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| India-Pakistan | |
| Pakistan’s main spy agency provided the US with a lead that helped them find and kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden | |
| 2019-07-24 | |
Though Pakistan officially denies knowing that bin Laden was living on its territory, Asad Durrani, a former spymaster, told Al Jazeera in 2015 that the ISI probably knew where he was hiding and hoped to use him as a bargaining chip before he was killed. The 9/11 mastermind was tracked down after a 10-year manhunt to Abbottabad, a garrison town north of Islamabad where Pakistan’s military academy is headquartered, sparking allegations authorities were colluding with the terror group. A leaked Pakistani government report in 2013 said bin Laden arrived in Pakistan in the spring or summer of 2002 — after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan — and settled in Abbottabad in August 2005. The report, which coined the term “governance implosion syndrome” to explain the extent of official failures to detect him, said he was once stopped for speeding and enjoyed wearing a cowboy hat. Two former senior Pakistani military officials told AFP in 2015 that a defector from Pakistani intelligence assisted the US in its hunt for bin Laden, but denied the two countries had officially worked together. France24 link to story found here: Imran Khan claims Pakistani intelligence led CIA to bin Laden I have always believed UBL was sold to the US by Paki intelligence. The only question remaining is, how much did Obama pay for him ? | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 The headline implies the ISI is a monolithic entity. Rather than invoke a cultural fondness for treachery and intrigue, let's just suggest there are internal factions, not all necessarily aligned or incorruptible. As pointed out, it is a long way from Bagram to Abbottabad and an equally long way back. Hard to believe the Seals didn't have someone looking the other way. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-07-24 19:10 |
| #3 Ref #2: We're talking about two different issues. Yes, discovery could have resulted from interrogation of the courier. Conducting an apparently unopposed raid (both infiltration and exfiltration), deep inside a sovereign foreign country is yet another issue. * Bagram, AFG to Abbottabad... nearly 650 miles round trip. A bit closer as the crow flies. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-07-24 16:42 |
| #2 The official explanation is that US Intel detected Bin Laden's courier from interrogation of a high level prisoner (yes waterboarding works). The courier was eventually traced to the Abbottabad compound. Then the operation to confirm Bin Laden was also there began. The courier was the first one killed in the raid. |
| Posted by: Angaiting Thising6508 2019-07-24 16:14 |
| #1 I believe Obama beat his chest and prayed to his god when he just couldn't hold off sanctioning the hit. And allowed the military to fulfill their imperative because the deaths of three thousand innocents couldn't go unavenged without costing him a second term. We all know the kill order was from Clinton's time in office. Obama just couldn't reverse it, but he used every trick in the ISI playbook to delay it. Everyone and his goat in Pak knew what's living in Abbotabad. Even then, it was a half measure. A convenient whistle for a pressure cooker. Soon, America was involved in a pointless war and the people nearly forgot the irony that after so many of their countrymen and women were killed by muslims, they were still paying high taxes to fund and arm muslims, that muslims were being invited to their political stage daily, groomed to become 'community leaders' and representatives in America, that their dandy of a president was a muslim. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-07-24 06:07 |