iowa, made his first Iowa campaign appearance last weekend in Des Moines.

Stein, like Johnson, worked to make a case for her inclusion in the upcoming presidential debates. The debate rules admit only candidates who average 15% in five national polls — in other words, only Trump and Clinton. Stein, who said she was arrested during her 2012 campaign by entering a presidential debate hall uninvited, called for supporters to protest the Sept. 26 debate at Hofstra University in New York.

Stein has an arrest warrant against her this year for misdemeanor charges related to her participation in a protest of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota. She said a court date is pending and she plans to plead guilty and pay a fine. Asked whether she expected to be arrested again at the debate protest, she said she does.

Follow Kathie Obradovich on Twitter: @KObradovich