Osama Bin Laden Killed in Pakistan-2

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 19 May 2011 22:20

Precisely my point - they are trying to save Ilyas Kashmiri. Or it could be that ISI is running him as an agent (I think Kashmiri is a ISI boy) and don't forget Kashmiri is on the shura of AQ - he must provide immense info and also a seat on the table of the top leaders to get the ISI view points out and push them where ISI wants them. So, it makes sense for Pak to protect him. He provides 4 things:
- Use against India
- Info
- Access to AQ top leadership board and a host of other things.
- Easy to pass info to the CIA/West and allow Pak to get more aid as a reliable partner of the GWOT.

Venkarl · Post by **Venkarl** » 19 May 2011 22:26

If Kashmiri is an ISI boy indeed playing for ISI/CIA, AQ can do an "Asian Tiger" on Kashmiri ala Col Imam and Khalid Khawaja no?? why is he not dead yet?

or AQ could use him to feed wrong information to ISI/CIA...

Klaus · Post by **Klaus** » 19 May 2011 23:02

Kashmiri could have been giving info in exchange for money to JeM, about anti-India ops (specifics like maps, photus, videos, phone nos, sim cards etc). A 3 way link involving Muslim Brotherhood childhood memes passed on by OBL to Jaish, Jaish being objectification of Muslim Brotherhood tales told by OBL's slave mom to nanha OBL.

Also, dont forget JeM and Indian Mujahideen links, OBL is a perfect ideological lead for this theatre. Dawood's Thailand links also could link up to Bali bombing case and AQ sleeper cells in Sumatra. Everything has to pass through India only.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 May 2011 23:04

Venkarl, Recall the James Bond combating SPECTRE, an alliance of bad guys. Well ALQ etc are members of that type of organization. Ilyas Kashmiri is the Pak rep on that alliance.

Venkarl · Post by **Venkarl** » 19 May 2011 23:08

ramana wrote:Venkarl, Recall the James Bond combating SPECTRE, an alliance of bad guys. Well ALQ etc are memebrs of that type of organization. Ilyas Kashmiri is the Pak rep on that alliance.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 20 May 2011 02:35

Ilyas Kashmiri could never become the head of AL-Q. One must realize that the head of Al-Q needs to have scholarly merit. It is the operational commanders who are blood thirsty yahoos. Kashmiri is just some Pakistani yahoo.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 20 May 2011 02:48

He is like TopJob or that killer in FRWL movie.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 20 May 2011 08:15

Koh on the bin Laden raid

Saif al-Adel and the death of Daniel Pearl

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 20 May 2011 11:55

the name ilyas kashmiri itself seems to be an ISI ploy to keep "cashmere" in international spotlights... besides, could a true leader of Al-Q be a non-arab?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 20 May 2011 19:42

They will find an Arab ancestry for the murderer.

Big picture is OBL killing in Pakistan has linked Af-Pak with West Asia North Africa turmoil.

We can see how Barack has demaded 1967 borders for ISrael and a Palestine state with mutual exahnge of territories (fat chance of Palestine agreeing to that!).

Next shoe will be similar bold move on Cashmere before the elections next year.

The only turd in punch bowl is India is willing to let TSP keep POK but TSP wants all of Kashmir unlike the Israel Palestine situation.

And TSP when they are flush with US support will kick India just to show their dominance.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 20 May 2011 22:44

Nightwatch 19 May 2011

Pakistan: According to a report in The News, the Islamabad government had expected from the in-camera joint parliamentary session to pronounce Usama bin Laden as the top enemy of Pakistan. It also expected the National Assembly to affirm that al-Qaida had declared a war against Pakistan. The National Assembly did neither.

Comment: Pakistani views about bin Laden are not congruent with American views. The "humiliation" is much more damaging to Pakistan, in their view, than anything bin Laden did to Pakistan.

Pakistani investigators established links between the 16 May attack on a Saudi diplomat, an earlier grenade attack on the Saudi mission in Karachi and Saudi Arabia's refusal to accept the three widows and nine children left by Usama bin Laden. Both attacks were carried out by al Qaida as a demonstration of their solidarity with bin Laden's family and a warning to Pakistan against the possible extradition of the family to the United States, an investigation official said. He said that the attacks were assisted by a local militant group.

Comment: Bin Laden's widows and children are currently in custody in Islamabad. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik requested that Saudi authorities accept them, but the Kingdom has refused. The Pakistani Taliban has vowed to avenge bin Laden's death by attacks against Pakistan.

The Pakistani Interior Ministry imposed a ban on foreign diplomats' travel to other cities without permission, SAMAA reported May 19. If any foreign diplomat is found traveling in a city other than their appointed city without permission, they will be sent back, according to the ministry. The ministry issued instructions for taking action under the Terrorism Act against anyone who breaches the ban.

Comment: This is another reaction to the US attack on Abbottabad. Harassment of US diplomats also has resumed.

{Not to mention attacks on US diplomats allegedly by terrorists!}

Pakistan-US: Comment: This week, a senior US military officer stated in a press conference that Pakistan was "humiliated" by the raid against Abbottabad, but insisted he was a close friend of Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Kayani. Hmmm...

{Wonder what he would do if he were an enemy of Kiyani!}

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 20 May 2011 23:23

A set of gems, some posted before on this thread.

http://criticalppp.com/archives/49368

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 21 May 2011 01:52

In July 2010 we had a series of good posts that discussed TSP-KSA-US relationship and the influence of OBL on all that. Muppla replied to them and summarised his views.

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 16#p912916

By taking out OBL, US has removed the TSP originated terror focus on West.

KLNMurthy · Post by **KLNMurthy** » 21 May 2011 03:30

Sanku wrote:A set of gems, some posted before on this thread.

http://criticalppp.com/archives/49368

Nice TFTA comments too.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 22 May 2011 07:58

Found incidentally on BRF while reading a post by Amber G in another thread
http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 310#p22310
Dated 1st March 2004

Rangudu wrote: X-posted.
BR sees way ahead of others.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtm ... ID=4462614

Report: Deal for U.S. to Hunt Bin Laden in Pakistan

Sun Feb 29, 2004 01:09 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States has struck a deal with Pakistan to allow U.S. troops to hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden this spring in an area of Pakistan where he is believed to be operating, the New Yorker magazine reported on Sunday.

Thousands of U.S. troops will be deployed in a tribal area of northwest Pakistan in return for Washington's support of President Pervez Musharraf's pardon of the Pakistani scientist who this month admitted leaking nuclear arms secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote in the issue that goes on sale on Monday.

Full disclosure of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's activities would have exposed him as "the worst nuclear-arms proliferator in the world," an intelligence official is quoted as saying.

"It's a quid pro quo," according to a former senior intelligence official. "We're going to get our troops inside Pakistan in return for not forcing Musharraf to deal with Khan."

Musharraf has also offered other help in the hunt for bin Laden, accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, according to the article.

"Musharraf told us, 'We've got guys inside. The people who provide fresh fruits and vegetables and herd the <u>goats</u> for bin Laden and his al Qaeda followers," the intelligence official added.

The spring offensive could slow the tempo of U.S. operations in Iraq, the magazine said.

"It's going to be a full-court press," one Pentagon planner was quoted as saying. The article added that some of the most highly skilled U.S. Special Forces units would be shifted from Iraq to Pakistan.

Special Forces personnel have been briefed on their new assignments and in some cases have been given "warning orders" -- the stage before being sent into combat, according to a military adviser.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 22 May 2011 08:21

^ stumbled upon the same post from 2004 following AmberG's bread crumbs

GuruPrabhu · Post by **GuruPrabhu** » 22 May 2011 09:00

Just read a couple of pages of that thread. holy tamale, that is a trip down memory lane. a lot of the members from that era have disappeared.

Raghavendra · Post by **Raghavendra** » 22 May 2011 20:13

Was there a mole inside Bin Laden's hideout helping the Navy SEALs? The secret 'pocket guide' that may prove Al Qaeda leader was betrayed from within http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -raid.html

An in-depth pocket guide to Osama Bin Laden's hideout that was used by U.S. Navy Seals suggests a mole was living alongside the terror leader, it emerged today.

The colour guide was dropped by one of the special forces soldiers when they raided the home in Abottabad, northwestern Pakistan on May 1.

It features an unseen picture of Bin Laden's Yemeni wife, Amal, and two of his son, Khalid, alongside detailed descriptions.
Bin Laden: Pictured in his light coloured clothing
Bin Laden's wife may have had twins with the leader

Mole: Bin Laden is described in the guide as 'always' wearing light coloured clothing. Details about his wife, Amal, and two possible twins are included

The document suggests that Bin Laden, 54, lived in the hideout with three wives. There were only two other men in the house, alongside Bin Laden's children and grandchildren.

The book also points to two 'unidentified children' that may have been twins fathered by Bin Laden with Amal.

The emergence of the guide raises new questions about how the U.S. gathered intelligence on the Al Qaeda leader.

'In my experience of years as an intelligence office, I think someone from the inside may have given information,' Rahman Malik, the interior minister and former head of Pakistan's Federal Information agency told the Sunday Times.

Targeted: Bin Laden's youngest son, Hamza, is listed in the guide but may have escaped during the raid on the compound

'If the Americans didn't have definite information, they couldn't have gone straight straight to the room where Bin Laden was.'

U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged that the raid on Bin Laden's compound had been a 'calculated risk' that could have ended very differently.

The president said that even with months of intelligence work, the odds bin Laden was in the compound were only about 55-45.

U.S. officials monitored the progress of the raid from the White House on cameras mounted on helmets of the Seals.

The troops planned to abseil onto the roof of the compound from a hovering helicopter while other soldiers filed in from the ground.

But one chopper crashed in the grounds after it clipped a security wall. It is understood that the guide was then dropped.

The document, which features only the second known photograph of the wife apart from her passport image, was gathered up from the wreckage.

On the first page are pictures of Bin Laden, Amal, and two images of his son Khalid - one original and one computer-enhanced picture of how he might have aged. On the other side is a picture of the courier Arshad Khan and a description of his brother, another courier.

Mission: Navy Seals abseil from a U.S helicopter. It is believed that the guide book was dropped when one of the choppers clipped a wall and crashed

Secure: Experts believe there may have been a mole inside Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, northwestern Pakistan to provide such detailed information

The first page details even the clothing that Bin Laden was expected to have been wearing.

'Always wears light coloured shawal kameez with a dark vest,' it states. 'Occasionally wears a light coloured prayer cap.'

The document describes Bin Laden as between 6'4'' and 6'6'' tall. Hi alias is listed as 'Shaykh' with brown hair and brown eyes.

The wives are listed in order of importance to Bin Laden. Amal tops the list with details of a nine-year-old daughter, Safiyah, and two unidentified children who are believed to be twins.

Amal is followed by second wife Siham, 54, including her son Khalid, 23, daughters Miriam, 20, and Sumaya, 16.

Third wife Khayriya, 62, is listed alongisde son Hamza, 21, his wife Maryam, son Usama, four, and daughter Khayriya, one. It states that the third wife and her son were released from Iranian custody in July 2010.

Such detailed information about Bin Laden's clothes would have been difficult to collect from satellites images as he lived behind high walls.

Following the raid, Bin Laden's two elder wives have accused Amal of betraying the terror leader by leaking information.

The two Saudi women also suggest that she may have been tracked by U.S. forces to Abbottabad.

U.S. officials denied they had used a mole and insisted that their intelligence gathering had helped to produce the book.

They said that a CIA safe house that was set up nearby and satellite images from drones were used to monitor the compound. Agents were also gathering information on the ground.

A CIA official said that a 'false or partial narrative' may have been given about how Bin Laden was found as 'protecting source and method is very important'.

The presence of Bin Laden in such a busy town has led the U.S. to suggest that sources from within Pakistan may have helped to shelter the terrorist.

sum · Post by **sum** » 22 May 2011 20:44

^^ Man, the more the days, the more versions and dis-information pops out.
At this rate, OBL killing mystery might overtake the Bermuda triangle/Loch Ness mystery/JFK killing in mysteriousness!!

jrjrao · Post by **jrjrao** » 24 May 2011 01:38

New insider nuggets in this detailed report in the WSJ. Note the bold highlighted parts, which will cause Pakis some takleef. In particular, the condition of 24/7 monitoring by the US that the US has placed on the Paki F-solahs.

Spy, Military Ties Aided bin Laden Raid
By SIOBHAN GORMAN And JULIAN E. BARNES
link

In January, the chief of the military's elite special-operations troops accepted an unusual invitation to visit Central Intelligence Agency headquarters. There, Adm. William McRaven was shown, for the first time, photos and maps indicating the whereabouts of the world's most wanted man.

Adm. McRaven—one of the first military officers to be brought into the CIA's latest hunt for Osama bin Laden—offered a blunt assessment: Taking bin Laden's compound would be reasonably straightforward. Dealing with Pakistan would be hard.

A Wall Street Journal reconstruction of the mission planning shows that this meeting helped define a profound new strategy in the U.S. war on terror, namely the use of secret, unilateral missions powered by a militarized spy operation. The strategy reflects newfound trust between two traditionally wary groups: America's spies, and its troops.

The bin Laden strike was the strategy's "proof of concept," says one U.S. official.

This month's military strike deep inside Pakistan is already being used by U.S. officials as a negotiating tool—akin to, don't make us do that again—with countries including Pakistan thought to harbor other terrorists. Yemen and Somalia are also potential venues, officials said, if local-government cooperation were found to be lacking.

The new U.S. strategy has roots in a close relationship between CIA Director Leon Panetta and Adm. McRaven. In 2009, the two inked a secret agreement setting out rules for joint missions that provided a blueprint for dozens of operations in the Afghan war before the bin Laden raid.

The reshuffling of the Obama administration's national-security team will likely reinforce the relationship between the nation's spies and its top military teams. Mr. Panetta is expected to take over the Pentagon this summer armed with a strong understanding of its special-operations capabilities. Gen. David Petraeus, who is expected to become CIA director, made extensive use of special operations while running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This account of the planning of the raid on bin Laden's home in Abbottabad, Pakistan, is based on interviews with more than a dozen administration, intelligence, military and congressional officials.

Officials and experts say the new U.S. approach will likely be used only sparingly. "This is the kind of thing that, in the past, people who watched movies thought was possible, but no one in the government thought was possible," one official said.

On Sunday, President Barack Obama said in an interview with the BBC that he would be willing to authorize similar strikes in the future. "Our job is to secure the United States," he said.

Salman Bashir, Pakistan's foreign secretary, said earlier this month in an interview that a repeat of the bin Laden raid could lead to "terrible consequences." Other officials have said Pakistan would curtail intelligence cooperation with the U.S. in the event of another such attack.

A more traditional approach would have been to simply bomb the bin Laden property using stealth aircraft, perhaps in cooperation with Pakistani troops. But from the outset, Mr. Obama decided to cut Pakistan out of the loop.

Top U.S. officials—in particular, Defense Secretary Robert Gates—worried how keeping Pakistan in the dark would affect relations with the country, a close but unstable ally. But mistrust of the Pakistani intelligence services drowned out that fear.

In the end, several hundred people in the U.S. government knew about the raid before it happened. But it didn't leak.

U.S. officials took extraordinary measures to keep it quiet, often speaking in code to each other. One decided to refer to the operation as "the trip to Atlantic City" to avoid accidentally tipping off colleagues.

In August 2010, after 10 years of a largely fruitless hunt for the man who killed nearly 3,000 Americans, the CIA caught a break when it followed a courier believed to be working with bin Laden to a home in Abbottabad, about 40 miles from Pakistan's capital. After months of observation, the CIA eventually decided that one of the three families living there was most likely bin Laden's.

In December, Mr. Panetta laid out CIA's best intelligence case for Mr. Obama, which pointed to bin Laden's likely, but not certain, presence at the compound. The president asked Mr. Panetta to start devising a plan.

Mr. Panetta turned to Adm. McRaven. It was his visit to CIA headquarters in January, and his quick analysis of the pros and cons, that sealed the two men's partnership, officials say.

Their ties mark a significant historical shift. During the Cold War, there was little interaction between the Pentagon and CIA, as the military focused on planning for a land war with the Soviets and the spy community focused on analysis. That started changing in the 1990s, but only the past few years have the CIA and military begun working particularly closely.

Adm. McRaven assigned one senior special-operations officer—a Navy Captain from SEAL Team 6, one of the top special-forces units—to work on what was known as AC1, for Abbottabad Compound 1. The captain spent every day working with the CIA team in a remote, secure facility on the CIA's campus in Langley, Va.

On the evening of Feb. 25, several black Suburbans pulled up to the front of CIA's Langley headquarters. The meeting was planned after dusk, on a Friday, to reduce the chances anyone would notice. Around a large wooden table in the CIA director's windowless conference room, the Pentagon's chief counterterrorism adviser Michael Vickers, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. James Cartwright and senior CIA officials joined Adm. McRaven and Mr. Panetta. Over sandwiches and sodas, the CIA team walked through their intelligence assessment.

In the middle of the conference table sat a scale model of the compound. Measuring four feet by four feet, it was built by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency based on satellite photos. It was accurate down to every tree.

Analysts told the group they had high confidence that a "high-value" terrorist target was living there. They said there was "a strong probability" it was bin Laden.

The planners reviewed the options they had developed. The first was a bombing strike with a B-2 stealth bomber that would destroy the compound and any tunnels under it. The second was a helicopter raid with U.S. special operations, which immediately evoked visions of "Black Hawk Down," the disastrous Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia in which a U.S. helicopter was shot down and 19 U.S. soldiers killed.

The third option was to offer the Pakistanis an opportunity to assist in the raid, perhaps by forming a cordon around the compound to ensure U.S. forces could carry out the operation without obstruction.

Kicking planning into higher gear, the president reviewed these options at a March 14 meeting of the National Security Council. Among his first decisions was to scotch the idea of gathering more intelligence to make sure they had found bin Laden. The potential gain was outweighed by the risk of being exposed.

Mr. Obama also rejected a joint Pakistani operation, officials say. There was no serious consideration of the prospect, said one administration official, given the desire for secrecy.

Weighing on the minds of several officials was the fate of a CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, being held in a Lahore jail after having shot two Pakistanis in disputed circumstances. Mr. Panetta, pressing hard for his release, worried Mr. Davis might be killed if the U.S. couldn't spring him before the bin Laden raid.

The B-2 plan had many supporters, particularly among military brass. A bombing would provide certainty that the compound's residents would be killed, and it posed less risk to U.S. personnel. At the time, Mr. Gates, the defense secretary, was skeptical of the intelligence case that bin Laden was at the compound.

At the end of the meeting, officials believed Mr. Obama favored the bombing raid, too. Gen. Cartwright asked two Air Force officers to flesh out that proposal.

They immediately faced a challenge. CIA analysts couldn't tell if there was a tunnel network under the compound. Planners had to presume it existed, which meant the B-2 bombers would have to drop a large amount of ordnance. But a bombing raid of that magnitude would likely kill innocent neighbors in nearby homes.

Another other option would use less powerful ordnance, sparing the neighbors. But any tunnels would be spared, too.

Gen. Cartwright made no recommendations. But the team's PowerPoint presentation, created just after the meeting with the president, laid out plainly the disadvantages of the larger bombing run. It showed another house besides bin Laden's clearly in the blast radius and estimated that up to a dozen civilians could be killed. The ability to recover evidence of bin Laden's death was also minimal—meaning the U.S. wouldn't even be able to prove why they violated Pakistani airspace.

By the time the National Security Council gathered again March 29, the president had grown wary of the bombing-raid option. "He put that plan on ice," a U.S. official said.

Instead, Mr. Obama turned to Adm. McRaven to further develop the idea of a helicopter raid. Adm. McRaven assembled a team drawing from Red Squadron, one of four that make up SEAL Team 6. Red Squadron was coming home from Afghanistan and could be redirected with little notice inside the military.

The team had experience with cross-border operations from Afghanistan into Pakistan, and had language skills that would come in handy as well. The team performed two rehearsals at a location inside the U.S.

Planners ran through the what-ifs: What if bin Laden surrendered? (He likely would be held near Bagram Air Force base, a senior military official said.) What if U.S. forces were discovered by the Pakistanis in the middle of the raid? (A senior U.S. official would call Pakistan's chief military officer and try to talk his way out of it.)

The U.S. was pretty sure it could get in and out without alerting the Pakistanis. Officials say the choppers used in the raid were designed to be less visible to radar and, possibly, to make them quieter.

In addition, because the U.S. helped equip and train Pakistan's military, it had intimate knowledge of the country's capabilities—from the sensitivity of the radar systems deployed along the Afghan border to the level of alert for Pakistani forces in and around Islamabad and Abbottabad.

If Pakistan scrambled F-16s to investigate, the U.S. knew how long it would take the planes to reach the area, officials said. The U.S. supplies F-16s to Pakistan on the condition they are kept at a Pakistani military base with 24/7 U.S. security surveillance, according to diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

On April 11, Mr. Panetta had a high-stakes meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha. Ties between the U.S. and Pakistan were already chilly, partly due to the spat over Mr. Davis, the CIA contractor jailed in Lahore. But Mr. Davis had since been freed, and the high-profile event at Langley was intended to improve ties between the nations.

At the event, Gen. Pasha asked Mr. Panetta to be more forthcoming about what his agency was doing inside Pakistan. Gen. Pasha also voiced frustration that the CIA was operating in his country behind his back—not knowing, of course, of the planning for the bin Laden attack.

Mr. Pasha has said the meeting involved a shouting match; American officials say that didn't happen. Mr. Panetta promised to review Gen. Pasha's concerns, according to U.S. officials. His goal was to try to improve ties so the bin Laden takedown didn't occur when relations were at rock bottom.

When the National Security Council met again eight days later. Mr. Obama gave a provisional go-ahead for the helicopter raid. But he worried the plan for managing the Pakistanis was too flimsy.

The U.S. had little faith that, if U.S. forces were captured by the Pakistanis, they would be easily returned home. Given how difficult it had been to resolve the case of Mr. Davis—which took more than two months of heated negotiations—one U.S. official said: "How could we get them to uphold an incursion 128 miles into their airspace?"

Mr. Obama directed Adm. McRaven to develop a stronger U.S. escape plan. The team would be equipped to fight its way out and would have two helicopters on stand-by in case of an emergency.

On April 28, a few days before the attack on bin Laden's compound, Mr. Obama held a public event in the East Room of the White House to unveil his new national-security team. From there, Messrs. Obama and Panetta went to the Situation Room, where Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained the final plan to the National Security Council.

Only at that meeting did Mr. Gates come around to fully endorsing the operation, because of his skepticism of the intelligence indicating bin Laden was there.

Mr. Obama told his advisers he wanted to speak directly with Adm. McRaven before the raid was launched. The admiral was in Afghanistan preparing his strike team.

That call took place on Saturday afternoon, Washington time, over a secure phone line. Mr. Obama asked Adm. McRaven for an update on final preparations. Mr. Obama also asked the admiral if had learned anything since arriving in Afghanistan that caused him to alter his confidence in the mission.

Adm. McRaven told Mr. Obama the team was ready, and that his assessment remained unchanged.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 24 May 2011 02:04

Interesting piece.
Pakistan calms Saudis after Bin Laden embarrassment

By Qaiser Butt
Published: May 23, 2011

Rehman Malik promised Saudi officials he will share results of inquiry.
ISLAMABAD:

The damage to Pakistan’s credibility in the aftermath of the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden is not restricted to its relations with the United States: the government of Saudi Arabia is also reported to be deeply disturbed to learn that the al Qaeda chief lived in Abbottabad for five years, forcing the Foreign Office to try and pacify the Saudis.

“Islamabad has communicated to Riyadh that it was purely a failure of intelligence that Pakistan was unable to locate Osama Bin Laden,” said one official familiar with the matter.

The Saudis are reported to be very concerned by the fact that the terrorist mastermind was able to live less than two miles from Pakistan’s top military academy for five years before ultimately being found and killed by US forces. One of al Qaeda’s earliest stated goals was the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy. Osama Bin Laden was a Saudi citizen before being stripped of this status in 1994.

The recent visit by Interior Minister Rehman Malik with King Abdullah in Riyadh was part of the diplomatic offensive by Pakistan to try and calm down the Saudis.

Malik delivered a letter on behalf of President Asif Ali Zardari to the Saudi king and explained the Bin Laden situation in detail to senior Saudi diplomatic, military and intelligence officials, including Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal.

The interior minister admitted an intelligence failure but was quick to state categorically that Bin Laden was not being protected by any government agency within Pakistan. He drew the analogy of how US intelligence agencies failed to prevent 9/11, noting that the failure did not indicate that US intelligence agencies were protecting the terrorists who carried out the attack.

Malik promised that Pakistan would share the results of any inquiry into the incident with its allies, including Saudi Arabia. Islamabad and Riyadh have a long history of intelligence cooperation, including on counter-terrorism.

Saudi Arabia’s apprehensions over Bin Laden’s stay in Pakistan have been conveyed not just through diplomatic channels but also in the Saudi media. In a hard-hitting editorial, the leading Saudi English-language daily, Arab News, questioned Pakistan’s credibility on counter-terrorism and demanded an immediate inquiry into the military and intelligence failures that allowed Bin Laden to live unnoticed in Pakistan for over five years.

Riyadh’s apprehensions, over the Bin Laden stay in Abbottabad were expressed to Pakistan through diplomatic channels and by the Kingdom’s media after the killing of Al-Qaeda chief who also masterminded several militant attacks in Saudi Arabia.

“The ISI, long been accused of harbouring elements sympathetic to al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, has either been grossly incompetent or it has been complicit in his [Bin Laden’s] presence. It has to be one or the other. There is no other explanation,” said the newspaper in its editorial.

Mahendra · Post by **Mahendra** » 24 May 2011 02:28

The interior minister admitted an intelligence failure but was quick to state categorically that Bin Laden was not being protected by any government agency within Pakistan. He drew the analogy of how US intelligence agencies failed to prevent 9/11, noting that the failure did not indicate that US intelligence agencies were protecting the terrorists who carried out the attack.

This is a very serious piece of peerless journalism

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 25 May 2011 00:50

Ashok Mehta in Pioneer, 25 May 2011

Belligerence as Defence

Belligerence as defence
May 25, 2011 1:21:33 AM

Ashok K Mehta

The Osama bin Laden episode has done nothing to change equations in Pakistan or its Army’s attitude. Pakistan still remains a military with a state.

We all got it wrong. On ‘transformational change’ in Pakistan following the US Navy SEALs plucking Osama bin Laden from the bowels of Abbottabad — which we 5 Gorkhas still call ‘Houdabas’ — cantonment. All manner of contingencies were visualised about altering the civil-military power balance, reining in the ISI, boosting democracy, resetting US-Pakistan relations and other wishful scenarios to make Pakistan a ‘normal’ country, a state with an Army and not the other way round.

Three weeks on, we erring mortals are lamenting the missed opportunity, the first since 1971 when the Pakistani military suffered its worst defeat and democracy was briefly restored. This time around Pakistan’s brittle democracy and silent majority could not bring the Army to book. The only politician of standing who called for the Army’s head is former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who suffered multiple indignities at the hands of General Pervez Musharraf.

Not surprisingly, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s initial statement in the National Assembly a week after Osama bin Laden was taken out and ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha’s marathon briefing to a joint session of Parliament produced no earth-shattering revelations except mild condemnation of the US’s unilateral action, stern warning to India were it to replicate Operation Geronimo, unflinching praise for the military, especially the ISI which was described by Mr Gilani as a ‘national asset’, and sundry Twitter jokes about the Army and the ISI. Hired Army loyalists were paraded in the streets defending the custodians of Pakistan’s soul and sovereignty.

Lessons from the Osama bin Laden affair have been enumerated in detail though many were lost in the fog of the daring raid. The limits of American power to change the behaviour of the Pakistani military and the importance of being ISI topped the list. As Islamabad called off the US visit of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Khalid Shameem Wynne, four out of five Americans were calling for stopping aid to Pakistan. Regardless of mutual finger-wagging, both the US and Pakistan know they need each other, most critically the CIA and the ISI. Time magazine has focussed on the ‘S’ — strategic — and ‘R’ — operations — wings of the ISI, its brain and brawn. Both the CIA and the ISI have their own priorities and do not share intelligence 100 per cent as recent events have shown.

Besides the incapacities of the US to regulate the conduct of the Pakistani military, Pakistan’s civil society is equally impotent notwithstanding the vibrance of a free media. Week after week, Dawn columnist Kamran Shafi, a former Army officer, keeps lambasting the ‘Deep State’, a euphemism for the ISI, with colourful similes like ‘running with the hare and hunting with the hounds’ and ‘our pets have started biting us’, howling that the Taliban and Al Qaeda can never be strategic assets.

Pakistan’s military handbook is replete with mythical victories, including its debacle at Kargil. It names the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba as strategic assets, its crown jewels being the nuclear arsenal which has recently been embellished with low yield tactical nuclear missiles to counter India’s mythical Cold Start doctrine. The latest addition to the strategic assets gallery is — hold your breath — the ISI whose resolute chief Lt Gen Pasha offered to resign for any “intentional” intelligence failure.

The ISI is so deeply rooted in the institutional power structure of Pakistan, especially after 9/11, that it is virtually impossible to remove it root and branch. The latest WikiLeaks revelations show that the US had tried unsuccessfully for Lt Gen Pasha to travel to India to help in the investigation into the 26/11 attack but General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani forced Mr Gilani to reverse his decision. Gen Kayani overruling the visit maintains military supremacy over the civilian Government.

According to WikiLeaks, Pakistan’s former National Security Adviser, General Mohammed Ali Durrani admitted his country’s hand in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul in 2008 but said “ISI didn’t do it — though we have some contacts with bad guys and perhaps one of them did it.” No clearer reference to the ISI’s links with bad guys is needed. Pakistani American David Coleman Headly, the prosecution witness in the ongoing Chicago trial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, has pointed to the ISI’s complicity in 26/11. This could further turn the knife into the ISI.

The former ISI chief, Lt Gen Assad Durrani, has characterised US-Pakistan tensions as “being effectively at war”. Gen Kayani has given notice to the US, ostensibly establishing new ground rules for cooperation by demanding that America curtail its footprint on Pakistani soil and in airspace. The next US-Pakistan strategic dialogue has been scheduled for July this year, coinciding with the deadline for the drawdown of American forces in Afghanistan. The US wishes to retain the upper hand by threatening to raid the Haqqani network in North Waziristan.

Gen Kayani wants the ISI to be directly involved in any future reconciliation dialogue with President Hamid Karzai and the Americans. A US-Afghanistan-Pakistan deal on power-sharing is in the offing. The price Pakistan is expected to pay for this is going after the Haqqanis in Kurram. A new military offensive could be on the cards in the coming weeks. Pakistan may not be able to hedge against all its strategic assets on the western front any more. Some of Pakistan’s ‘bad guys’ are likely to be put on the mat as a quid pro quo for a Pushtoon-led power-sharing deal. This is billed as Lt Gen Pasha’s next trick.

Not to be left out of the ‘Great Game’, China has stood firmly with its ‘all-weather’ friend Pakistan, announcing that the relationship is “higher than the Karakoram and deeper than the Indian Ocean”. It held out the threat — usually reserved in the case of Nepal — that an attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China. While Beijing advised Washington, DC to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty, the real warning was meant for New Delhi.

Pakistan has failed to turn the corner and missed the opportunity to normalise the state because this can only be done by the US. Sadly the US does not realise that Pakistan has to be fixed before it can exit Afghanistan to avoid repeating mistakes of the past.

Meanwhile, the inquiry into the Osama bin Laden fiasco the Army had ordered under its Adjutant General, Lt Gen Javed Iqbal, will go ahead with three other investigations. The more things change, say the French, the more they remain the same. While ‘Oye Pasha’ jokes mount after Sunday’s Mehran raid, it will still be “Long Live ISI!”

-- The visual accompanying this article is a photograph of the aftermath of the Taliban’s raid on PNS Mehran at Faisalabad airbase in Karachi, by Shakil Adil/AP.

ManishH · Post by **ManishH** » 25 May 2011 08:56

Pakistan returns wreckage of destroyed helicopter used in OP Geronimo

"The wreckage of the helicopter destroyed in the Bin Laden operation was returned over the weekend and is now back in the United States," said Pentagon spokesman Col Dave Lapan.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 25 May 2011 09:40

Anujan wrote:Ilyas Kashmiri could never become the head of AL-Q. One must realize that the head of Al-Q needs to have scholarly merit. It is the operational commanders who are blood thirsty yahoos. Kashmiri is just some Pakistani yahoo.

ANd above all be an Arab and not a inferior Hindu Breed as Arabs see Pakis

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 25 May 2011 12:20

Must read folks, although its a humor piece its a brilliant one by a Indian (and a lady jingo by the looks of it)

http://www.sify.com/news/this-osama-col ... bhbja.html

This Osama column was not supposed to be written

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 25 May 2011 23:53

RamaY, Where is your post about inside source on OBL met his goats?

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 26 May 2011 22:18

Ali Chishti OBL update - A former ISI cheif asked couriers to buy property in Abbotabad.

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 27 May 2011 01:04

CIA to search Bin Laden's house

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 27 May 2011 01:13

Gagan wrote: AoA
Arnab Goswami is off with a sixer.
He's accused both Pakistan and the US.
He says the US knew that OBL was living here, and everyone's been throwing wool over the world's, pakistani citizen eyes.

His program is not going to get completed I'll bet.

Gaganullah,

I see some merit in this. Per my sources (highly classified) -

USA and Pakistan Govt were aware of OBL's whereabouts since the beginning of GWOT. They decided to keep OBL under house arrest so they can continue with their GWOT as planned.

Indian intelligence agencies were able to track down OBL's exact location early this year. They have been planning a special ops mission to kill OBL and expose USA and Pakistan perfidy.

That is why India went along with GCC plan to move 20K+ Pakistani army to GCC area, so it will reduce the risk of Paki retaliation after the planned cross-border raid.

When USA pressed GoI on why they rejected F-16 and F-18 from MMRCA deal, someone in GoI leaked to USA that it is because of this OBL finding and exposure of USA perfidy.

USA did not have any option but to orchestrate a quick raid on that Abbotabad compound to kill OBL themselves before Indians could do. It is also believed that KSA has agreed to declare OBL a non-muslim, if there is a mass outrage across muslim world against this USA operation.

That helicopter crashed when it hit the electricity lines going over the compound.

The same source also informed that RAW has detailed knowledge of the whereabouts of Mohammad Azar, Hafeez Saeed, and Dawood Ibrahim and Indian cross border raids will happen sometime in next 6-12 months; before the announcement of mid-term elections in India.

We have to see if Pakistan army can handle such a coordinated raid to capture/kill those three assets by India. The insider says that Pakistan may call back its troops from GCC area.

As a consequence of this development Bahrain is expected to fall in to Shia hands. Iran will give up its nuke dreams in return for a nuke umbrella by Russia. India-Russia-Iran will support a free Afghanistan, coinciding with USA withdrawal. It is also believed that PRC will be kicked out of this big boy game as it is yet to prove its capabilities w.r.t protecting its allies. So far PRC hasn't proved its capabilities beyond supplying 1st generation heavy nukes and highly unreliable missile delivery systems to Pakistan and North Korea.

To protect its geopolitical interests, USA is expected to develop at least two bases in Af-Pak border.

Mahendra · Post by **Mahendra** » 27 May 2011 01:25

RamaYji

Sorry to say this but I think your source must be smoking seriously potent stuff

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 27 May 2011 01:26

Plausible

jrjrao · Post by **jrjrao** » 27 May 2011 01:26

By Max Fisher, associate editor at The Atlantic:

Why Serbia Captured Mladic and Pakistan Harbored Bin Laden
link

The U.S., for all its desire of a new Pakistan, continues to help entrench the old Pakistan. Rather than holding out economic incentives to guide this transformation, we continue to hand over money, most often to the military and the political leadership.

The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan also incentivizes Pakistan to remain as it is rather than to become what it could be... it's clear that Serbia has been willing to reinvent itself in a way that Pakistan, due in large part to a U.S. that feeds its worst behaviors, has not.

UBanerjee · Post by **UBanerjee** » 27 May 2011 19:21

RamaY's source's story sounds a little too much like a BRF-specific jingo wet-dream to be credible.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 27 May 2011 19:34

Acharya wrote:Plausible

About as plausible as Zaid Hamid's daily theories.

BRF can do better than to become a CT hub.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 27 May 2011 21:10

Still plausible. Maybe less than 50%

Airavat · Post by **Airavat** » 28 May 2011 06:21

CIA investigators visit bin Laden's compound

According to sources, a group of CIA investigators visited the compound on Friday afternoon after flying in via a helicopter. Express news correspondent Zubair Ayub said that media personnel had witnessed the helicopter fly in around 12:45pm in the afternoon amid tight security in the area.

Investigators spent almost four hours at the compound before flying back around five in the evening. The visit came right after Hillary Clinton’s five-hour stop-over in Islamabad. Clinton acknowledged the Pakistani government allowed American officials to inspect the compound.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 28 May 2011 09:28

IndraD wrote:CIA to search Bin Laden's house

After the house has been cleared by the ISI.

Good luck to the CIA.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 28 May 2011 12:01

Pratyush wrote:
IndraD wrote:CIA to search Bin Laden's house

After the house has been cleared by the ISI.

Good luck to the CIA.

I am sure that the true reason of the visit was to correlate the accurately observed data at the site with the vast data obtained by satellite and drone reconnaissance.

This will help them to better interpret and size up the intelligence for the next time.

Poor porkis outfoxed again apart from the very real H&D issues involved. Something like inviting your rapist for a polite dinner

rajanb · Post by **rajanb** » 28 May 2011 12:08

After the house has been cleared by the ISI.

Good luck to the CIA.

Apparently they were going in for two reasons (As per CNN last night):

a) With Infra-red cameras to look for hiding places in furniture and walls.
b) To collect any more forensic evidence which might give them a clue as to who elase visited that place.