Jeremy Corbyn, the frontrunner to be the next leader of Britain’s Labour Party and a socialist member of Parliament, once referred to the death of al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden as a tragic event.
Corbyn made the comments in an interview with an Iranian television network in 2012, just after U.S. special operations forces killed bin Laden in a raid on his Pakistani compound. Corbyn’s rise in popular support among Labour members, a major party once led by Tony Blair, has alarmed observers of British politics on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Telegraph reports:
In a clip from the Press TV show The Agenda, Mr Corbyn is heard complaining that there had been "no attempt whatsoever that I can see to arrest him and put him on trial, to go through that process". He went on: "This was an assassination attempt, and is yet another tragedy, upon a tragedy, upon a tragedy.
"The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy. Tens of thousands of people have died. Torture has come back on to the world stage, been canonised virtually into law by Guantanamo and Bagram. […]
It came as George Osborne claimed a Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn would pose a threat to national security by threatening the future of the UK's nuclear deterrent.
The Chancellor said "an unholy alliance of Labour's left-wing insurgents and the Scottish nationalists" would shatter decades of near-unbroken Westminster consensus in favour of maintaining a capability.
Corbyn has previously been criticized for sympathizing with anti-Semitic and extremist groups. He referred to the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as "our friends" when he welcomed them to Parliament, and he is also a longtime commentator for RT, the Russian propaganda network.
The results of Labour’s leadership election will be announced on Sept. 12.