Obama wants Bin Laden executed

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said in interview excerpts released Friday that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden should be executed, if he is ever captured alive.

The Illinois Senator told CNN that the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks in 2001 should face the full weight of US and global justice.

"I am not a cheerleader for the death penalty," Obama said.

"I think it has to be reserved for only the most heinous crimes, but I certainly think plotting and engineering the death of 3,000 Americans justifies such an approach."

"I think this is a big hypothetical, though -- let's catch him first," he said.

"We have failed to seriously go after Al-Qaeda over the last five years because of the distraction of Iraq, I think we are ...