Posted on 05/04/2011 5:14:47 AM PDT by library user
NEWSCORE - Pakistan hit back Wednesday about US fears that it could not be trusted with details of the raid on osama bin Laden's compound and claimed it had identified the potential hideout as far back as 2009.
The foreign minister, Salman Bashir, said CIA chief Leon Panetta's suggestion that Pakistan could have tipped off the al Qaeda leader and jeopardized Sunday's operation was "disquieting."
"He is entitled to his views, but I know for sure that we have extended every cooperation to the US, including the CIA, and to other countries as far as the campaign against terror is concerned," Bashir told the BBC. "All the significant al Qaeda people who have been picked up, it was done by the ISI [Pakistan's Intelligence Service], from Pakistan towns and cities."
Bashir went on to claim that the ISI passed on its suspicions about the compound in Abbottabad two years ago.
"The fact is, on this particular occasion, it was pointed out by our intelligence quite some time ago to the US intelligence," he said. "We had indicated as far back as 2009 [it was] a possible place."
Bashir added that there were "millions" of other potential locations for bin Laden and that Pakistan had concentrated on the "caves and hideouts."
The ISI said it again warned just six months ago that "suspicious foreigners" and even "al Qaeda operatives" were potentially inside the compound but denied knowing bin Laden was among them, according to Sky News. There was no immediate response to that claim from the Obama administration.
Pakistan's prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, said the events showed an intelligence failure, although his country should not shoulder all the blame.
"Certainly, we have intelligence failure of the rest of the world including the United States," Gilani said in Paris. "There is intelligence failure of the whole world, not Pakistan alone."
Gilani added that Pakistan needed "the support of the entire world" to defeat terrorism, reported AFP.
Many questions remain about how the most wanted man in the world managed to live in plain sight in an area heavily populated by the Pakistani military just 31 miles north of Islamabad without some system of support, official or otherwise.
The owner of the land on which the house was built was arrested, Sky News reported Wednesday, while security was increased a day after some local residents and journalists were allowed to see the compound.
Neighboring Afghanistan's defense ministry spokesman, Zaher Azim, told reporters in Kabul on Wednesday that "if Pakistan's spy agency was not aware of the house near the [military] academy, it brings the agency into question."
The situation saw White House spokesman Jay Carney pressed to describe the current state of America's relationship with Pakistan at Tuesday's afternoon briefing.
"It's a complicated but important relationship. Pakistan is a key partner in the fight against terrorism," he said. "Pakistan did provide and has provided useful intelligence over the years." But he added, "There's no question that we do have our differences."
The Pakistani government, eager to get its version of events out to the rest of the world, said Tuesday that it had "deep concerns and reservations" about the way Washington carried out the raid without prior notice.
In the aftermath of Sunday's precision raid by some two dozen US Navy SEALs on the al Qaeda chief's fortified hideout in Abbottabad, the question of what to do with photos of the dead bin Laden has appeared to vex the White House.
In an interview with Brian Williams on NBC's "Nightly News," Panetta suggested that a photograph is likely to be released eventually.
"The government obviously has been talking about how best to do this, but I don't think there was any question that ultimately a photograph would be presented to the public," he said. However, he stressed that the decision rests with the White House.
According to CNN, the administration received three sets of photos -- one of bin Laden's body at an airport hangar in Afghanistan, where it was brought after the raid; one before and after his body was wrapped in a shroud for his burial at sea; and photos from the raid itself. The photo that was most recognizably him -- from the hangar -- is also the most grisly, showing a massive head wound.
Revised details of the raid also emerged Tuesday, with Carney clarifying that bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot, contrary to earlier reports. He also confirmed that two male couriers were killed on the first floor of the main building in the compound, while a woman on that floor was also killed in the crossfire. On the next level, bin Laden was located. One of his wives ran toward the first SEAL and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. His children were present when he died.
Panetta also confirmed the US Navy SEALs had been sent expecting to kill the al Qaeda leader, rather than take him alive.
"The authorities we have on bin Laden are to kill him. And that was made
clear," he said. "But it was also, as part of their rules of engagement, if he suddenly put up his hands and offered to be captured, then -- they would have the opportunity, obviously, to capture him. But that opportunity never developed."
As the SEALs swept through the three-story building, they scooped up what one US intelligence official told Politico was a "mother lode of intelligence." The raid reportedly carried off five computers, 10 hard drives and more than 100 storage devices, such as DVDs and removable flash drives.
FOX News reported that the material already had started to arrive at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., where analysts were expected to look for, among other things, any insight into new terrorist plots, leads to others in the al Qaeda network and any kind of money trail that could help identify major donors.
A senior defense official told FOX News, "the US is moving quickly to exploit this information before the cockroaches scatter."
"I think everyone was surprised by the depth and breadth of what he [bin Laden] had," a senior administration official told The Wall Street Journal.
Don’t ask rational questions. It doesn’t matter that the Pakistani military is among the best trained in the whole Muslim world but they chose to do nothing about a small mansion in a garrison city for two years. They have units capable of conducting far more dangerous missions. This “admission” makes them look more silly than they did earlier.
What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it and how many times did she tip off Osama’s men?
LOL!
“We told you the guy was hiding out in our living room! Why are you blaming us for not doing anything about it?”
As I so posted on another forum, trust the Pakistani government as far as you can throw a floor safe.
It is apparent that the undocumented ineligible pRes_ _ent
may have been PROTECTING OSAMA since 2009,
and ONLY RELENTED when Donald Trump had
Obama “on the floor” demanding his
real long form BC.
“We, the government of Pockeestahn, didn’t know anything about this compound last week, but we DID know about it a couple years ago. I guess maybe we forgot.”
BINGO!
Not sure it was all about Trump, but Obama’s plummeting poll numbers for sure!
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