Bin Laden's life on run revealed by Pakistan report
Source: Agencies |
July 10, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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OSAMA bin Laden lived in plain sight for almost a decade and was once even pulled over for speeding but not apprehended, thanks to the incompetence of Pakistan's intelligence and security services, according to an official report into his killing.
The report, leaked to Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera which circulated it late on Monday, offers fascinating details about life on the run for the world's most wanted man, who, it says, wore a cowboy hat to avoid being spotted from above.
Written by a judge-led commission that the Pakistani government set up shortly after US special forces killed bin Laden in 2011, the 336-page report is based on interviews with 201 sources, including members of his family and various officials.
The inquiry's findings include evidence of incompetence at almost every level of Pakistan's security apparatus. The report is also fiercely critical of the "illegal manner" in which the United States conducted the raid.
It chastises Pakistan's leadership for failing to detect CIA activities on its soil, and does not rule out the involvement of rogue elements within the Pakistani intelligence service.
"The US acted like a criminal thug," says the report by the Abbottabad Commission.
"But above all, the tragedy refers to the comprehensive failure of Pakistan to detect the presence of OBL (Osama bin Laden) on its territory for almost a decade or to discern the direction of US policy towards Pakistan that culminated in the avoidable humiliation of the people of Pakistan."
In one testimony showing how close bin Laden came to being captured, "Maryam," the wife of one of his most trusted aides, recounted how his car was stopped by Pakistani police in the Swat region.
"Once when they were all ... on a visit to the bazaar they were stopped for speeding by a policeman," the report says. "But her (Maryam's) husband quickly settled the matter with the policeman and they drove on."
To avoid detection from the sky, bin Laden took to wearing a cowboy hat when moving about his compound in the city of Abbottabad, his wives told investigators.
After a decade-long hunt, the CIA finally tracked down the al-Qaida leader to a compound within sight of an elite Pakistani military academy in Abbottabad, close to the capital Islamabad.
In a night-time mission by US Navy SEALs, bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011, in an episode that humiliated Pakistan's military and strained relations between the strategic allies Washington and Islamabad.
"As for (failing to detect) the CIA network, there was culpable negligence and incompetence," the report says.
"Although the possibility of some degree of connivance inside or outside the government cannot be entirely discounted, no individual can be identified as guilty of connivance."
The report, leaked to Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera which circulated it late on Monday, offers fascinating details about life on the run for the world's most wanted man, who, it says, wore a cowboy hat to avoid being spotted from above.
Written by a judge-led commission that the Pakistani government set up shortly after US special forces killed bin Laden in 2011, the 336-page report is based on interviews with 201 sources, including members of his family and various officials.
The inquiry's findings include evidence of incompetence at almost every level of Pakistan's security apparatus. The report is also fiercely critical of the "illegal manner" in which the United States conducted the raid.
It chastises Pakistan's leadership for failing to detect CIA activities on its soil, and does not rule out the involvement of rogue elements within the Pakistani intelligence service.
"The US acted like a criminal thug," says the report by the Abbottabad Commission.
"But above all, the tragedy refers to the comprehensive failure of Pakistan to detect the presence of OBL (Osama bin Laden) on its territory for almost a decade or to discern the direction of US policy towards Pakistan that culminated in the avoidable humiliation of the people of Pakistan."
In one testimony showing how close bin Laden came to being captured, "Maryam," the wife of one of his most trusted aides, recounted how his car was stopped by Pakistani police in the Swat region.
"Once when they were all ... on a visit to the bazaar they were stopped for speeding by a policeman," the report says. "But her (Maryam's) husband quickly settled the matter with the policeman and they drove on."
To avoid detection from the sky, bin Laden took to wearing a cowboy hat when moving about his compound in the city of Abbottabad, his wives told investigators.
After a decade-long hunt, the CIA finally tracked down the al-Qaida leader to a compound within sight of an elite Pakistani military academy in Abbottabad, close to the capital Islamabad.
In a night-time mission by US Navy SEALs, bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011, in an episode that humiliated Pakistan's military and strained relations between the strategic allies Washington and Islamabad.
"As for (failing to detect) the CIA network, there was culpable negligence and incompetence," the report says.
"Although the possibility of some degree of connivance inside or outside the government cannot be entirely discounted, no individual can be identified as guilty of connivance."
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