Pakistan 'delay let bin Laden escape US raid'

Prevarication by the Pakistani government cost America the chance to kill Osama bin Laden in an airstrike near the Afghan border two years ago, the Sunday Telegraph has been told.

A CIA lead that the al-Qaeda leader was hiding in a remote province was squandered because the Pakistani government delayed giving permission for the attack on its soil, according to a senior Western diplomat.

By the time US officials got the go-ahead, bin Laden had left the suspected hideout in Zhob, in the Baluchistan province of south-west Pakistan.

The near-miss was cited by the diplomat as the reason why America chose not to consult Islamabad before the US missile strike in Pakistan's Bajaur region two weeks ago. The January 13 attack, prompted by a tip that bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was hiding in a local village, killed 13 civilians.

Speaking of the Zhob attack, the diplomat, who asked not to be named, said: "For unknown reasons, Pakistani officials delayed in giving permission...which ultimately gave these militants time to move to an unknown location."

According to his account, which was backed by sources within Pakistani intelligence, the CIA picked up electronic traffic suggesting that bin Laden and his bodyguards had sought temporary shelter in Zhob, which is dominated by Pathan and Baloch tribesmen sympathetic to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Fearing that a commando raid would cause massive casualties to both sides, with no guarantee of success, the US decided to launch a strike by laser-guided missiles, fired from Predator drones.

The reason for the delay is not clear. While Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, has vowed to eliminate terrorists operating within his country, elements within Pakistan's ISI intelligence service may have sought to protect bin Laden.

If he was in Zhob at the time it would have been the first known occasion that he had been firmly in America's sights since his escape from Tora Bora in Afghanistan, where he slipped through a cordon of US troops in 2001.

Gen Musharraf last week described the strike against al-Zawahiri as a "violation of sovereignty", although he said other al-Qaeda figures had died in the raid.

Al-Zawahiri is thought to have cancelled his visit, possibly after spotting CIA drones in the area.

The important thing is not what a nice-guy ambassador had to SAY about India...

Moynihan was not just a nice-guy ambassador, he was an intellectual star of the Nixon Administration who had the ear of the President, despite being of opposing political parties. An Ambassador like that can plant seeds that can cultivate long-lasting friendly relations between peoples despite temporary differences between their leaderships. Well before Jean Kirkpatrick and John Bolton, as U.S. Representative to the U.N., Moynihan scorned political correctness and spoke the truth for our country.

...but what Secretary of State Kissinger DID against India, in getting the US government not to help prevent the massacre of millions of Hindus in then-East Pakistan

East Pakistan was not part of India then, as Bangladesh it is not part of India today. Whether you agree or not with what the U.S. did, it was not an action, or a non-action, targeted at India, but was properly considered in the context of our relationship with Pakistan. The U.S. immediately cut off military aid to Pakistan, and that has continued on and off ever since. It is hard to see that the U.S. was in a position to save lives by any further action.

India is not an avatar of a saintly state. I remember a Bangladeshi programmer grumbling to me about how India had diverted the Ganges to the disadvantage of its neighbor. And I don't understand what people who say Israel or India all good are doing on an American site.

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