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                        <title>The Express Tribune</title>
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			<title>Post-leak: Abbottabad Commission’s report should be case study for future policies</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/585347/post-leak-abbottabad-commissions-report-should-be-case-study-for-future-policies</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/585347/post-leak-abbottabad-commissions-report-should-be-case-study-for-future-policies#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Aug 13 19:39:57 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[A seminar at SAFMA discussed the effects of the leaked report of the commission.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The leaked Abbottabad Commission report provides an opportunity for Pakistan’s leaders to introspect and review the country’s intelligence apparatus.


This was the view of panelists at a discussion on the Abbottabad Commission report organised by the South Asian Free Media Association on Thursday.

The commission was constituted in 2011 by the Supreme Court at the government’s request to look into the events that led to the US’s Operation Geronimo in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011, which resulted in the killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden (OBL). The commission’s report was not made public by the Government of Pakistan but leaked copies were released by foreign media on July 8.



Panelist Imtiaz Gul, an author and journalist, said the leaked report shows that the intelligence agencies did not give the commission much to work with, but the commission did mention lack of coordination between the different agencies.

“(The) commission’s report offers us a great opportunity to review the roles of respective intelligence agencies,” said Gul.

Gul said the roles should be redefined and inter-agency coordination should be streamlined but with a proper legal framework and policies.

Moderator Ejaz Haider, a broadcast and print journalist, said the commission’s leaked report — which he believes was the final draft but an earlier version — highlights civil-military imbalance in the country in terms of the military’s hubris and the civilians’ abdication.

He also said there is an urgent need to reconfigure the intelligence set-up. Instead of the Inter Services Intelligence gathering counterterrorism intelligence, the Intelligence Bureau’s capacity should be enhanced, Haider said.



However, panelist Air Vice-Marshal (Retired) Shahzad Chaudhry cautioned that the military intelligence agencies might not cooperate with such a proposed reformation.

“The military is not going to give civilians power on a platter,” Chaudhry said. “Now you have to decide whether you want to take that power through force or through brains, and what might be the consequences of that.”

The leaked Abbottabad Commission report has blamed OBL’s presence on incompetence, but stopped short of directly pointing out whose incompetence was to blame, though it implicitly pointed fingers at the collective failure of state organs.

Chaudhry felt blaming the Pakistani authorities’ incompetence was an easy way out as the blame for complicity would have required further investigation and proof. He also pointed out that there are narratives, perpetuated perhaps partly by the establishment, which support terrorism on the basis of religion.

The panellists said the commission could not ascertain who purchased the land on which OBL’s compound was constructed and where he was killed. They said it is a matter of conjecture, since it is not easy to determine if OBL was facilitated within Pakistan, but it is unlikely that OBL could have been staying in Pakistan under the radar without anyone’s help.

The panellists said the sympathy in the lower cadres of the armed forces about jihad and the societal silence at the illegal growth of madrassas in urban centres also points at the entrenched narrative Pakistan is sheltering.

They demanded the government to make the report public and turn it into a case study on which Pakistan’s future counterterrorism policies and strategies could be based.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2nd, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Out of the loop and into Global Jihad</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/578722/out-of-the-loop-and-into-global-jihad</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/578722/out-of-the-loop-and-into-global-jihad#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 Jul 13 18:10:48 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.shafi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[New &amp;amp; greater danger: launch of Global Jihad from Pakistan which is trying to scrape along given moronic institutions.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Once more, thank you to the writers of the Abbottabad Commission Report, every page, every para of which I have now read and every third of which lays the blame for the Abbottabad disgrace squarely on some agency or arm or institution of state or other — we don’t have to name ‘em, we KNOW ‘em!

E.g., take pages 92 and 93, which tell you that the K-P police knew hang-all about the presence of the Bali bomber Umar Patek in Abbottabad, and his subsequent arrest by “an” agency. No report was made by the police’s Special Branch to the IG. And no discussion was ever had in “coordination” meetings held in Islamabad (at an undisclosed location all the world knows) about OBL’s possible presence in Abbottabad that may have emerged as a result of Patek’s interrogation, who certainly wasn’t in Abbottabad for a holiday.

Neither did they know anything at all about the American raid into the heart of Abbottabad Cantonment. In actual fact, instead of being woken by urgent telephone calls and wireless messages about the loud military raid in sleeping Abbottabad by the DIG Hazara when it was happening, the IG police in Peshawar telephoned the DIG the next morning to watch the Breaking News on TV! By which time the Americans were breakfasting back in Jalalabad and preparing to move OBL’s body via an Osprey aircraft to an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea — once more violating Pakistan’s airspace and therefore “sovereignty”. All the IG was told by the DIG was that the police were barred from the “crime scene” and “kept out of the loop”.

Let’s jump to page 103 and to the K-P CM’s statement: mostly mealy-mouthed mentioning the grand strategy, knowing full well that “bloody civilians” have so little to do with “affairs” of state. The one thing he got right was that Pakistan was haunted by demons of its own making: those it’s “agencies” had borne and cherished and fed during the Afghan Jihad against the Soviets with which we should have had no quarrel in the first place. Ergo, the murderous Taliban and their Ustad, al Qaeda. In Punjabi: Hoar Choopo Gannay.

Let’s go further, to page 130, and be horrified that the air chief was woken by the COAS at 0207 on May 2nd and asked to “scramble” his aircraft to shoot down the intruders “over Abbottabad”, by which time the Americans were well away and having refueled at Kala Dhaka, well on their way to Afghanistan and the protection of the dozens of fighters and AWACs which were in the air. The PAF takes no responsibility at all, taking shelter behind the fact that Pakistan was a Non-Nato Ally of the US and they perceived no danger from the western border.

And now to a new and even greater danger: the launch of the Global Jihad from this poor country which is just trying to scrape along given its moronic institutions (see above). The TTP have proudly announced (and then withdrawn their announcement as they are wont to do to keep the State destabilised) that they are soon going to be in Syria — some reports suggest they are already there — to help the Islamic (read Sunni) fighters against the Alawite (read Shia) regime of President Bashar alAssad.

I am not surprised. On April 5, 2011 I wrote in Dawn: “Let’s say it straight: why will their apologists not understand that the Taliban and their friends and associates … Al Qaeda or Hizbut Tahrir or Al-Muhajiroun or Afghan Taliban or Pakistani Taliban … are all linked … and are in the business of taking over the state of Pakistan, a first step to global jihad? And that they will kill and maim all who come in their way: innocent men and women and children; our army soldiers; our police, even their own apologists such as Maulana Fazlur Rehman simply because he too is a part of the organised state.”

On September 8, 2012, in “If only if”, published in this same space, I had said to IK when he was threatening to take 100,000 people to South Waziristan in a peace march and which ended up a damp squib before they even got to Fata:

“Does he understand that the Jihadi arms of the Deep State, nurtured and protected like favourite sons, ARE the problem? He wants to go to Waziristan with a 100,000-strong caravan to show solidarity with the ordinary, lay people there. But what about the Jihadis, many of them foreigners with only one aim: the takeover of the State of Pakistan/launching Global Jihad and setting up the Caliphate? I doubt it.”

And yet again in my piece, “Ambushes and talks” in this same space, I had written clearly that while I was being shouted down by my fellow panelists on a talk show on Dunya TV, I did manage to say that once the Americans were gone from the region, the TTP would turn its guns upon the world through Pakistan. I also refuted their Ghairatmand argument that all of the TTP were actually loyal sons of Pakistan, and said that large numbers were Uzbeks and Tajiks and Chechens and Arabs and Indonesians and Somalis; even Uighur Chinese whose agenda was the takeover of the state and the start of the Global Jihad from this hapless, helpless country.

Well, let’s see where this particular Tsunami takes us ....

P.S: Would that the Abbottabad Commission had asked the FO/MOI who issued Umar Patek a visa. Or, many years ago, Richard Reid the shoe bomber, or Jose Padilla the Dirty Bomber, both low-life, filthy criminals of no fixed abode who visited the Citadel of Islam several times each before they did their dirty work?!

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19th, 2013.

Like Opinion &amp; Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.]]>
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			<title>Bin Laden raid: Senate panel wants Abbottabad report made public</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/578504/bin-laden-raid-senate-panel-wants-abbottabad-report-made-public</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/578504/bin-laden-raid-senate-panel-wants-abbottabad-report-made-public#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 Jul 13 04:55:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[qamar.zaman]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Urges govt to implement the commission’s recommendations as well.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Senate panel on defence has demanded that the government make the findings of the Abbottabad Commission public and place them before the Parliament for discussion.


Discussing contents of the commission’s leaked report on Wednesday, the Senate standing committee on defence also asked the government to explore ways to implement the recommendations of the commission urgently.

Members of the panel, while calling for making the report public, noted that the information made available should include the 40-page ‘note of dissent’ prepared by Abbottabad Commission member Ashraf Jahangir Qazi.

Following the discussion, the committee members decided to hold a public hearing on ‘intelligence and intelligence reform’ soon after Eidul Fitr.

The classified 337-page report was leaked by Al Jazeera TV last week. Apart from several revelations pertaining to the nature of Osama bin Laden’s stay in Pakistan, the report contained a scathing indictment of the country’s law enforcement, security and intelligence apparatus for their ignorance of both the al Qaeda chief’s presence in the country and the subsequent raid by US special forces that led to his death.



Officials have played down the leak, insisting the report obtained by Al Jazeera was a draft and not the final version. Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed, meanwhile, had announced the government’s intentions to investigate the leak.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, committee chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed announced the panel will prepare its own set of recommendations pertaining to national security and counter-terrorism after deliberating thoroughly the Abbottabad Commission’s findings.

“There should not be any blame game or finger-pointing against certain individuals or institutions,” he stressed. “Instead, we should endeavour to examine the causes of what the commission termed a ‘collective failure’ to ensure such wrongs are reversed and do not recur.”

Meanwhile, the committee passed a resolution lauding the induction of female paratroopers in the Pakistan Army and termed it a ‘positive step in promoting gender equality within the armed forces’. Women will now play an active role, alongside men, to defend the motherland, the committee members noted while passing the resolution moved by Senator Sehar Kamran.

The committee also expressed its concern over the controversy surrounding the head of the newly-created Aviation Division. Taking up the issue based on media reports, the panel also expressed displeasure over allegations of a conflict of interest in the creation of the division.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Why jail Shakil Afridi?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/578284/why-jail-shakil-afridi</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/578284/why-jail-shakil-afridi#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jul 13 18:08:22 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[ayesha.siddiqa]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Afridi’s sin is certainly much less than senior state functionaries, especially those protecting, monitoring...]]>
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				<![CDATA[Reading through the leaked draft of the Abbottabad Commission report, one wonders why Pakistan is keeping Dr Shakil Afridi in jail when he could also be given the benefit of doubt of a non-performing system. Allegedly, one of the many drafts prepared by one of the four members of the Commission, the draft is rich in testimonies of various important people possibly involved with the May 2 American raid on the Abbottabad house where Osama bin Laden lived. There are two key issues that the commission sought to investigate: a) how did Osama bin Laden live in Pakistan and b) how did the US violate Pakistan’s airspace and conduct its mission.

There are certainly no clear answers as to who was responsible for both the above mentioned acts but we now know that Osama was indeed living in Pakistan. The report will certainly answer the speculation and rumours that Bin Laden was already dead and that the US operation was undertaken just to malign Pakistan. There is a lot of heartburn visible in many of the testimonies regarding the US not taking Pakistan into confidence. But in hindsight, who would confide in the Pakistani authorities if the system is so dysfunctional that each one of the civil or military bureaucrat testifying before the commission complains about it? The director general of Military Intelligence warns the commission that things could go really bad if the system were to continue to remain this dysfunctional. To cut a long story short, the dysfunctionality is there mainly because at the end of the day, no one is doing their work since those who are more powerful, use their authority and create a pool of inefficiency that is visible to the general public’s naked eye.

In fact, the inefficiency also seems to have crept into the Commission, which despite all the access, could not hold anyone responsible for what happened on May 2 and before. We are now all supposed to clap to the fact that it could pinpoint the inefficiency of the decision-making system, particularly pertaining to national security. But then, it doesn’t take 160 testimonies and hundreds of hours at state expense to figure that out. The national security decision-making structure that was in place in around 1976 collapsed the minute General Ziaul Haq took over in 1977. The first institution to suffer was the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, which was supposed to represent the three services and do joint planning, but was made ineffective because the army chief was also the president with little interest in sharing power. The organisation was further stabbed to death during the Musharraf years when it was even debated whether to scrap it since the army found little or no use for it.

But referring to the commission’s report, perhaps, it might have been able to conclude something if it could have access to the army chief, the president and the prime minister. These three main characters of the May 2 drama never testified before the commission. At least, greater light might have been thrown on the kind of arrangements we have with the US that forced the armed forces in general to look the other way as the American SEALs did their operation in Abbottabad.

This brings me back to the initial question that why jail Shakil Afridi just because he confessed to being paid by the CIA through USAID. Reading the report, it does not appear that he was instrumental in finding Bin Laden. He was, however, one of the many people hired by the CIA to comb the area. Has anyone even assessed after May 2 as to how many government functionaries are directly or indirectly (through family members and friends) on the CIA/USAID payroll? Probably, Afridi was not betraying his country but making a few bucks in a place where he saw everyone on the take. It is certainly irresponsible to hold him responsible for the errors of omission or commission done deliberately or inadvertently. Afridi’s sin is certainly much less than that of the other more senior state functionaries, especially those tasked with protecting and monitoring Pakistan’s airspace in that they were not able to detect at all at least four US helicopters flying inside Pakistani territory for almost three hours. The only excuse that the air chief could offer was that he was so focused on the Indian threat that he didn’t think of the western border. This is despite the fact that there were at least a couple of violations of Pakistan’s airspace by US aircraft in 2008. Is it not just plain inefficiency that it took the PAF over an hour and thirty minutes to know that there had been intrusion inside Pakistan’s airspace?

Notwithstanding the not-entirely-accurate claim made by the air chief regarding defence policy being made by the Ministry of Defence, the fact is that the responsibility of not providing security at that critical time lay with him as it did with a number of senior officers who sat silently while the US carried out its operation. Although the focus of the debate after the leaked report is to put the burden on civilian leaders, it makes sense to ask the men in uniform about their inefficiencies. Is it just because civilian leaders are too lazy and do not read books, etc. that we had a situation where the PAF higher command did not take note of the presence of a superpower in the neighbourhood? Although the air chief claims they didn’t detect the incursion, he is strongly contradicted by Air Marshal (retired) Shahid Latif who talks about the PAF hearing signs of some activity on the AfPak border. Or is it that the PAF was told to shut up as had happened in Kargil when they heard some noises in the north?

Not to forget the mother of all questions: was Shakil Afridi the only one playing ball with the US?

It is said that the government wants to now set up a commission to investigate the leak. I think it is time they investigated why the commission did not affix responsibility on people for not doing their duty. It is important to observe the decision-making trail and name those who put the country at risk by accommodating Bin Laden and allowing Americans to intrude. Without those details, the report is not worth the paper it is written on.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18th, 2013.

Like Opinion &amp; Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.]]>
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			<title>Abbottabad Commission: Leaked report was rough, not final cut</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/576739/abbottabad-commission-findings-leaked-report-was-rough-not-final-cut</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/576739/abbottabad-commission-findings-leaked-report-was-rough-not-final-cut#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 14 Jul 13 04:57:10 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[syed.talat.hussain]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Differences arose among members on approach to inquiry; each member produced his own draft.]]>
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				<![CDATA[While a frenzied debate is raging over the Abbottabad Commission report released by Al Jazeera, the report is actually an earlier draft that had been prepared by the commission through a bizarre internal arrangement under which several versions were to be produced by the members in the hope of reconciling them all into a final one in the end.


Interviews with senior civil and political sources reveal that after the formation of the commission, differences crept up among its members on the approach to the inquiry, the scope and method of inquiry and more important, in drafting the findings of the commission.

Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, a former foreign office bureaucrat with an international career stint in Iraq, wanted to give the report “an extraordinary cutting edge, one that would make the substance stand out for a long time to come,” said a source at the law ministry.

The Abbottabad Commission’s President, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, a former Supreme Court judge, wanted the report to “not exceed the requirements as communicated by the ministry of law, justice and parliamentary affairs”. These requirements were to ascertain the full facts regarding the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan; investigate the circumstances and facts regarding the US operation in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011; determine the nature, background and causes of lapses of authorities, if any; and finally to make consequential recommendations.

Sources reveal that in order to avoid lingering arguments among the members, it was decided that each member would produce his own draft and then a final version would contain the substance of each one of them.

As a result, three drafts were prepared while the fourth member, Abbas Khan, was never really interested in burning the midnight oil over the task at hand.

The Al Jazeera scoop is actually one of these three drafts. So whose draft is it? This is to be determined by the Intelligence Bureau director who has been asked by the federal government to look into the source that caused embarrassment by leaking the document.

In all probability, this draft is the one prepared by Ashraf Jehangir Qazi.

“I have seen the three drafts and all I can tell you is that this is the most aggressive draft of the three, but not the final one,” claimed a senior law ministry official.

The “aggressive draft” could have been prepared by Qazi, who from the very word go wanted not to be associated with something that lacks “soul and substance.” The language of the draft in circulation is exceptionally harsh, the idiom is pointed and all of its over 300 pages are peppered with not-so-oblique references to the failure of the intelligence network in tracking the presence of OBL and countering CIA’s operations on Pakistani soil.



Sources who had witnessed some of the meetings of the commission suggested that of the four members, Qazi’s line of inquiry always centred on these themes and in his conversations with his fellow members he used many of the phrases that are now found in the draft released by Al Jazeera.

“This does not mean that the leak has taken place at the level of commission. We hope it has not. They are all honourable members of impeccable credibility. All it means is that what you all have been reporting on for days is not the authentic report,” said the same the official who was grossly unhappy over the fact that the Pakistani media did not pay any attention to Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal’s statements about the lack of authenticity of the draft doing the rounds after Al Jazeera uploaded its scanned copies on its website.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said in a telephonic interview that a special committee was formed by former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf which was headed by former law minister Senator Farooq H Naek with the defense secretary and foreign affairs secretary as its other two members. This committee was supposed to read the final report and make the recommendation on when and how to release it.

“This the committee never did, and now we are looking at the final version of the report to decide about its official release,” said Rashid. He also seconded the assessment that Al Jazeera released report was just a draft.

This deepens the mystery about what the final draft may look like, and whether the tone and tenor of its formulations as indeed its final recommendations would be the same as those that are contained in the draft in circulation.

“The testimonies and statements that the report relies on are the same so there will not be much change in the hard facts of the final report,” said a source who claims to have the seen the final report. “However, the interpretations given in the draft that you (media) have and what is official could be markedly different.”

This is partly because of the desultory manner in which the commission gathered its facts. There are “notes” and “impressions” penned by hired researchers and gleaned by members of the commission throughout their meetings but very few, if any, “substantive statements presented in black and white.” The commission chose not to have audio, video record of these statements of various characters who deposed before them and relied on the minute-taking method. For this reason, there was no chance of going back to any important claim and crosscheck its true context before using it as a basis for drawing conclusions and making recommendations.

This meant that the final word on what everyone said was with the drafter.

The much-awaited final draft should be coming up soon. The ministry of foreign affairs and even the prime minister’s top advisers are convinced that an early release of the real report would kill the sensation generated by the extraordinary opinionated draft that holds the market of debate these days.

However that itself might turn out to be wishful thinking. As it is, the delay in the release of the “official and final” report has made the Al Jazeera-released draft very popular. It has been referenced and cross-referenced endlessly in national and international media and analysts have pored over each and every word of it. The “final report”, whenever it is let out, would now be read in comparison with this draft and all changes and differences between the two will be keenly observed and commented upon. If the changes are too many, then the final report will never escape the charge of being deliberately modified to avoid harsh conclusions.

More importantly, the final version itself has two versions! The final report, reportedly authored by General (retd) Nadeem Ahmad, has a dissenting note by Qazi, who theorises about the probable causes of OBL’s presence in Pakistan and uses both his intuition and opinion to point to the sinister plot that perhaps someone in Pakistan knew about his whereabouts. On this dissenting note, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has his own comments (dissenting note upon a dissenting note).

No one in the government wanted to comment on this war of dissenting notes so in all probability the final version will be minus this controversial side, which is part of the record at least. Whether it is released in its entirety or not is to be seen.


Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Meaningful introspection: A concept lost on us</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/576078/meaningful-introspection-a-concept-lost-on-us</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/576078/meaningful-introspection-a-concept-lost-on-us#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jul 13 18:04:54 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[sarah.khan]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[The only hope of reformation and betterment lies within this noble habit of accepting our faults.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The Abbottabad Commission Report recently leaked by Al Jazeera has put Pakistan’s state machinery in an embarrassing position and for all the right reasons. It is increasingly distressing to watch the blame-games and finger-pointing theatricals being broadcast on television. The civilian leadership is insistent upon hurling all sorts of accusations; while the representatives of the military, euphemistically known as the defence analysts, appear eager to elucidate that the civilian authorities are equally responsible for the colossal debacle.

It is a very simple principle to understand that the act of not owning one’s mistakes is equivalent to a gravely stubborn impasse which defeats the purpose of a thorough inquiry in the first place. In order to redress a failure, improve a system, and avoid similar disasters in future, it is absolutely imperative as the first step to own the fault. How can a mistake be corrected if no one is even willing to accept that they have made it?

Future stability at the cost of temporary humiliation is not an irrational trade-off at all, if larger national interests are as sincerely considered as fervently as patriotic sentiments are brandished. In order to break the pattern of national humiliations, there must be a consensus upon placing the future above the past, and national prestige above personal egos.

I have always found finger-pointing habits ingrained deep in our culture and character. There are numerous instances when we have absolved ourselves from our self-committed faults and allocated all energies towards external conspiracy-laden explanations. To note two recent examples: nine foreign tourists were brutally massacred near Nanga Parbat, and some of our well-known anchorpersons and analysts began to say that perhaps India may be involved in this. Similarly, in the case of the bombing of the Ziarat Residency, there was an almost immediate uproar about a foreign hand.

Surely with evidence, a foreign hand in any of the incidents can be proven, or disproven. But the point is that it is far more important for us and our state to own up to the blame that were incompetent in the case of the May 2 raid. Even in the case of the Ziarat Residency, the incident should, more than anything else, prod us to reflect upon how our own stubborn negligence bore separatist movements in the first place. But unfortunately, meaningful introspection is a concept lost on us as a nation.

For our pathological selective blindness, the diagnosis of the root-cause is not as elusive as the remedy. Most of us have been brought up, educated, and socialised to believe that we can do no wrong. Take for instance, Pakistan Studies which indoctrinates us with a conflict model of history through which we choose to portray ourselves as the innocent victim while the ‘wicked bloodthirsty Hindus’ incessantly ravaged our existence. Similarly, government textbooks emphasise the villainous role of the Indian army that led to the creation of Bangladesh, instead of displaying even a shred of regret at the way West Pakistan treated its eastern counterpart.

Our history lessons tell us that our country, our nation, has never been the aggressor in any war or conflict. That the provocative attack has always been launched first by the evil ‘Other’, is an idea embedded so deep in our minds that we fail to accept the objective view of history that might tell us a very different tale. My point is that, we as individuals and as a nation, find it practically unthinkable to see ourselves at fault, as a result of such indoctrination during formative years.

And therein lies the problem. Patriotism or loyalty to institutions should not mean blindfolding ourselves to our glaring failures, and to our history’s fiascoes. Love for one’s country must go beyond hollow sloganeering. A crumbling society cannot afford the luxury of blame games. Let us encourage among ourselves and also invite our rulers to develop the positive culture of introspection. The only hope of reformation and betterment lies within this noble habit of accepting our faults.

Let it be known that there is no treason in speaking up the truth.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2013.

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			<title>The Abbottabad Commission Report: what next?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/576076/the-abbottabad-commission-report-what-next</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/576076/the-abbottabad-commission-report-what-next#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jul 13 17:45:00 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[shahzad chaudhry]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[It is best to be direct in the mode of recommending remedial steps, leave transformational notions to public forums.]]>
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				<![CDATA[It turned out to be reasonable effort, in the end. The Commission chosen to investigate Pakistan’s May 2, 2011 humiliation, when Osama bin Laden (OBL) was taken out by the US Navy Seals in a daring raid in the hilly city of Abbottabad, began as  a motley group of non-associated professionals assigned to investigate failures, which encompassed, policy, strategy and operational and tactical inadequacies in both conception and response.

They first had to learn what was to be investigated since the entire Neptune Spear raid was built around detailed tactical planning, deep operational comprehension of the time and space dimensions for the operation, and placed at risk serious strategic issues. Intelligence, of all hues, was the elephant in the room and typically, in the tradition of the ‘blind men’, members of the Commission either chose to miss the critical defining parameters that may have carried the blame to someone’s door step, or simply saw it the way any blind man would.

There were three specific failures that needed to be explored by the Commission:

Policy — was the US a friend or a foe; if a friend, why did it choose to take OBL out in a secret raid; how was the raid to be seen in the context of the $7.5 billion aid that Pakistan continued to avail before and after the raid — if indeed the raid was a stealthy attack against Pakistan’s sovereignty, why were we still continuing a relationship and accepting monetary assistance; why was there a widespread anti-American sentiment among the people at large, while the state and its government were variously included as Major Non-Nato Allies and a frontline state in the war against terror; why was there confusion in the minds of the people that Pakistan was fighting America’s war.

Intelligence — how was Osama not detected; how wasn’t he kept track of as he moved from one place to another, hiring houses, getting treated, producing children and surely eating and living, including paying bills, frequent visits by the census guys and the local patwari and the thanedar, perhaps paying some sort of a municipal tax too. Clearly, of the two survival strategies, he chose the one that placed him right before the eyes of all with a greater assurance that that was the last place someone will look as long as he kept his wits about and melded with his surroundings; the other, of course, is to choose a place most difficult to access and breach, simply because everyone would suspect him to be exactly in such a locale. Would he need to be lucky? A lot; in either case.

Military — this was, perhaps, the most technically complex and also the simplest aspect to discern as a failure. First, the easy part: when a superpower chooses to violate a territory in completion of its mission, it will normally do so without a hint of an opposition from a smaller country. If both also happen to be partners in a venture — read war on terror — there is a case for plausible inaction. Despite the infamy of having been ‘violated’, the going joke was what if the American forces had indeed been detected entering the Pakistani territory? Answer: it would have entailed an even bigger dilemma, of both decision-making, and the consequences.

The more complicated part of the inadequate air defence response: with a friendly air force controlling the skies of the western neighbour, the air defence deployment and response was as for peacetime. Perhaps, the best way to understand this paradox of sovereignty and lack of preparedness to defend the western borders is to compare with the need for a car in an emergency. It would be paranoia to keep the car started up at night even as you sleep just because of an apprehension that a need may arise. It would be foolish to do so when you do not foresee the need at all. In case of a threat, the defences are fully deployed and perpetually activated with short-fuse response to initiate action. The air force’s reaction could and should have been quicker, far quicker, except that the decision-making hibernated between the realities of a simple response action, with very complex consequences.

If the report seems short of landing direct blame, other than identifying systemic organisational failures, it directly relates to the absence of such a term of reference, which will invariably ask for “apportioning blame, if any”. But even more importantly, there wasn’t the ‘smoking gun’ that got found. Yes, Osama was the smoking gun, as indeed was the US raid to kill him. But who really was holding the smoking gun when both Osama and the raid happened, has remained a mystery. For Osama, the entire intelligence structure is held responsible, even if chiefly the ISI, and the inability to react appropriately to the raid is a systemic collapse which failed to determine if the US indeed was a friend or a foe. The then DG ISI accepted the blame and offered to resign but was reprieved. Heads should have rolled even if it were as a consequence of internal departmental processes. If indeed this was done, it never was publicly shared.

To the corrective measures then. The recommended restructuring of the security apparatus in the policy domain is well suggested; except that thereon the space has been rather profusely devoted to some ramblings on individually preferred notions of nation building. It is best to be direct in the mode of recommending remedial steps and leave transformational notions to public forums where those must first be debated.

Are we better placed now to handle emergent situations loaded with significant consequences? Perhaps not, and that makes the future dicier than what it was on May 2. Think Ayman alZawahiri. There simply will be no place to hide.

As this aircraft carrier of a state slowly wheels around, there are likely to be a few more hiccups. But it must all begin with the government first taking ownership of the Report.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2013.

Like Opinion &amp; Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.]]>
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			<title>Of Clouseaus and ‘noise-controlled vehicles’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/575599/of-clouseaus-and-noise-controlled-vehicles</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/575599/of-clouseaus-and-noise-controlled-vehicles#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jul 13 18:28:47 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.shafi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[How in God’s name did a structure as humongous as OBL’s come up in Cantonment limits, and no one noticed?]]>
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				<![CDATA[Perfectly in keeping with our especial penchant of always attempting to cover up the truth; to mitti pao Sirji, mitti pao; to shove every distasteful thing under that humongous and most filthy carpet that we maintain with a diligence that would astound the world itself, the witnesses who appeared before the Abbottabad Commission have proved themselves.

Whilst the first 79 pages of the Report suggest it to be a thorough, intelligent and a brave effort at trying to get to the truth of the US raid on a house in Abbottabad Cantonment on the night of May 1st and 2nd, 2011 in which the terrorist Osama bin Laden (OBL), his son, his two minders and the wife of one of them were killed, I will this week only comment on what I have read thoroughly so far.

It is, indeed, important that the Report be taken apart surgically and loudmouths (no need to name them for we know who they are!) who have so far gotten away with — metaphorically speaking, of course — murders are punished so that our country never has to go through such an embarrassment ever again.

It is also extremely disingenuous, nay foolishly dishonest, to shovel all the blame on to the Commando now that he is safely in jug: blaming the Abbottabad disgrace on him for acquiescing to American demands to join the fight in the first place. Another, a former Brigadier castigated the Commando on TV just the other day for causing the Abbottabad debacle by commandeering most of the “150 to 200” ISI operatives to keep an eye on his political opponents! 150 to 200?

Why are we so surprised at the American action when we were told in no uncertain manner by none other than (as the Report says too) President Obama himself that the US would take “unilateral action to take out high value targets” if they had to.

So, the Americans came, got their man — though why the Commission terms his killing as “reported” in Chapter 1, page 16, while at every other mention of him or his body it accepts that he was killed that night, escapes me — and got clean away, losing a Black Hawk and blowing it up; blasting several doors in the house and generally making a lot of noise for a whole 35 minutes, maybe more, a mere kilometre away from the main gate of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA).

The Quick Reactionary Forces (QRFs) of both the famed Frontier Force Regiment and of the PMA, where future brass hats are manufactured, weren’t that quick were they, arriving on the scene much after the Americans were well away and almost approaching their refuelling stop at Kala Dhaka. Of course, when the coast was clear, everyone and Charlie’s aunt “rushed” (my word here, which the late Ardeshir Cowasjee forever used about DCs and SPs “rushing” hither and yon after the event!) to OBL’s, oh well all right, “compound”.

Here and now let me say that the Report quite clearly and unabashedly concludes that the police, when they did arrive, were not let anywhere near the house but kept well away to form an outer cordon, which I can only think would be no less than several hundred feet away from the scene of occurrence.

It is all a case of many Inspector Jacque Clouseau’s — yes him of the Pink Panther series played so brilliantly by Peter Sellers — every sleuth with two left feet and three thumbs. How in heaven’s name did they not pick up on the whale-sized holes in the stories spun by Maryam and Bushra, the wives of OBL’s minders, and Umar Patek, the Indonesian terrorist, tied to the Bali bombings?

There were other Clouseau’s (with apologies to Peter Sellers): how in God’s name did a structure as humongous as OBL’s come up in Cantonment limits where designs and architectural drawings of proposed buildings are gone through with a fine-toothed comb? And quite suddenly, a third storey appears, and high walls with razor wire? And, er, no one from the Cantonment authorities noticed?

Really! The army’s own inquiry had the effrontery to remark: “The board of inquiry maintained that the police ignored or failed to take note of even the visible violation of cantonment regulations in the shape of construction of a third storey at the compound.” Last heard, the police do not have building inspectors in their ranks! Ludicrous.

And then there is the curious case of OBL’s neighbour, Major Amir Aziz, who first refused to turn up, was forced to and then spun a most curious tale. Due to paucity of space, let me just take his evidence about one Lt Col Saeed Iqbal and his bulletproof “noise-controlled vehicle”, which the Major estimates cost the Colonel Rs30 million. What pray, is a “noise-controlled” vehicle?

Apparently, the Colonel came to the Major’s house, climbed onto his roof and photographed his “pets”? What “pets” does the Major own that could only be photographed from the roof? The Major also reports that he is not sure if the Colonel took pictures of OBL’s house.

We are fed another nugget here: that the Colonel’s son was the Commando’s ADC (he does not tell us his Service: army, navy or air force) and is now serving as a private secretary to him. Moreover, the Colonel runs a security business, which employs a lot of ISI ex-servicemen. We are also told that the Colonel soon after disappeared abroad after trying to, or selling his properties in this country.

In the end, kudos to the Commission for “insisting” that the Report be published without delay, both in English and Urdu, so this country could avoid such a situation again. And shame on the PPP government for not doing so for well on seven months.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2013.

Like Opinion &amp; Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.]]>
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			<title>Abbottabad commission: Leaked report calls for redefining Pak-US ties</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/575439/abbottabad-commission-leaked-report-calls-for-redefining-pak-us-ties</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/575439/abbottabad-commission-leaked-report-calls-for-redefining-pak-us-ties#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jul 13 05:16:04 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[qamar.zaman]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=575439</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Maintains there is little basis for a strategic relationship.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Abbottabad Commission, in its report, has observed that while Pakistan has paid the price for its relationship with the US, the government has seldom been honest about it with the country’s people.


“This relationship has been on a rollercoaster ever since it began,” says the commission’s report.

“Governments in Pakistan have seldom been honest [about the relationship with the US] with their own people, leading to inevitable crises of expectations, disappointments and negative consequences. It has never been a genuine people to people, transparent or honest relationship,” it adds.



Although it notes that this is inevitable to some extent in any country’s relationship with a world power, it calls for a need to free Pakistan-US relations from ‘false assumptions’.

“The US and Pakistan may share some policy objectives but there is not a sufficient basis for a strategic partnership between them. US policies towards the region in which Pakistan is situated make that impossible,” the report states. According to it, the relationship has been based largely on Pakistan’s dependency on US economic and military assistance, and the contingent utility of Pakistan for the US.

“[The relationship] is not rooted in a tradition of shared culture, political perceptions and strategic interests… More often it has pretended to be a strategic relationship without being one, except for brief durations of overlapping interests.”

Nevertheless, according to the commission, the relationship has been ‘mutually beneficial’ at its best.

The report notes that India has been the strategic partner of choice in South Asia for the US since the end of the cold war. It contends that Washington’s discriminatory policy on civil-nuclear cooperation and its repeated violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty means that many Pakistanis view it as the primary external threat the country faces today. It adds that the US’s likely post-2014 policies in Afghanistan, the ‘very real’ threat of a war against Iran, its emerging hostility towards China and strategic partnership with India places ‘definite and undeniable strategic limits’ on its relationship with Pakistan.

“Once this is honestly accepted, a healthy and mutually beneficial bilateral relationship will become more feasible.”

Regarding the policies of former president Pervez Musharraf in the immediate post-9/11 environment, the report maintains that “Pakistan chose to become an unenthusiastic ally of the US in its war on terror in Afghanistan.”

It adds that while there were several UN resolutions on terrorism and the arrest of Osama bin Laden, there was no specific UN Security Council resolution authorising the military invasion of Afghanistan.

“For its connivance in the illegal US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Pakistan was duly rewarded in 2004 with the status of Major Non-Nato Ally and a substantial military and civilian assistance package. This soon led to a loose and largely unsupervised visa regime for Americans, allowing the CIA to spread its tentacles throughout Pakistan. This was in fact a condition of American assistance; it ultimately facilitated the unilateral manhunt of OBL.”

According to the report, cooperation between the US Central Intelligence Agency and Inter Services Intelligence led to the arrests and elimination of hundreds of terrorists, including several high value targets (HVT) associated with al Qaeda. It states the ISI conducted 891 operations against al Qaeda members, killing 866 – including a hundred senior figures – and apprehending 922 operatives – including 96 HVTs.

The cost of such cooperation for Pakistan, however, has been substantial, both in terms of blood and economic burden, the report maintains.

“Many tens of thousands of civilian lives and many thousands of military lives have been lost. Many more have been seriously wounded and crippled for life. Many hundreds of thousands of civilians were internally displaced from their homes by military operations. Similarly, illegal US drone attacks have taken their toll of human lives, and have inflicted massive physical injury, property destruction, psychological trauma and political alienation in Pakistan.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Abbottabad Commission report: Fazl questions failure to fix clear responsibility</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/575408/abbottabad-commission-report-fazl-questions-failure-to-fix-clear-responsibility</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/575408/abbottabad-commission-report-fazl-questions-failure-to-fix-clear-responsibility#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jul 13 04:37:54 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[umer.nangiana]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=575408</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says panel did not identify individuals for failing to prevent US choppers from flying in.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pointing out certain incomplete references and ‘loopholes’ in the Abbottabad Commission report, Maulana Fazlur Rehman questioned why the report failed to fix clear responsibility for the security lapse which allowed the US Navy Seals helicopters to fly into Pakistan.

“Why were the radars on sleeping mode on the night of the raid? How did the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) manage to establish its intelligence network in Pakistan?” questioned Jamiat-e-Ullema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief, adding that the report failed to clearly state the reasons and pinpoint the responsibility on individuals for the lapse that undermined Pakistan’s sovereignty.



In a statement issued by Fazl’s spokesperson, Jan Achakzai, the JUI-F chief said the commission report into the raid on Osama bin Laden only vaguely fixed responsibility on the political and military leadership of the time, but failed to identify individuals.

He added the report also failed to explain the reasons why radars on Pakistan’s western border, from where threats have been constantly emerging, failed to detect the US choppers.

“It was shocking that this border was poorly covered while there should have been air defences put in place working round the clock,” said Fazl.

He added that the report did not recommend lessons to be learnt from the raid to prevent such a scenario from happening in the future.

Further, he added, that former ISI chief Lieutenant-General (retd) Ahmed Shuja Pasha’s statement regarding drone strikes in Pakistan was alarming.

“How would the US take our protest against drone strikes seriously then?” Fazl questioned.

The report quoted Pasha as telling the commission that Pakistan’s “political and military leadership had an understanding over the drone attacks with the US.”

The JUI-F chief urged the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government to make sure there was no covert complicity on drone attacks at any level. He asked the government to probe who leaked the report to Al Jazeera news network.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>What the OBL report means for Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/575200/what-the-obl-report-means-for-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/575200/what-the-obl-report-means-for-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jul 13 18:01:10 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Atika.rehman]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=575200</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[While it doesn't establish Pakistan’s complicity in hiding OBL, it does highlight a complete communication failure.]]>
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				<![CDATA[It’s like May 2, 2011 all over again. Except that instead of missing pieces and details, there is a story to satiate your ghairat’s rabidly thirsty disbelief.

Don’t be fooled by the faded A4 paper and plain typewriter font; this isn’t a US Navy Seal’s best-selling hardcover of the Osama bin Laden (OBL) raid. It’s painfully bare in terms of storytelling but there is lots of colour. Quotes from Bin Laden’s wives; his children and the families of those who protected him in his final years. There’s mention of a cowboy hat OBL wore; the six sets of shalwar kameez he had for the winter and summer. It even tells you that OBL’s remedy for lethargy is some chocolate and fruit. And that he was nicknamed miskeen baba by the naive child of the operative who guarded him. All this and more is available for your viewing pleasure in a ‘leaked’ 337-page report of the Abbottabad Commission’s findings, obtained and made public by Al Jazeera.

It is obvious that Pakistani authorities (the government and military) did not want to officially make the report public upon its conclusion, since it places the blame entirely on them for failing to develop any reliable intelligence that would have helped track down the world’s most-wanted terrorist or the raid that took him out. Making it public would mean the powers that be would once again feel pressure to explain their lapses.

Without holding back, the report describes the lazy approach of local security officials towards their duties (words used are “unhurried and laidback”) and also underscores that “the disconnect between the civilian and intelligence administration seems to have been complete”. While it does not establish Pakistan’s complicity in hiding OBL, it does highlight a complete communication breakdown between our security agencies, along with an almost sluggish attitude towards gathering intelligence that could have prevented this national embarrassment.

But while the commission’s observations do confirm one’s suspicions of the military’s handling (or lack thereof) of the incident, apart from a request to offer the nation an apology, no name has been spotlighted in being responsible for the “national tragedy”. How far can this unwillingness to bring those responsible to task continue?

The entire episode reeks of an absence of ministerial responsibility — a concept alien to our country. From the list of “national tragedies” that have befallen us, there is not one where a person at the helm of affairs has stepped down. The need for someone to take responsibility and step down to set a precedent is as great now as it was two years ago, when it came to light that OBL took refuge in Pakistan for nearly a decade and the US conducted a raid without our security agencies having a clue that it was being planned.

If May 2 is, as the report terms it, “the biggest failure [of national security] since 1971”, now is the time to act. Indeed, this report is not the “end of the world” for Pakistan. But it should be reason enough for there to be a review and restructuring of our military and civilian agencies? The current parliament needs to take this matter seriously, and be dynamically involved in drafting policies of national security. There has to be greater parliamentary oversight of the national security and intelligence apparatus, as should be the case in ever democracy.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2013.

Like Opinion &amp; Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.]]>
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			<title>Osama bin Laden: How not to lose a fugitive in 10 long years</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/574961/osama-bin-laden-how-not-to-lose-a-fugitive-in-10-long-years</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/574961/osama-bin-laden-how-not-to-lose-a-fugitive-in-10-long-years#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jul 13 04:29:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[news.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=574961</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Bin Laden hid from spy satellites under a cowboy hat, did not pay property taxes.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The Guardian newspaper notes that Osama bin Laden hid from spy satellites under a cowboy hat, did not pay property taxes and had a run-in with a traffic policeman in Swat.

1. According to the Abbottabad commission “collective incompetence and negligence” by the intelligence agencies was the main reason why the al Qaeda chief remained undetected for so long. Thankfully for us, this proves Pakistani army not housing the terrorist.


2. A traffic policeman in Swat could have ended the hunt for the world’s most wanted man soon after 2001 had he not “quickly settled the matter,” when he pulled over a car for over-speeding, carrying a clean-shaved Osama. This was when Bin Laden was being smuggled into the country.

3. America’s number one enemy used to wear a cowboy hat and stand under grape trellis to avoid being seen by US spy satellites.

4. Osama was a man of frugal tastes. Before coming to Abbottabad, he had just six pairs of shalwar qameez. His lack of possessions made neighbours believe that Bin Laden moved between locations.

5. Pakistan suffers from “governance implosion syndrome”. The ISI was unwilling to share important intelligence with the police.”

6. Since the children were never allowed to leave the premises of the house, Bin Laden tried to entertain his grandchildren by encouraging them to compete against each other in tending their vegetable patches. When the neighbour’s daughter recognised from TV that the ‘poor uncle’ who lived upstairs was world’s most wanted man, she could not watch television anymore.

7.  Although a garrison town, the prime reason that Abottabad is free of terrorist attacks is that so many terrorist families live there. Bin Laden’s band of brothers who also dwelled in the suburban city included another top al Qaeda operative, Abu Faraj al-Libi and a Bali bomber, Umar Patek.

8. The property was bought using a fake national ID card, the third floor was built illegally and the occupants did not pay taxes.

9. Pakistan’s spies deeply distrust their US counterparts. According to Pasha, the “main agenda of the CIA was to have the ISI declared a terrorist organisation”. The CIA refused to share intelligence with the ISI because the CIA wanted to deny Pakistan the credit for nabbing the world’s most wanted man.

10. The CIA was very active in Abbottabad and there were “ground assets” to aid the raid on Bin Laden. “Suspicious activities” included the cutting down of trees to clear the approach of the helicopters and the renting of a nearby house for people supposedly working for the USAID.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Abbottabad Commission report: Military faults local police</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/574928/abbottabad-commission-report-military-faults-local-police</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/574928/abbottabad-commission-report-military-faults-local-police#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jul 13 04:25:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[azam.khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=574928</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says it was the police’s responsibility which failed to observe suspicious activities at the compound.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[In their briefing to the Abbottabad Commission, Pakistan’s military passed the buck to the local police for not spotting the house Osama Bin Laden and his family had been living in for years.


Army’s board of inquiry, established under Lt-Gen Javed Iqbal, told the commission that the local Nawan Shehar police station was located close to Bin Laden’s compound; but the police failed to observe anything unusual about the place and no report on anything suspicious was ever filed neither by the police nor special branch, which were responsible to maintain a close watch on the area. This is according to the Abbottabad Commission report leaked to Arab news network Al Jazeera, a copy of which is available on its website.

The board of inquiry maintained that the police ignored or failed to take note of even the visible violation of cantonment regulations in the shape of construction of a third storey at the compound. “They also did not detect anything strange or noteworthy in the manner or the activities of the two brothers; while the special branch had the responsibility to keep an eye on all unusual activities, behaviours or visits to the area due to its proximity to Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), the board stated.”

“Since high-profile personalities regularly visited the PMA, sweeps were regularly carried out to ensure against any untoward incident. However, the special branch was understaffed and underequipped to do a proficient job,” the board stated. According to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)’s estimates and Bin Laden’s diary, he had moved to the areas in August 2005 and had maintained a low profile.  “And as the house was located within the Abbottabad cantonment; it was least expected to draw any attention as a possible terror hideout,” the board said.

The board maintained that due to the presence of a plethora of security and intelligence agencies and civil and military organisations, it was difficult to coordinate and share information. Poor coordination among agencies, duplication of work, qualitative and quantitative inadequacies of training, skills and equipment were among the reasons that made it possible for Bin Laden to evade detection in Abbottabad, the board told the commission

Speaking before the commission, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) said that the American CIA had rented a number of houses in Islamabad, a development that had been reported to the government.

The spy agency said Bin Laden was not operational since 2005 and his Egyptian deputy Ayman al Zawahiri was running al Qaeda’s affairs; therefore, everyone, including the US, thought that Bin Laden was dead.

The commission rejected the ISI’s assertion, saying that the US had never called off its search for Bin Laden, they had just stopped sharing information with the ISI.  The commission said the ISI abandoned its search as soon as it thought the US had stopped looking for Bin Laden.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Leaked report: How Bin Laden once escaped unnoticed in Swat</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/574397/leaked-report-how-bin-laden-once-escaped-unnoticed-in-swat</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/574397/leaked-report-how-bin-laden-once-escaped-unnoticed-in-swat#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jul 13 04:18:54 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zahid.gishkori]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=574397</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Account of the two families who served al Qaeda chief in Pakistan .]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Maryam, the wife of a Pakistani al Qaeda operative, Ibrahim, has made a shocking revelation about how the global terror network chief, Osama bin Laden, once narrowly escaped unnoticed by police in Swat district.


She said that the tall Arab [Bin Laden] and his family were once stopped by a policeman in a bazaar in Swat. “They [including Bin Laden] were stopped for speeding by a policeman,” the Abbottabad Commission report quoted Maryam as saying. The report was leaked to Arab television channel Al Jazeera.

But Ibrahim very quickly settled the matter and they drove away unnoticed, she added.

Ibrahim, his brother Ibrar and their family had been serving Bin Laden from the day he managed to sneak into Pakistan from neighbouring Afghanistan, according to the report. Then the Bin Laden family left for Mansehra and later shifted to Abbottabad.



The report reveals that Ibrahim’s nine-year-old daughter, Rahma, once asked her father why “the uncle who lives upstairs [Bin Laden]” in the Abbottabad compound never visited the bazaar. Her father said: “He [Bin Laden] was too poor to go out and buy anything.” Since then, Rahma referred to Bin Laden as ‘Miskeen Kaka (poor uncle)’.

Maryam, hailing from Shangla district, her four kids and husband served the al Qaeda chief in his Abbottabad compound. One day her daughter, Rahma, saw Bin Laden on television and immediately recognised him as her ‘Miskeen Kaka’. Ibrahim – whose brother Ibrar and his wife Sharifa also served the Bin Laden family – stopped his family members from interacting with the Bin Laden family.

Then Maryam asked for the real identity of ‘Miskeen Kaka’ who was always referred to as the sheikh. But one day, Ibrahim admitted that Rehma was right and that ‘Miskeen Kaka’ was in fact Osama bin Laden.  Then she asked Ibrahim how had he taken upon himself such a huge responsibility to serve and protect such a globally wanted man, Ibrahim said it was the will of Allah. During their six-year stay in Abbottabad, Maryam never saw Bin Laden once.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Leaked report: Pakistan had 'major failures' during OBL incident</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/574100/leaked-report-pakistan-had-major-failures-during-obl-incident</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/574100/leaked-report-pakistan-had-major-failures-during-obl-incident#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 08 Jul 13 17:16:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[web.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=574100</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The reoprt compiled with Al Jazeera points out mistakes on Pakistan's part in the bin Laden killing.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[More than two years after a raid by US forces on Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, Al Jazeera on Monday released a leaked report by the subsequent Pakistani commission formed to probe the matter.

The independent commission's report, which had been formally handed over to the government earlier in the year, had not been released to the public.

It bore a scathing assessment of the Pakistani government and the security structures.

Perhaps aware of the implications of its findings, the Commission notes that it had "apprehensions that the Commission’s report would be ignored, or even suppressed", and urged the government to release it to the public.

The government, however, did not do so. The report was buried by the government and never made public, until Al Jazeera got hold of it and released it online.

Findings of the Report

The Commission's 336 page report is scathing, holding both the government and the military responsible for ‘gross incompetence’, leading to ‘collective failures’ that allowed Bin Laden to escape detection, and the United States to perpetrate ‘an act of war’.

The Commission was charged with establishing whether the failures of the Pakistani government and military were due to incompetence, or complicity. It was given overarching investigative powers, and, in the course of its inquiry, interviewed more than 201 witnesses - including members of Bin Laden's own family, the chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, and other senior provincial, federal and military officials.

It also notes that the government's intention in conducting the inquiry was likely aimed at ‘regime continuance, when the regime is desperate to distance itself from any responsibility for the national disaster that occurred on its watch’ and was likely to be ‘a reluctant response to an overwhelming public and parliamentary demand’.

The Commission found that there had been a complete collapse of governance and law enforcement - a situation it termed ‘Government Implosion Syndrome’, both in the lack of intelligence on Bin Laden's nine-year residence in Pakistan, and in the response to the US raid that killed him. It finds that ‘culpable negligence and incompetence at almost all levels of government can more or less be conclusively established’.

On the presence of a CIA network in Pakistan tracking down Bin Laden, without the Pakistani establishment's knowledge, the Commission finds "this [was] a case of nothing less than a collective and sustained dereliction of duty by the political, military and intelligence leadership of the country".

It also states that the US violation of Pakistani sovereignty, in carrying out the raid unilaterally, had been allowed to happen due to inaccurate and outdated threat assessments within the country's defence and strategic policy establishments.

"It is official or unofficial defence policy not to attempt to defend the country if threatened, or even attacked by a military superpower like the US?" the Commission asks of several top military officers.

"From a Pakistani strategic doctrine point of view," the report notes, while issuing findings on how the military had wholly focused its "peacetime deployment" of defence capabilities on the border with India, "the world stood still for almost a decade."

The report states that “the inability to spot the low flying helicopters over Abbottabad cantonment was a major failure.”

The report reads that "no apparent attempt to take him alive was made. Four Pakistani citizens were also killed without any attempt to disarm or detain them. None apparently put up any resistance or fired at the raiders. The US raid was not a capture or kill mission. It was a kill mission."

Finally, through testimony from Bin Laden’s family and intelligence officials, it provides a fascinating, and richly detailed, account of Bin Laden's time in Pakistan: his movements, his habits and his pattern of life.

In concluding its report, the Commission finds that the country's "political, military intelligence and bureaucratic leadership cannot be absolved of their responsibility for the state of governance, policy planning and policy implementation that eventually rendered this national failure almost inevitable", and calls on the country's leadership to formally apologise to the people of Pakistan for "their dereliction of duty".

2011 Raid

US special forces launched a raid deep into Pakistani territory on May 1, 2011 to capture or kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. US soldiers flew via helicopter to the Pakistani army garrison town of Abbottabad on US President Barack Obama, where he was hiding according to their intelligence. In the subsequent raid, Bin Laden and four others were killed, whilst several were wounded.

Following the operation, that had been deliberately conducted without the knowledge of the Pakistani government or its military, a commission was set up in Pakistan to examine "how the US was able to execute a hostile military mission, which lasted around three hours, deep inside Pakistan", and how Pakistan's "intelligence establishment apparently had no idea that an international fugitive of the renown or notoriety of [Osama bin Laden] was residing in [Abbottabad]," the report says.

Page 197 of the report, which contains part of the testimony of Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, then director of the ISI, was missing from all copies of the report that Al Jazeera obtained from multiple sources, the news channel stated.

It is unclear what was contained on that page, but the contextual implication is that, among other things, it contains a list of seven demands made by the United States to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Al Jazeera Blocked in Pakistan?

Some reports, especially on social media website Twitter, suggested that the Al Jazeera website was inaccessible for some shortly after the report was released. However, the report and the website could easily be accessed by The Express Tribune.

https://twitter.com/sheharyarizwan/status/354280664608157696

https://twitter.com/Karachi_Post/status/354278973036961792

Al Jazeera correspondent Asad Hashim confirmed some blocking was taking place.

https://twitter.com/AsadHashim/status/354281082155311105]]>
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			<title>Two years on: Abbottabad report remains out of sight</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/543834/two-years-on-abbottabad-report-remains-out-of-sight</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/543834/two-years-on-abbottabad-report-remains-out-of-sight#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 13 05:51:52 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=543834</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Document yet to be made public despite tall claims from commission head; TTP releases new video.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The much-awaited report of Abbottabad commission, tasked to probe the May 2, 2011 raid which led to the death of Osama bin Laden, is yet to be made public.


The government had formed a five-member commission on June 21, 2011, almost two months after the incident in which US navy seals captured and killed the former al Qaeda leader.

The commission was to find out exactly what happened and who was responsible for failing to catch the high-profile target, who had taken refuge in Abbottabad.

Initially, the commission was given 30 days to complete its report but after being provided several extensions, the report was submitted to the prime minister over a year later on January 3, 2013.

Most of the findings of the said report were leaked to the press and were strongly criticised by defence experts.

Political analyst Imtiaz Gul said, “It has been a historic practice that the truth goes under the carpet by the ruling elite in Pakistan for some well-known gains.”

“Since 1954, after the killing of then prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan, the formation of such commissions started taking place and there are no findings exposed yet by the ruling setup for the sake of political gain,” he added.

He added that the Abbottabad commission which was formed as a result of a parliamentary resolution did its part and submitted report to the government but the PPP-led coalition setup “buckled itself under the military’s pressure and failed in exposing the content of the report.” Officials told The Express Tribune that former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had the authority to decide whether to keep the report classified or make it public and chose to remain silent.

Taliban pledge

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has announced it would continue the mission of bin Laden. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, in a video message issued on the second anniversary of the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, said they will complete the mission of Osama.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3rd, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Avoiding controversy: Film on Abottabad raid likely to face blackout in Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/499242/avoiding-controversy-film-on-abottabad-raid-likely-to-face-blackout-in-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/499242/avoiding-controversy-film-on-abottabad-raid-likely-to-face-blackout-in-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 27 Jan 13 06:40:47 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[sher.khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=499242</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Distributors shy away from the Oscar-nominated Hollywood film based on Bin Laden hunt.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[While it has not been officially banned yet, Zero Dark Thirty, the Oscar-nominated Hollywood flick based on the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, is unlikely to be screened in Pakistan.


Distributors consider the film, which features the May 2, 2011 US raid on Bin Laden’s Abbottabad complex as its climax, a “touchy issue” and say it is unlikely to get past the censor board.

A report by The Telegraph mentioned the general manager of marketing for Cinepax, Mohsin Yaseen, as saying that derogatory references to Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies meant any distributor would face awkward questions.

“When Zero Dark Thirty came out, we thought it best just to keep away from it … other distributors had agreed to do the same,” he was quoted by the British daily as saying.

“The film Django Unchained was not released in many parts of the US because it was deemed unsuitable for audiences … it’s the same thing here,” Yaseen explained, while talking to The Express Tribune. He maintained it was unlikely the censor board would allow the film to be screened, adding that distributors have generally avoided films that include any references to Islam and religion.

“Distributors have adopted this approach because whatever success we have had in creating a resurgence of cinema could be undone,” he said.

The approach, Yaseen explained, was adopted after his company unsuccessfully tried to show the Bollywood comedy Tere Bin Laden.  The film – which revolved around a Pakistani news reporter, played by local artist Ali Zafar, who makes a fake video of Bin Laden – was banned by the censor board. The board also served distributors a stern warning to stay away from films of a similar nature.

According to well-known distributor and the managing director of Atrium Cinemas, Nadeem Mandviwalla, however, the media has “jumped the gun” with regards to Zero Dark Thirty. He said the film had not been banned but added that distributors had generally shown little interest in screening it.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>ANP asks govt to disclose Abbottabad findings</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/498878/anp-asks-govt-to-disclose-abbottabad-findings</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/498878/anp-asks-govt-to-disclose-abbottabad-findings#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 13 06:17:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[qamar.zaman]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=498878</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says commission report should at least be shared with lawmakers.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The Awami National Party (ANP) has demanded the government disclose the findings of an investigation into the presence of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad and hold a debate in parliament on it.


“I call upon the government to make the Abbottabad Commission report public or at least share it with lawmakers in an in-camera session,” said ANP’s Bushra Gohar while addressing the National Assembly on a point of order on Thursday.

The commission had been assigned to investigate the facts surrounding the presence of bin Laden in Pakistan and the May 2, 2011 US operation that killed him, determine the causes and nature of lapses by the Pakistani authorities that led to the incident and make recommendations.

The commission’s chairman, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, shared the panel’s findings with the government earlier this month. Now Gohar is pressing for the parliamentarians to also be briefed, especially given that the commission was formed in an in-camera joint parliamentary session.

“I fear this report will be dumped like many others on [other] issues,” Gohar said while talking to The Express Tribune.

New provinces, Balochistan

Thursday’s proceedings were once again dominated by debate on the creation of new provinces and Balochistan. Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz highlighted Balochistan’s woes in his speech, while his colleague Shireen Arshad Khan censured the government for what he said was politicking over new provinces.



“The government does not know how to address the problems of the provinces but knows well how to use the gun to find temporary solutions,” Baloch said.

Maulvi Asmatullah, another MNA from Balochistan, complained the government was not implementing a package announced for his province. He demanded the teachers on contract be given permanent jobs.

Question hour

Earlier, during question hour, Minister of State for Finance Saleem Mandviwalla revealed that more than half of the current fiscal year’s Rs1.5 trillion budget had been spent in six months – significantly more than the 40% half-year spending ceiling aimed at ensuring fiscal discipline. The government spent Rs662 billion more than its income in six months, the written reply added.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed the house that Rs16.96 billion had been spent on security arrangements in the Islamabad Capital Territory.

The government spent Rs4.85 billion on Islamabad’s security during the fiscal year 2011-12, Rs4.45 billion in 2010-11, Rs3.74 billion in 2009-10, Rs2.24 billion in 2008-09 and Rs 1.66 billion in 2007-08.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Still too dangerous to release Osama's last pictures: US lawyers</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/492240/still-too-dangerous-to-release-osamas-last-pictures-us-lawyers</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/492240/still-too-dangerous-to-release-osamas-last-pictures-us-lawyers#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 13 17:20:29 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=492240</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[US has 52 photographs or videos - the medium has not been revealed - from the May 2011 raid in which OBL was killed.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Twenty months after US special forces killed Osama bin Laden, the United States told a court on Thursday it is not ready to release images taken after the al Qaeda leader's death because they still might lead to violence.

A federal appeals court heard arguments in a lawsuit over whether the government must release the images under the Freedom of Information Act, a 1966 law that guarantees public access to some government records.

President Barack Obama's administration points to an exception in the law that covers documents classified in the interest of national defense.

"They'll be used to inflame tensions. They'll be used to inspire retaliatory attacks," Justice Department lawyer Robert Loeb told the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Riots or other forms of violence could threaten American soldiers as well as civilians in Afghanistan, Loeb said.

The government has 52 photographs or videos - the medium has not been revealed - from the May 2011 raid in which US special forces killed bin Laden after more than a decade of searching. The images show a dead bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the transportation of his body to a US ship and his burial at sea, the government has said.

Some of the photographs were taken so the CIA could conduct facial recognition analysis to confirm the body's identity, according to court papers.

Two of the court's three judges, Merrick Garland and Judith Rogers, asked questions indicating they were inclined to defer to the judgment of officials in sworn court affidavits advising against release.

"They're telling us that could result in death - not just the release of secret information, but death," Garland said. "Is that not something we should defer to?"

Michael Bekesha, a lawyer for Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group suing for the images, said the government failed to show the danger of releasing the less-graphic burial images.

Judicial Watch also claims that CIA officials might not have followed procedures when they classified the images as secret.

A decision from the appeals court is likely in the next few months. A lower court judge sided with the government in April.

The case is Judicial Watch Inc v. Department of Defense, US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, No. 12-5137.]]>
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			<title>Bin Laden film torture is fiction: ex-CIA official</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/490262/bin-laden-film-torture-is-fiction-ex-cia-official</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/490262/bin-laden-film-torture-is-fiction-ex-cia-official#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jan 13 05:00:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=490262</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says use of force in CIA’s interrogation procedure requires written authorisation from Washington.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Bloody interrogations like those depicted in Hollywood’s take on the hunt for Osama bin Laden ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ never really happened, according to the former CIA official who ran such programs.

“The truth is that no one was bloodied or beaten in the enhanced interrogation program which I supervised from 2002 to 2007,” Jose Rodriguez wrote in a Washington Post article headlined: “Sorry Hollywood. What we did wasn’t torture.”

The former CIA official was weighing in on the controversy over the depiction of US intelligence practices in ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, which hits most US theaters on January 11.

Directed by Academy Award-winning Kathryn Bigelow, the movie tells the story of the decade-long search for Bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks, climaxing in the dramatic, deadly raid in May 2011 on his hideout in Abbottabad.



Already generating major Oscar buzz, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ begins with a scene showing the torture of detainees, who eventually provide critical information for locating Bin Laden.

But Rodriguez said the torture scenes were pure fiction.

“Nobody was hung from ceilings. The filmmakers stole the dog-collar scenes from the abuses committed by army personnel at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. No such thing was ever done at CIA ‘black sites,’” he said, highlighting careful monitoring of the interrogations.

“To give a detainee a single open-fingered slap across the face, CIA officers had to receive written authorisation from Washington,” Rodriguez said.

“Detainees were given the opportunity to cooperate. If they resisted and were believed to hold critical information, they might receive – with Washington approval – some of the enhanced techniques, such as being grabbed by the collar, deprived of sleep or, in rare cases, waterboarded.”

But even the last technique, a form of simulated drowning and a subject of major controversy, was not as extreme as the on-screen version and was never used after 2003, Rodriguez said.

“Instead of a large bucket, small plastic water bottles were used” on men on medical gurneys, he explained.

Rodriguez defended the use of secret detainment centers around the world, so-called ‘black sites’, saying they allowed agents “to repeatedly go back to the detainees to check leads, ask follow-up questions and clarify information.”

A number of top lawmakers, as well as the acting head of the CIA, Michael Morrell, have come out to say the film has exaggerated the importance of information obtained by harsh interrogations.

Three powerful US senators have called on the CIA to provide details on its cooperation with the film’s director, to look into whether Bigelow could have been ‘misled’ by information the agency gave her.

In a letter dated December 19, the senators – John McCain, Dianne Feinstein, and Carl Levin – asked Morell to supply them with all documents and information provided to the filmmakers.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2013.]]>
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			<title>Abbottabad raid: Commission finally submits report to Prime Minister</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/488499/abbottabad-raid-commission-finally-submits-report-to-prime-minister</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/488499/abbottabad-raid-commission-finally-submits-report-to-prime-minister#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 13 15:17:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[press.release]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=488499</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Report submitted almost 19 months after the commission was formed. Still no news if public will see the report.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Chairman Abbottabad Commission Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal called on Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf at the Prime Minister’s House on Thursday to submit the commission’s report.

A release from the prime minister house said that during the meeting, Justice Iqbal briefed Ashraf on the salient features of the report that had been finalised by the Commission back in October, 2012.

The prime minister appreciated the efforts and hard work of the chairman and his team in the compilation of this report, despite the fact that the Commission submitted its report almost 19 months after it was formed, and 20 months after the infamous raid.

The commission took over a year to compile the 700-page report about the May 2, 2011 incident in which US troops had snuck in to Pakistani territory and proceeded to raid a compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad where al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed.

Law ministry officials had said that the report was finalised in October 2012, but could not be submitted to the prime minister because one of the commission’s members, former inspector general of police Abbas Khan, was undergoing heart treatment in the US and was thus not available.

Excerpts leaked to the press from the yet-to-be-made-public report differed with the US account of the incident. They tell of how Bin Laden advised his family members to pray during the raid. It also detailed the role played by Dr Shakil Afridi in the campaign to hunt the world’s most wanted man.]]>
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			<title>Oscars buzz for Bigelow’s Bin Laden film</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/471593/oscars-buzz-for-bigelow%e2%80%99s-bin-laden-film</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/471593/oscars-buzz-for-bigelow%e2%80%99s-bin-laden-film#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 27 Nov 12 06:41:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=471593</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The two-and-a-half-hour long docudrama follows the CIA analyst over her decade-long quest to track down Bin Laden.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Oscar-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow’s long-awaited movie about the hunt for and killing of Osama bin Laden is generating Academy Awards buzz, even before its release next month.

The director, who won Academy Awards in 2010 for Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker,” had extensive access to classified material in the making of “Zero Dark Thirty,” a process that began long before Bin Laden’s death in May 2011.

The movie centers on a female CIA analyst -- played by Jessica Chastain -- credited as a key force in the hunt for the al Qaeda chief, killed by US Navy SEALs in an audacious dead-of-night raid on his hiding place in Pakistan.

“‘Zero Dark Thirty’ could well be the most impressive film Bigelow has made, as well as possibly her most personal,” commented the Hollywood Reporter, after initial screenings of the movie.

“The film’s power steadily and relentlessly builds over its long course, to a point that is terrifically imposing and unshakable,” it added.

Variety said the movie was “far more ambitious than ‘The Hurt Locker,’ yet nowhere near so tripwire-tense,” hailing it for “rejecting nearly every cliche one might expect from a Hollywood treatment of the subject.”

The Los Angeles Times said “Zero Dark Thirty” -- military-speak for half past midnight, when the Bin Laden raid was scheduled for -- entered its Oscar best picture league table at number five.

Entertainment Weekly tipped it as a possible nominee for best film, best director, best screenplay and best leading actress for Chastain, who was Oscar nominated for her supporting role in last year’s civil rights drama “The Help.”

The two-and-a-half-hour long docudrama follows the CIA analyst over her decade-long quest to track down Bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

It includes graphic torture scenes, including depictions of waterboarding and sexual humiliation, used to obtain information from detainees which ultimately help pinpoint Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

“I wish that it wasn’t a part of history, but it is and was,” Bigelow was cited as saying after a weekend screening in Los Angeles, adding that the torture scenes were the most difficult for her to film.

The film’s screenplay was written by reporter-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal, who also worked with Bigelow on “The Hurt Locker,” which starred Jeremy Renner as a soldier defusing bombs in war-scarred Iraq.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan was unaware of bin Laden's location, US assessment concludes</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/466739/pakistan-was-unaware-of-bin-ladens-location-us-assessment-concludes</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/466739/pakistan-was-unaware-of-bin-ladens-location-us-assessment-concludes#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 12 10:57:21 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
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			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=466739</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Though bin Laden is dead, non-state actors still present a threat, says US admiral.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The commander of US Special Operations Command has said that a post-raid assessment concluded there is no evidence that the Pakistani government knew the whereabouts of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was eliminated in an operation in May 2011. 

Navy Adm William H McRaven told attendees at a Summit that Pakistan wasn't informed of the raid that led to the death of bin Laden.

McRaven said he doesn't believe the Pakistani government knew bin Laden's whereabouts, the Pentagon reported Thursday.

"We have no intelligence that indicates the Pakistanis knew he was there," he added.

The US Special Forces carried out the secret night raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad on May 1, last year.

McRaven said there was never a moment he doubted the raid would succeed. Though bin Laden is dead, non-state actors still present a threat, the admiral noted.

"We've done a terrific job of taking care of the core of al  Qaeda," McRaven said. But, he added, "There’s no such thing as a local problem anymore. Everything in the world is connected."

This interconnectedness means the future of special operations lies in partnerships with other nations, he added.

"We understand to minimize the rise of violent extremism, you have to create the conditions on the ground where people have good jobs, where there is the rule of law, where there is stability [and] where there is good governance," he said.

"We think, from a military standpoint, we can certainly help with the security that will be required to help begin to build some of that stability".

"The raids get all the media attention", he continued, "but the reality of the matter is the bulk of what we do is building partner capacity and working with host nations. I think that's the future of special operations," he said, according to a Pentagon account of his remarks.]]>
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			<title>Abbottabad raid: First Bin Laden film to premiere tomorrow</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/460107/abbottabad-raid-first-bin-laden-film-to-premiere-tomorrow</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/460107/abbottabad-raid-first-bin-laden-film-to-premiere-tomorrow#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 03 Nov 12 06:22:16 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=460107</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Director talks internal conflicts, uncertain plot.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Days before the first movie about the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden airs for the first time on Television, director John Stockwell admitted that he had no official cooperation, adding that one may “never know the entire story”.


“SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden”, which was shot in Khopoli, India and Santa Fe, New Mexico, documents the May 2, 2011 raid on the former al Qaeda leader’s compound in Abbottabad.

“The fascinating thing for me... was how much internal conflict there was within the intelligence community, within the White House and the Department of Defence, and all the ways it could have turned out badly,” he said.

The 90-minute film will be screened on the National Geographic channel on Sunday.

Much of “SEAL Team Six “ was filmed before the publication in August of “No Easy Day,” written under a pseudonym by a member of the real-life SEAL team who claimed that Bin Laden was unarmed when he was killed.

“We know the ending [of the operation to kill Bin Laden], but even to this day I don’t have certainty on the beginning and the middle,” Stockwell said.

Stockwell spoke to current and former SEALs, intelligence personnel and White House officials as part of his research, but only off the record, with no way to double-check their information. “I certainly had no official cooperation and I had no official access to anything,” said Stockwell.

“The truth is, 10 years from now, we may not know the entire story of this mission... Who’s to say what the real, completely factual version is?”

Cam Gigandet stars as the leader of the tight-knit SEAL team that also includes rapper Xzibit. Kathleen Robertson portrays an intense CIA analyst. Bollywood stars Maninder Singh and Rajesh Shringarpore play local CIA operatives who risk their lives staking out Osama’s compound in Abbottabad.

Cast as Bin Laden is Yon Kempton, who speaks no lines before he is shot twice and killed in a dark room with a Kalashnikov in his hand.

Just in time for US vote?

“SEAL Team Six” raised eyebrows when it was announced last month that it would screen for the first time on the National Geographic cable channel just two days before America votes. But, in an interview on Friday, Stockwell shrugged off suggestions that his film is some kind of prime-time Obama propaganda tool to sway voters less than 48 hours before polls open.

“It was never written or shot to do that,” he told AFP.

“Are there people out there who don’t know that it was on this president’s watch that Osama bin Laden was killed, and that this movie informs them of that? I would be surprised.”

The May 2011 dead-of-night operation by US Navy SEALs against the al Qaeda leader was a defining moment of Obama’s first term.

The president turns up often in the film but only in the form of archive footage – much of it pulled from the White House website.

Stockwell said it was the National Geographic Channel that picked Sunday as the premiere date.

“It has only one goal, and that is for as many people as possible to watch this,” added Robertson, speaking by telephone from New York. “They want ratings.”

The film goes on to cinemas from Thursday, in a 180-degree reversal of the way a movie usually goes out into the world.

“SEAL Team Six” also precedes another film about the hunt for Bin Laden: “Zero Dark Thirty” by director Kathryn Bigelow, who collected the best-film Academy Award in 2009 for the Iraq war movie “The Hurt Locker.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>First Bin Laden film premieres just in time for US vote</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/459745/first-bin-laden-film-premieres-just-in-time-for-us-vote</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/459745/first-bin-laden-film-premieres-just-in-time-for-us-vote#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 02 Nov 12 08:17:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category><category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=459745</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Announcement that it would screen for first time just two days before America votes raised eyebrows.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Timing is everything in show business, but the director of the first movie about the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden doubts its television premiere Sunday will swing the US election.

“SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden” raised eyebrows when it was announced last month that it would screen for the first time on the National Geographic cable channel just two days before America votes.

Fueling the buzz was the fact that Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, a prominent fundraiser for President Barack Obama, is the distributor and one of the executive producers of the 90-minute action thriller.

In an interview Thursday, director John Stockwell shrugged off suggestions that his film is some kind of prime-time Obama propaganda tool to sway voters less than 48 hours before polls open.

“It was never written or shot to do that,” he told AFP.

“Are there people out there who don’t know that it was on this president’s watch that Osama bin Laden was killed, and that this movie informs them of that? I would be surprised.”

The daring May 2011 dead-of-night operation by US Navy SEALs against the al Qaeda leader who ordered the 9/11 attacks was a defining moment of Obama’s first term.

The president turns up often in the film, which was shot in Khopoli, India and Santa Fe, New Mexico, but only in the form of archive footage -- much of it pulled from the White House website.

Cam Gigandet, a vampire tracker in “Twilight,” stars as the leader of the tight-knit SEAL team that also includes rapper Xzibit. Kathleen Robertson, from the original “Beverly Hills, 90210” series, portrays an intense CIA analyst.

Inexplicably uncredited are Bollywood stars Maninder Singh and Rajesh Shringarpore, who play local CIA operatives who risk their lives staking out Osama’s fortified lair in Pakistan.

Cast as Bin Laden is Yon Kempton, who speaks no lines before he is shot twice and killed in a dark room with a Kalashnikov in his hand.

Stockwell, whose previous credits include the 2002 surfer girl movie “Blue Crush,” said it was the National Geographic Channel -- part of conservative Rupert Murdoch’s media empire -- that picked Sunday as the premiere date.

“It has only one goal, and that is for as many people as possible to watch this,” added Robertson, speaking by telephone from New York. “They want ratings.”

The film goes on to Netflix streaming video on Monday, then cinemas from Thursday, in a 180-degree reversal of the way a movie usually goes out into the world.

“SEAL Team Six” also precedes another film about the hunt for Bin Laden: “Zero Dark Thirty” by director 0Kathryn Bigelow, who collected the best-film Academy Award in 2009 for the Iraq war movie “The Hurt Locker.

Sony Pictures has pushed back its general release to January 2013, but like “SEAL Team Six” it’s been lambasted before anyone’s seen it as glorifying Obama’s role in Bin Laden’s demise.

Stockwell called Bigelow “a very talented filmmaker,” but added that her production -- with a bigger budget, judging by its YouTube trailer -- is “probably a very different movie.”

Ironically, the French producer of “SEAL Team Six,” Nicolas Chartier, was a producer of “The Hurt Locker.”

Stockwell spoke to current and former SEALs, intelligence personnel and White House officials as part of his research, but only off the record, with no way to double-check their information.

“I certainly had no official cooperation and I had no official access to anything,” said Stockwell, who goes to Puerto Rico this weekend to direct mixed martial arts champ Gina Carano in “In the Blood,” an action thriller.

“The fascinating thing for me... was how much internal conflict there was within the intelligence community, within the White House and the Department of Defense, and all the ways it could have turned out badly.”

Much of “SEAL Team Six” was filmed before the publication in August of “No Easy Day,” written under a pseudonym by a member of the real-life SEAL team who claimed that Bin Laden was unarmed when he was killed.

“We know the ending (of the operation to kill Bin Laden), but even to this day I don’t have certainty on the beginning and the middle,” Stockwell said.

“The truth is, 10 years from now, we may not know the entire story of this mission... Who’s to say what the real, completely factual version is?”

Meanwhile, Robertson -- currently starring in the TV series “Boss,” a political drama set in Chicago -- admitted to being somewhat bemused by the furor that’s erupted over the release of “SEAL Team Six.”

“I’ve been asked a lot of American politically-based questions which I feel slightly odd answering,” she said, “because I’m Canadian.”]]>
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			<title>Time is up for the Abbottabad Commission</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/458390/time-is-up-for-the-abbottabad-commission</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/458390/time-is-up-for-the-abbottabad-commission#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 30 Oct 12 16:30:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[farrukh.khan.pitafi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=458390</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[In this never-ending state of denial and paranoia, anything sold by the Commission would have been welcome.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[It took the Abbottabad Commission almost a year and a half to put together a 120-page report on Osama bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan. And yet, it has not been made public. How could this be? The pearls of wisdom shared by the likes of Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and some of our leading journalists obviously deserve to be kept classified. If these names surprise you, then you should know that they were the ones with the true knowledge of the operation that took out OBL. And Justice (retired) Javed Iqbal is the most pertinent man to understand the dynamics of radar failure, stealth technology and the total surprise with which the US team flew into our territory.

But regardless of the suitability of any of these names, it is imperative that this document be made public. If it cannot tell us anything new, it can help us divine what is on the minds of our deep state operators. When OBL was caught and killed, the most inexcusable failure on the part of our deep state was to come up with an explanation, a narrative. This report indeed seeks to fix that failing. But until this report is made public, we will not know the true sentiments in Rawalpindi, Islamabad or Aabpara.

In recent years, we have lost many of our friends, both in Khaki and Mufti, to the world of conspiracy theories. Our think tanks that once offered us some food for thought are hell-bent on proving some of the most madcap conspiracy theories, such as the High Altitude Research Programme and fourth generation warfare, allegedly introduced by the US on our soil. One fears the day when SUPARCO might be asked to investigate the “Stargate” lore.

In this never-ending state of denial and paranoia, anything sold by the Commission would have been welcome. At the beginning of this investigation, some sources indicated to this scribe that the Commission might try to challenge the fact that the man killed in the operation was indeed OBL. Mercifully, this line of hypothesising was abandoned and now, through the leaks, the commission continues to humanise the slain al Qaeda chief. And that raises an important question. What does our deep state actually think of OBL and his cohorts? Is it possible that there is still some degree of sympathy for the butchers of al Qaeda?

Let me be honest. The people I come across from the army and the intelligence community vociferously condemn the activities of al Qaeda and its Taliban allies. Similar disgust was readily available over the Malala episode. But while these gents show their conviction to root out the menace of extremism, someone somewhere silently forwards more conspiracy theories to complicate the situation. When these theories are traced back to their original sources, one is baffled to note that our deep state continues to be the patron.

Is it possible then that our intelligence community has been affected by schizophrenia and that while there are Taliban apologists hiding in its ranks, there are also those who do not have any sympathy for them at all? Apparently, the answer is yes. But to the cynical mind of this scribe, it appears to be the age-old exercise of good cop, bad cop and nothing else. As a citizen of this country, I do not care much for US concerns. But I need answers to know what will happen to us when the American forces leave the region. And if Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal cannot provide these answers in time, then he needs to be replaced with someone who can.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31st, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Make May 2 report public</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455775/make-may-2-report-public</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455775/make-may-2-report-public#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 23 Oct 12 17:35:43 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=455775</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[As citizens of a democracy, we need to know more about what happens in our country, factors which lead to such events.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[A five-member judicial commission set up to investigate the US actions which led to the capture of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May last year has submitted its findings to the government. But even a year after that dramatic sequence of events took place in the quiet hillside town of Abbottabad, we as citizens, have still not been provided with any detail regarding a major event in our national life. What we know comes from the Western media with a UK-based newspaper recently reporting that in the final days before the raid, which removed him from Pakistani soil, Bin Laden had retreated entirely into his home, refusing to step out even to exercise in the compound after an internal security lapse in which he was apparently spotted by the daughter of one of his couriers who had visited the house for lessons with one of his wives.

The report appears to emphasise that the Pakistan government and military officials, perhaps, did not know of Bin Laden’s presence in that non-descript white bungalow. But experts on Pakistan in the West believe his whereabouts were known to some key officials in the military establishment, making it possible for Bin Laden to remain in Abbottabad for a prolonged period of time. It is also relevant that the judicial report focuses more on the US invasion of Pakistan rather than on why the world’s most wanted militant was able to hide out in a garrison town undetected. This is an odd focus, given the need to improve our own intelligence network. If it was really oblivious to Bin Laden’s presence, then it is clear it has become practically non-functional.

All these matters need to be explored in more detail. However, what is most important of all is that the cover of secrecy over events be lifted and this important report put before parliament and the public. As citizens of a democracy, we need to know more about what happens in our country and the factors which lead to events of this kind unfolding in such an unexpected fashion.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Bin Laden would have escaped if Pakistan permission sought: Obama</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455727/bin-laden-would-have-escaped-if-pakistan-permission-sought-obama</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455727/bin-laden-would-have-escaped-if-pakistan-permission-sought-obama#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 23 Oct 12 08:49:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=455727</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Obama's Republican opponent Mitt Romney says he also would have ordered the raid.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[US President Barack Obama, in some of his most blunt remarks to date, said on Monday that Osama bin Laden would have escaped if the United States had sought Pakistan's permission ahead of the raid on the al Qaeda leader's compound.

Obama administration officials have previously justified the decision not to involve Islamabad by citing the risk that Bin Laden might somehow be tipped off and flee his compound in Abbottabad before the team of Navy SEALs arrived.

Leon Panetta, then the director of the CIA and now defense secretary, said in an interview with TIME magazine shortly after the May 2011 raid that there was a concern that the Pakistanis "might alert the targets."

But in Monday's presidential foreign policy debate against Republican opponent Mitt Romney, Obama presented such risk as a certainty.

"If we had asked Pakistan (for) permission, we would not have gotten him," Obama said.

The Bin Laden raid was one of the many issues Obama used to differentiate himself from his opponent.

Romney - during his failed bid for the 2008 Republican nomination - criticised Obama for warning publicly that, if Islamabad didn't act, he would go into Pakistan to get high value targets like Bin Laden. Romney suggested such comments were not helpful in building ties.

On Monday, Romney said he also would have ordered the raid.

"We had to go into Pakistan. We had to go in there to get Osama bin Laden. That was the right thing to do," Romney said.

The question of who in Pakistan might have known about Bin Laden's whereabouts is still a matter of speculation.

The Pakistani ambassador to the United States at the time of the raid, Husain Haqqani, told a forum in Washington in August that he believed someone somewhere in Pakistan must have known - a similar sentiment echoed by Panetta.

"I don't have any hard evidence, so I can't say it for a fact. There's nothing that proves the case. But as I said, my personal view is that somebody somewhere probably had that knowledge," Panetta told CBS' "60 Minutes" program in January.]]>
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			<title>Bin Laden in Abbottabad: Report gives military, govt, ISI clean bill</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455623/bin-laden-in-abbottabad-report-gives-military-govt-isi-clean-bill</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455623/bin-laden-in-abbottabad-report-gives-military-govt-isi-clean-bill#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Oct 12 23:01:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[news.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=455623</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[According to UK paper few questions answered in the report; US says it is important for public to see the report.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[While Osama bin Laden’s ghost continues to haunt many after the May 2, 2011 raid, an independent commission has found that the government and security establishment did not know about the al Qaeda kingpin’s presence in the country.


The five-member Judicial Commission set up by the apex court to probe the Abbottabad raid has spent the past year and a half questioning military officers, Bin Laden’s wives and residents of Abbottabad. The commission submitted its final report to the government last week.

No one else in the town knew that the world’s most wanted man had taken up residence in Abbottabad, a senior Pakistani official privy to the report told The Daily Telegraph.

“It [the report] clears Pakistan’s government and military establishment of involvement, a verdict that will prompt accusations of a cover-up and infuriate Western diplomats,” he said.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the investigation describes how the daughter of one of Bin Laden’s two couriers, who lived with their families in separate buildings inside the high-walled compound, saw the al Qaeda leader as she climbed the stairs in his private area for a Holy Quran lesson with one of his wives.

According to a Pakistani source, the report reads, she was oblivious to his identity until she saw his picture on television some days later.

“This prompted a hurried security conference inside the compound, which ended with Bin Laden giving up his exercise routine in a covered part of the courtyard,” the report reads.

On May 2 last year, the al Qaeda kingpin was killed by US Navy Seals. Critics in the US and within the country wasted no time and accused Pakistani officials of knowing more about Bin Laden’s presence than they were letting on.

The report quotes a senior government source as saying that they would find few answers in the commission’s report.

“At the end of the day it really doesn’t tell us much more than we already knew,” the official told The Daily Telegraph.

“It’s a disappointment for those who thought this episode might represent a turning point for Pakistan’s relationship with extremist groups.”

Christine Fair – of the Georgetown University – while talking to The Daily Telegraph said that although leaders of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) may not have known about Bin Laden’s presence, someone among the country’s retired generals, Military Intelligence (MI) or local police must have known something.

What report?

Meanwhile, US State Department spokesperson Mark Toner has said that the US has still not viewed the commission report, but believes it is important for the Pakistani and American public to see it.

In response to a question at a daily press briefing, Toner said that they had only seen reports in the Pakistani press about the report by the Abbottabad commission.

“We share a profound interest in what kind of support networks Bin Laden may have had,” he said.

The spokesperson added that when such a report does get finalised and is made public, it would be important for the American and Pakistani people to know about the results.

(WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY HUMA IMTIAZ FROM WASHINGTON )

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Commission says no one knew about bin Laden hiding in Abbottabad: Report</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455459/commission-says-no-one-knew-about-bin-laden-hiding-in-abbottabad-report</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455459/commission-says-no-one-knew-about-bin-laden-hiding-in-abbottabad-report#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Oct 12 18:19:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=455459</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[US says it would like to see the commission's report to be made public.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The independent judicial commission formed to determine who knew about Osama bin Laden’s presence in the northern town of Abbottabad before he was killed in a unilateral raid by US forces last year, has found that no one knew of the al Qaeda leader’s presence, the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday.

Citing an unnamed senior government official, the report stated that no one in Abbottabad knew about bin Laden’s presence in a large mansion situated a few hundred yards from Pakistan’s Westpoint, the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul.

It further absolves the military and government of any involvement in his hiding bin Laden.

The five-member commission had been formed last year and has interviewed several high ranking military officials in addition to the widows and children of bin Laden. The al Qaeda number one was believed to have been residing in the compound for as many as five years.

The senior government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they expected little new information from the commission’s reports. “At the end of the day it really doesn't tell us much more than we already knew,” he said.

“It's a disappointment for those who thought this episode might represent a turning point for Pakistan's relationship with extremist groups.”

The commission had completed and submitted its report to the government last week, but it has yet to be made public.

US wants report to be made public

State Department spokesperson Mark Toner says that while the US has not yet seen the Abbottabad commission report, but believes it is important for the Pakistani and American public to see the report.

In response to a question at the daily press briefing, Toner said that they had only seen reports in the Pakistani press about the Abbottabad commission report.

"We share a profound interest in what kinds of support networks Bin Laden may have had." The spokesperson added that when such a report does get finalised and is made public, it would be important for the American and Pakistani people to know about the results.

He added that he could not comment on the report's findings since they had not seen the report.]]>
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			<title>Abbottabad commission completes its report</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/451087/abbottabad-commission-completes-its-report</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/451087/abbottabad-commission-completes-its-report#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 13 Oct 12 15:03:57 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[web.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=451087</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The commission will submit its report after one of its members - Abbas Khan – return from abroad.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The judicial commission which was assigned to investigate US raid in Abbottabad killing al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has completed its work, Radio Pakistan reported on Saturday.

The commission will now submit its report after one of its members - Abbas Khan – returns from a trip abroad.

Earlier, the government had directed the commission to submit its report before October 12.

The Law and Justice Division had issued a notification according to which the commission was told to complete the inquiry and submit its report to the Federal Government within thirty days commencing from the September 12.

On May 2, 2011, US commandos had raided a compound in Abbottabad to capture the former al Qaeda chief who had been living there for more than five years.

The government subsequently formed a five-member judicial commission to probe the presence of Bin Laden so close to Pakistan’s premier military training facility and the circumstances leading to his death in the raid by US troops.

The commission held investigations, examined witnesses and conducted field missions.]]>
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			<title>No Easy Day: Former US Navy Seal gives first television interview</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/434336/no-easy-day-former-us-navy-seal-gives-first-television-interview</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/434336/no-easy-day-former-us-navy-seal-gives-first-television-interview#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 10 Sep 12 15:22:57 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[web.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=434336</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Former Navy SEAL, in his interview, says he was sure the dead man was Osama bin Laden.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Former US Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette, who wrote a first-hand account of Operation Neptune Spear that killed Osama bin Laden, gave his first televised interview on his book “No Easy Day” to US television network CBS.

During the interview, the former SEAL who wrote under the pseudonym Mark Owen, reiterated what he wrote in the book and said that the former al Qaeda leader Bin Laden was already dead with a bullet-wound to his head when the SEALs arrived in his bedroom.

“I was pretty sure it was him, but I’m not willing to make that call,” he said during the interview.

When asked why he did not tell US President Barack Obama about who pulled the trigger which killed Bin Laden, the former commando said, “Pulling a trigger is easy… It’s not about who that one person was, it’s about the team.

“Who cares who the one person is. Doesn’t matter,” he added.

Bissonnette also demonstrated his team's actions using a scale model of the Abbottabad complex which they had stormed on the morning of May 2, 2011.

The book has already featured on Amazon’s bestseller list for the last two weeks, despite being released on September 4.

Earlier in the week the Defence Department had warned the ex-commando and his publisher not to release “No Easy Day” next week, saying the author violated non-disclosure agreements he signed while in uniform.

The Pentagon said it has reviewed the text but officials declined to say if the book reveals state secrets, vowing to keep all legal options open.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan was privy to Bin Laden’s hiding: Book</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/430378/pakistan-was-privy-to-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-hiding-book</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/430378/pakistan-was-privy-to-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-hiding-book#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 03 Sep 12 05:15:46 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[azam.khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=430378</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Clinton made it clear that preserving Pak-US amity was not a priority when it came to getting bin Laden.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[A top US official who briefed US President Barack Obama was certain that Pakistan was well aware of Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts, according to Peter Bergen’s recently published book ‘Manhunt: From 9/11 to Abbottabad - The Ten Year Search for Osama Bin Laden’.

“If Bin Laden was dwelling in the midst of a well-policed city, how could the Pakistanis not know?” asked Robert Cardillo, a veteran intelligence official who briefed President Obama three days a week about national security developments around the world.

Furthermore, if his compound was just a kilometre away from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul, it was “nuts” that he hadn’t relocated in six years, the official said – inviting murmurs that it was being guarded by the Pakistan military.

The book reveals secret deliberations of the top US intelligence with Obama. However, when approached by The Express Tribune not a single Pakistani official was ready comment on the book’s claims.

Bergen claims in the book that the US military leadership had hinted at unilateral action against Bin Laden or Ayman al Zawahiri, the current leader of al Qaeda, to Pakistan’s army chief.

US Admiral Mike Mullen repeatedly told his counterpart General Kayani, “If we know we can find Number One or Number Two, we are going to get them. Period. And we are going to get them unilaterally. Period.”

There seemed to be certain downsides of involving Pakistan. Intelligence officials claimed that doing so might lead to mishandling of crucial information. The Abottabad operation was hence carried out in complete secrecy, with not more than a dozen military men privy to its developments.

The question of sovereignty 

A huge question before the US leadership related to the consequences of a unilateral action on Pakistan’s sovereignty. Flying undetected over a long stretch of Pakistani airspace was another huge challenge.

According to the book, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that preserving Pak-US amity was not a priority when it came to eliminating Bin Laden: “And I remember at one point, one of the briefers said the raid will be considered a gross violation of the Pakistanis’ national honor, and I exploded at the moment and said, what about our national honor? And what about going after a man who killed three thousand innocent people?” she said

The method of raid was also discussed at length. Top US officials’ decided not to contact General Kayani for assistance. They agreed to adopt the ‘fight your way out’ option instead.

Michael Leiter, then Director of the National Counterterrorism Center says, “We were just amazed by the lack of a Pakistani response. It was, even by Pakistani standards, remarkably slow.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>OBL raid: Pentagon, ex-SEAL at odds over new book</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/430065/obl-raid-pentagon-ex-seal-at-odds-over-new-book</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/430065/obl-raid-pentagon-ex-seal-at-odds-over-new-book#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 02 Sep 12 05:51:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=430065</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The US Defence Department says author violated non-disclosure agreements.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Pentagon and a former US Navy SEAL are at odds over a book that offers the first eyewitness account of the May 2011 raid that took out Osama bin Laden, with a potential court battle looming.


Amid a wave of publicity, the Defence Department is warning the ex-commando and his publisher not to release “No Easy Day” next week, saying the author violated non-disclosure agreements he signed while in uniform.

The Pentagon said it has reviewed the text but officials declined to say if the book reveals state secrets, vowing to keep all legal options open.

“I’m not going to characterize one way or the other whether we think there’s classified information in it,” Press Secretary George Little told reporters.

“We are going to preserve our options.”

The Pentagon’s top lawyer earlier threatened possible legal action, saying the author had violated the non-disclosure deals – including a pledge to submit any book for review before publication.

“Those agreements are very clear, that when you write something that may contain classified information, you need to have it go through pre-publication review by this department,” Little said. “That did not occur in this case.”

The former Navy commando wrote “No Easy Day” under a pseudonym, Mark Owen, but has been identified in media reports as Matt Bissonnette.

In the book, published by Penguin’s Dutton imprint and already handed out to some US media, he describes his role in the famed raid on bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout that was hailed afterward as a triumph by the White House.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2012. ]]>
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			<title>Bin Laden was almost dead when SEALs arrived: Book</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/428323/bin-laden-was-almost-dead-when-seals-arrived-book</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/428323/bin-laden-was-almost-dead-when-seals-arrived-book#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 12 05:42:38 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pentagon says obtained a copy of the soon-to-be-published book by a former Navy commando who participated in the raid.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was unarmed and more or less dead with a bullet to the brain when US NAVY Seals entered his bedroom in his Abbottabad residence, a US Navy SEAL has revealed in a soon-to-be-published book.


“No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden” was written under the pseudonym Mark Owen with co-author Kevin Maurer and was to be released next month on the anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks.

Giving a firsthand account of last May’s raid, the SEAL who also participated in it, has disclosed that Osama had been fatally wounded before they entered the room.

As the SEALS ascended a narrow staircase, the team’s point man saw a man poking his head from a doorway, wrote the SEAL using a pseudonym Mark Owen (whose real identity has since been revealed by Fox News) in “No Easy Day,” a copy of which was obtained by The Huffington Post.

“We were less than five steps from getting to the top when I heard suppressed shots. BOP. BOP,” writes Owen.

“I couldn’t tell from my position if the rounds hit the target or not. The man disappeared into the dark room.”

Contrary to media reports that Osama had a weapon and resisted when Navy SEALs entered the room, he was unarmed, writes Owen.

Team members took their time entering the room, where they saw the women wailing over Bin Laden, who wore a white sleeveless T-shirt, loose tan pants and a tan tunic, according to the book.

“Blood and brains spilled out of the side of his skull” and he was still twitching and convulsing, Owen writes.

While Bin Laden was in his death throes, Owen writes he and another SEAL “trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds. The bullets tore into him, slamming his body into the floor until he was motionless.”

Then the SEALS repeatedly examined his face to make sure he was truly Bin Laden. They interrogated a young girl and one of the women, wailing over Bin Laden’s body, who verified that it was Osama.

The book calls out inaccurate accounts of the assault.

“The raid was being reported like a bad action movie,” Owen writes. “At first, it was funny because it was so wrong.”

Contrary to earlier accounts, Owen says SEALs weren’t fired upon while they were outside the gate of the compound. There was no 40-minute firefight. While searching Osama’s neatly organised room, Owen writes, that he found two guns –  an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol –  with empty chambers.

Pentagon review

Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Wednesday said it has obtained a copy of a soon-to-be-published book and is reviewing it.

The book was not cleared by US defence officials in advance, raising the possibility that the author could face an investigation and possible criminal prosecution.

“We have obtained a copy and are reviewing it,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Reuters.

Its publication has been moved up to Sept. 4, according to reports by some media outlets.

The former SEAL is now facing threats against his life in addition to possible charges. Officials have said the military would take legal action against anyone who exposed sensitive information that could harm fellow forces.

Earlier this month US officials said they were surprised by the book, which was not vetted by government agencies to ensure that no secrets were revealed.

(Additional input from Reuters)

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Book chronicles ‘worst week’ of Gen Kayani’s life</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/427686/book-chronicles-%e2%80%98worst-week%e2%80%99-of-gen-kayani%e2%80%99s-life</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/427686/book-chronicles-%e2%80%98worst-week%e2%80%99-of-gen-kayani%e2%80%99s-life#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 28 Aug 12 23:56:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[azam.khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=427686</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Peter Bergen recounts Pakistani leadership’s reaction to Abbottabad raid.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[It was 1:00 am, May 2, 2011.


Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s phone rang.

It was his director of military operations. The news was alarming: a helicopter had just crashed near a residential compound in Abbottabad – a region of the country that is thick with military installations and nuclear weapons facilities.

General Kayani called the head of the Pakistani Air Force and ordered him to intercept anyone who might be flying that night. Two US manufactured F-16s were scrambled from their base 500 miles southwest of Abbottabad, but the jets could not find the intruders.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama called President Asif Ali Zardari and told him the gripping news. Zardari became emotional and replied: “I am happy because these are the same types of people who killed my wife, and her people are my family, so I share in this.”

Then US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen finally got through to General Kayani on a secure line. Kayani’s response was not much different from President Zardari’s.

“Congratulations,” Kayani immediately said upon hearing news. However, the discussion lasted a tense 20 minutes in which the army chief said he was concerned about the violation of Pakistani sovereignty and urged that Obama go out as soon as possible and explain what had happened.

This is American journalist Peter Bergen’s account of the infamous Abbottabad incursion by US SEALs which killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in his recently-published book ‘Manhunt: From 9/11 to Abbottabad – The Ten-Year Search for Osama Bin Laden’.

Bergen claims in his book – basing his account on interviews with Pakistani intelligence officers – that Pakistan’s top military and civilian leadership were initially clueless about what was happening until US officials informed them that the Abbottabad operation was conducted against Bin Laden.

Bergen also claims that General Kayani asked himself, “How could my friend Admiral Mullen not have told me about the raid?” General Kayani and Mullen have rarely spoken since, the book mentions.

According to the book, when the US SEALs conducted the secret raid on the night of May 1, Pakistani military leadership assumed it was an attempt by India to take a ‘pre-emptive’ strike against Pakistan’s nuclear facilities.

Bergen raises some heavy questions: If the Navy SEALs could waltz into the heart of Pakistan without the military noticing or doing anything about it, what did this say about the army’s ability to protect its crown jewels, its nuclear weapons, from seizure by Indian forces, or even the American military?

The author of the book writes that General Kayani and then spymaster General Ahmad Shuja Pasha’s jobs seemed to hang in balance, as they were losing support from both inside the army and from Pakistanis in general. He claims that General Kayani was worried that the army’s image could shatter and he told his closest colleagues that this was the “worst week of his life”.

General Pasha, according to the book, had communicated to US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta that if the CIA didn’t trust the Pakistani government or military with some matter of great importance, at least inform him, General Kayani or President Zardari, so that Pakistanis could be able to save face by truthfully saying that they had been informed beforehand.

On May 3, Panetta told Time magazine what White House officials had discussed in their private deliberations: “It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardise the mission. They might alert the targets.”

Bergen says the manhunt to kill Osama was the most expensive manhunts of all time.


Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2012. ]]>
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			<title>Navy SEAL who wrote book on Bin Laden raid could face probe</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/425620/navy-seal-who-wrote-book-on-bin-laden-raid-could-face-probe</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/425620/navy-seal-who-wrote-book-on-bin-laden-raid-could-face-probe#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 24 Aug 12 07:52:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=425620</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Author failed to clear Bin Laden book with the Defence Department before publication.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[A former US Navy commando who authored a soon-to-be-published book about the raid in which he and fellow SEALs killed Osama bin Laden could face investigation because he failed to clear the book with the Defence Department before publication.

Fox News made public on Thursday what it said was the real name of the former SEAL who, with a journalist co-author, wrote “No Easy Day" under the pseudonym Mark Owen. The book is due to be released next month.

The book's publisher, Dutton, said Owen was "one of the first men through the door on the third floor of the terrorist leader’s hideout and was present at his death."

Colonel Tim Nye, spokesman for the US Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, which directs operations by Navy SEALs and other special operations forces, said on Thursday that SOCOM did not review the book before publication, nor had the SEALs.

Nye said that because the book had not been subjected to appropriate pre-publication review, it could become a target of “potential investigation" by government authorities. He added that any such inquiry was unlikely to be launched until after the book's publication, scheduled for the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

It is not known whether "No Easy Day" contains details of commando operations that the US government considers secret.

But the growing controversy over the book adds new layers of complexity to an already heated election-season debate over credit for the killing of the al Qaeda leader, classified information and news leaks.

Republicans led by presumptive nominee Mitt Romney have criticized President Barack Obama and his administration for what they describe as excessive and self-serving leaks of security operations.

A group of former US intelligence and Special Forces operatives, many with Republican ties, launched an anti-Obama media campaign earlier this month along the same lines.

The White House and Obama's re-election campaign have denied compromising classified information and accused Republicans of trying to "Swift Boat" the president, a reference to hardball smear tactics used to attack the war record of Democratic Senator John Kerry when he unsuccessfully challenged George W.  Bush for the White House in 2004.

The Obama administration has acknowledged providing guidance and access for the makers of a separate movie on the hunt for    bin Laden, "Zero Dark Thirty," but denied charges it shared classified information with the film makers.

Criminal probe risk

On Wednesday, spokesmen for the White House, Defence Department headquarters and CIA all said they had not been consulted before learning of the planned publication of "No Easy Day." Laws covering CIA and military personnel require current and former personnel to seek official review before publishing material that could contain classified information.

On Wednesday, the publisher said the book had been vetted “for tactical, technical, and procedural information as well as information that could be considered classified by compilation” by a former "special operations attorney."

But Nye, the SOCOM spokesman, said any such review by a non-governmental attorney was "irrelevant."

Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer who has represented numerous  former intelligence and military personnel in disputes and litigation relating to public disclosure, said that simply by publishing a book without having it reviewed by relevant officials, a former Special Forces member could expose himself to civil litigation and potential penalties.

If a post-publication review of the book determines that it contains classified information, Zaid said, the former SEAL could risk criminal investigation.

On Thursday morning, Fox News broadcast what it said was Owen's real name and described him as a 36-year-old former member of Navy SEAL Team 6 who now lives in Wrangell, Alaska.  One person familiar with the book project, and a US official close to the Special Forces, said Fox News' information appeared accurate.

A second person close to the book project said that Fox’s decision to make public the information was "astonishing” because it could put the former SEAL's safety in jeopardy.

Fox News executive editor John Moody said, "Once you write a book, anonymously or not, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy."

A spokeswoman for the publisher said, "Personal security is the sole reason the book is being published under a pseudonym.

"We respectfully request that all news organizations and all Americans consider these facts when deciding whether to pursue or publicize his real identity," Christine Ball said in an emailed statement.

Kevin Maurer, the journalist who is the former SEAL’s co-author on the project, said he was unable to comment. Elyse Cheney, a literary agent who reportedly represents the former Navy Seal, also declined to comment.

Some current and former officials connected to the Special Forces denounced Fox's publication of the former Seal's name.  But others said that many in the Special Forces world were furious that a former SEAL would try to cash in on his involvement in the bin Laden raid.

Sofrep.com, a blog devoted to the Special Forces, said on Thursday that the author of the book "most likely" received a seven-figure advance on royalties and those members of SEAL Team 6 "are extremely angry about this book and feel betrayed."

Dutton, the book's publisher, has said the former SEAL co-author planned to donate "a majority" of the book's proceeds to "charities that help support the families of fallen Navy Seals."]]>
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			<title>Pentagon ‘surprised’ by Navy SEAL’s book on Abbottabad raid</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/425493/pentagon-%e2%80%98surprised%e2%80%99-by-navy-seal%e2%80%99s-book-on-abbottabad-raid</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/425493/pentagon-%e2%80%98surprised%e2%80%99-by-navy-seal%e2%80%99s-book-on-abbottabad-raid#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 24 Aug 12 04:19:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=425493</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says the book hasn’t been vetted to ensure that no secrets were revealed.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The US government was surprised by the news that a Navy SEAL who participated in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad has written a book about the operation in which the al Qaeda leader was killed, US officials said on Thursday.


“No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden” was written by a Navy SEAL under the pseudonym Mark Owen with co-author Kevin Maurer and is to be released next month on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

It was not vetted by government agencies to ensure that no secrets were revealed.

“The book was vetted by a former special operations attorney. He vetted it for tactical, technical, and procedural information as well as information that could be considered classified by compilation and found it to be without risk to national security,” Christine Ball, a spokeswoman for the publisher, Dutton, told Reuters. The book will be published at a time when Washington has been roiled by controversy over national security leaks ahead of the November 6 presidential election.

The upcoming book on the Bin Laden raid appeared to catch officials off guard.    “We learned about this book today from press reports. We haven’t reviewed it and don’t know what it says,” White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

The Pentagon said it hadn’t vetted the book or helped provide information to the authors. There are at least two Pentagon regulations requiring the Defence Department review writings by retired troops that contain sensitive material.

“This book came as a surprise to folks at the Pentagon,” a senior defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. “Naturally, we’ll be interested to read the book when it is made available.”

CIA spokesman Preston Golson said: “As far as we can determine, this book was not submitted for pre-publication review.”

‘Time to set the record straight’

Dutton, which is a member of the Penguin Group (USA), said the Navy SEAL author’s experience culminated with “Operation Neptune Spear” in Abbottabad where he led one of the assault teams on Bin Laden’s compound and was “one of the first men through the door on the third floor of the terrorist leader’s hideout and was present at his death.”

The Navy SEAL is described as a former member of the US Special Warfare Development Group, commonly known as SEAL Team Six, who was involved in hundreds of missions around the world.

His name and the names of the other SEALs mentioned in the book were changed for security reasons, the publisher said. The majority of the proceeds from the book will go to charities that support families of fallen Navy SEALs, the publisher added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2012.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>May 2 operation: Book claims ISI colonel helped US track OBL down</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/425018/may-2-operation-book-claims-isi-colonel-helped-us-track-obl-down</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/425018/may-2-operation-book-claims-isi-colonel-helped-us-track-obl-down#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 23 Aug 12 04:19:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[news.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=425018</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Alleges General Kayani was informed of raid months in advance.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[American journalist Richard Miniter has claimed in his latest book that an officer of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) helped the CIA track down Osama Bin Laden and that army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani may have been informed of the Abbottabad raid five months in advance.


The book titled ‘Leading from Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him’, alleges that the ISI officer had walked into the CIA’s Islamabad station in August 2010 and provided vital help in tracing Bin Laden.

“In a never-before-reported account, Pakistan was more involved in the Bin Laden operation than Obama’s team admitted. When the CIA revealed that an ISI colonel had contacted the CIA in Islamabad and offered information about Bin Laden, a debate followed,” said the book.

“Was this a secret sign that the head of the ISI himself was pointing out Bin Laden’s hiding place or was the colonel actually the patriot who hated extremism that he claimed to be? Whatever the motivation, the CIA found Bin Laden’s hiding place within a month of the colonel’s visit,” the book claims.

According to the book, as the CIA found the Abbottabad compound where Bin Laden lived along with his family and started researching on the property, they found out that the land was “carved out” from the Pakistan Military Academy compound.

“Pakistan Army’s chief of staff may have been briefed in December 2010, five months before the nighttime raid on Bin Laden’s concrete castle,” the Press Trust of India quoted the book as saying. “No concrete facts about the operation were passed on, but an informal approval was sought.”

“Far from taking a risk, there are indications that a cover story had been developed with the Pakistani military and that Obama had their tacit consent for the mission,” claims Miniter, a former reporter with The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Officials from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) were not immediately available for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Ties between allies: ‘No reason why Pakistan would hide OBL’s presence’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/414074/ties-between-allies-%e2%80%98no-reason-why-pakistan-would-hide-obl%e2%80%99s-presence%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/414074/ties-between-allies-%e2%80%98no-reason-why-pakistan-would-hide-obl%e2%80%99s-presence%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 28 Jul 12 04:42:02 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[huma.imtiaz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=414074</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Ex-CIA chief says drones need to be part of a broader approach.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[If senior Pakistani officials knew about former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director general Michael Hayden says he cannot find a logical reason as to why they would not share such information with the US.


Speaking to The Express Tribune on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum, Hayden, the ex-CIA spymaster from 2006-2009, said that this was merely his own opinion and not based on any specific evidence, as he was not in office at the time. “If someone has a contrary position, they are going to have to show me some facts,” Hayden said.

While declining to comment specifically on the US drone programme, Hayden said: “The president [Barack Obama] has made it very clear that we have worked very hard to take our enemies off the battlefield. I think we have been very successful in making the organisation that attacked us on 9/11 less capable of attacking the US again.”

However, he said that while using drones was a successful tactic, which he supports, it needed to be part of a broader strategic approach that addresses the US’ relationship with Pakistan. “Frankly, it saddens me to say that the way we view the problem and the way the Pakistani government views the problem today isn’t nearly as close as it used to be. So, as we go forward and carry out such tactical practices, I think we also have to keep in mind the long-term strategic relationship, and we need to tend to its costs and benefits to the best of our abilities both in Washington and in Islamabad.”

ISI chief’s visit to the US

General Hayden added that he had seen press reports that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence chief General Zaheerul Islam would be visiting the US soon to meet his CIA counterpart General David Petraeus.

“I think the important thing is that they develop a common understanding of the threat, a common understanding of the situation. I mentioned before that we have a government whose policy seems to be divergent, that may be based on a different view of what is going on.” Hayden said that, “I’ve found that candid, honest exchanges of information between intelligence services very often gives policymakers more common ground on which to build more complimentary, more consistent, and, frankly, more successful, policies.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>K-P govt sizes up OBL compound for possession</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/410819/k-p-govt-sizes-up-obl-compound-for-possession</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/410819/k-p-govt-sizes-up-obl-compound-for-possession#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jul 12 04:56:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[muhammad.sadaqat]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[K-P]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=410819</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Legal process for claiming the plot is already under way.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government will take over possession of the Abbottabad compound —where al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden lived until his killing in May 2011 — if the land goes unclaimed within the next 15 days.


The legal requirements for taking possession of the plot are already under process, sources at the revenue department told The Express Tribune on Thursday.

The house where Bin Laden lived was razed to the ground by civil authorities after a raid by US Navy Seals last year in February.

According to official sources at the office of the district officer revenue (DOR), they have received instructions from the revenue office of Peshawar, saying that the 38,000 sq meters of land should be taken over and its utility would be decided later.

One of the legal requirements includes publishing a notice for the general public asking the owner, if any, to submit identity proof to the revenue department within 15 days claiming the plot.

The notice that was published by the revenue department in different newspapers says that in case no one claims the ownership right to the plot, the provincial government would eventually take over the property.

The source said no one has yet approached the office of DOR claiming ownership of the plot. The source added that the government would have to hand over the property even if someone claimed it after 100 years.

According to the revenue record, the property rights of this land were transferred in the name of Arshad, son-of-Naqab Khan, a resident of Charsada during 2003.

Arshad and his brother Tariq, reportedly two couriers, were killed in the US raid and since their identity and address of their native village are still unknown, nobody has so far claimed the property rights.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Back to Sudan: Bin Laden’s cook released from Gitmo</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407166/back-to-sudan-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-cook-released-from-gitmo</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/407166/back-to-sudan-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-cook-released-from-gitmo#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jul 12 03:57:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=407166</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pentagon’s statement vague on whether he’s been released or being held by Sudanese govt.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The United States has sent a Sudanese man, accused of guarding Osama bin Laden and helping him escape US forces, back to Sudan after being held at Guantanamo Bay prison for over a decade, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.


Ibrahim al Qosi was sentenced to 14 years after pleading guilty in 2010 to conspiring with al Qaeda and providing material support to terrorism, the Pentagon said in a statement.

He completed his reduced, two-year sentence before his transfer took place, the statement said.

The Pentagon declined to say whether Qosi, described as a “cook and sometimes driver” for al Qaeda, had been freed in Sudan or held by the government there.

“We coordinated with the government of Sudan on appropriate security measures to mitigate any threat that he continues to pose,” said Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesperson.

Qosi was alleged to have run the kitchen at bin Laden’s Star of Jihad compound in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and of having been part of an al Qaeda mortar crew.

He was accused of acting as a cook and bodyguard for the former al Qaeda leader, who was killed by US forces in Abbottabad last year, and helping him escape to the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2001.

He was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and first charged in the Guantanamo court system known as military commissions in 2004.

US efforts to resettle prisoners cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay, set up in Cuba after the 9/11 attacks, have been stymied by government refusals to allow any into the United States and by other restrictions imposed by Congress.

In April two members of China’s Muslim Uighur minority became the first prisoners to leave Guantanamo Bay in more than 15 months. They were resettled in El Salvador.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Not in US interests to cut off relations with Pakistan: Clinton</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/397539/not-in-us-interests-to-cut-off-relations-with-pakistan-clinton</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/397539/not-in-us-interests-to-cut-off-relations-with-pakistan-clinton#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 22 Jun 12 01:41:28 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[web.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=397539</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says US has no evidence to suggest people at higher level knew about bin Laden. Dr Afridi needs to be released.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[With the bilateral relationship between the US and Pakistan in a troubled spot, Clinton said it was preferred to keep the cooperative relationship with Pakistan, than to totally cut it off.

In a joint interview with Charlie Rose on a show by the same name, both US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of State James Baker underscored that despite differences on some important regional and international issues, severing ties with Pakistan would not be in Washington's interests.

“I think we need to maintain the relationship with them because they are a nuclear power, and because we do not want to see nuclear conflagration in the sub continent and see any more proliferation than we have already seen,” Baker said.

"I think that our relationship with Pakistan has been challenging for a long time. Some of it is of our own making," Clinton admitted on the programme.

The Secretary added “we are living with a country which has a lot of difficult issues both for themselves and then for us and others.”

Suggesting on how to proceed on the difficult relation, the incumbent Secretary of State said that “first of all I completely agree it is not in our interests to cut off our interest, it is in our interest to do better direct and manage that relationship and we are asking Pakistanis to do more of and better.”

“They have got to do more against safe havens inside their own country.” However the problem that prevented progress was that “extremists have an ace in the hole, they just cross the border they get direction, funding and fighters and they go back across the border,” pointing to how militants were able to escape to uncontrolled regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

No evidence of Pakistan involvement in bin Laden sanctuary

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that so far, the US does not have proof that someone at the top in Pakistan knew about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.

"We have never been able to prove that anyone at the upper levels knew that,” the US Secretary of State said.

"When I first went to Pakistan as Secretary in 2009 that I found it impossible to believe that somebody in their government didn't know where he was, and I still believe that. That he took up residence and built this huge compound in a military garrison town," Clinton said.

"But to be fair, we have no evidence."

"I have no reason to believe that the civilian government knew anything,” she said before adding that the answer perhaps lay with lower level military and intelligence officials. “So who was in what level of responsibility in the military or the ISI, whether they were active or retired, because we do know that there are links to retired members, but we've never been able to close that loop," the Secretary of State said.

Stop treating Dr Shakil Afridi as a ‘criminal’

Clinton once again called on Pakistan to immediately release Dr Shakil Afridi, who had helped the CIA to trace Osama bin Laden, and stop treating him like a "criminal".

"They should release Dr (Shakil) Afridi," Clinton said.

"This is something that is so unnecessary and gratuitous on their part."

Clinton said “Pakistanis claimed he was their enemy as well and my argument to them is that this man contributed to ending the al Qaeda leadership that was in their country and they shouldn’t treat him like a criminal."

Pakistan losing sovereignty 

Pointing out that the militants were harming the host as well, she said that Pakistan, despite the talk of sovereignty, were losing it. “They are losing sovereignty, large areas that are ungoverned, they have a rash of terrible attacks more than 30,000 people have been killed in the last decades. They talk a lot about sovereignty, well the first job of any sovereign nation is to protect your own people and secure your own border and that is what they should be doing.”

Clinton added that Pakistan needs to recognise that “as the US withdraws from Afghanistan it is in their interest to have a strong stable Afghan government and that can only come from by being part of the solution at that [negotiaiton] table to try to help with Afghanistan’s economic, political and security development rather than doing everything possible to undermine it”.

Using aid to leverage

Former Secretary of State James Baker, who had served in during the tenure George Bush Sr, 1989 to 1992, recounted how in his second year in office, had refused to sign a certification that Pakistan was not building a nuclear weapon. That, Baker reminded, eventually led to US aid to Pakistan being cut off.

“At some point we need to seriously think about doing that. We need to get their attention,” he said suggestively.

When Rose asked whether the US could use a threat to stop aid to leverage the US into getting the Pakistani side to stop double dealing the US, Baker  said “I am not sure we give them enough so that’s gonna make them stop them – they should know we are upset about this and that should make them stop.”

Asked by the host whether he was contradicting himself on urging for cancelling aid, Baker said that the US needs to “maintain a relationship with them [Pakistan], but we need to get their attention. We shouldn’t break the relationship right now, sever the relationship totally.”

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Bin Laden was fiercely against charity work “at the expense of jihad”: Zawahiri</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/388171/bin-laden-spent-his-fortune-on-jihad-zawahiri</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/388171/bin-laden-spent-his-fortune-on-jihad-zawahiri#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 03 Jun 12 15:00:42 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=388171</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[&quot;The rich sheikh Osama... has spent all his money on jihad,&quot; said Zawahiri.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The late founder of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's personal life was "austere" and he was "very stingy in spending on anything other than jihad," Zawahiri said, stressing that the Saudi-born leader was fiercely against charity work "at the expense of jihad."

Bin laden spent his fortune on financing "holy war" including the September 11 US attacks in 2001, said current al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri in an Internet video.

"The rich sheikh Osama... has spent all his money on jihad," said Zawahiri, Bin Laden's number two who took charge of the jihadist group after the world's most wanted man was killed in a US raid on a Pakistan hideout in May last year.

Zawahiri's message, posted on few websites, was introduced as the second part of his memoirs on the life of Bin Laden.

"He spent generously on jihad, especially on financing the September 11 attacks in 2001" on the United States and the "attacks against the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam" in 1998, Zawahiri said.

The wealth of Bin Laden, who came from a rich family behind grandiose construction projects in the oil-rich kingdom, is estimated at between $30 million and $300 million, but some estimates put it at one billion dollars.]]>
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			<title>OBL raid: Obama was right to send in special forces, says Rumsfeld</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/386954/obl-raid-obama-was-right-to-send-in-special-forces-says-rumsfeld</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/386954/obl-raid-obama-was-right-to-send-in-special-forces-says-rumsfeld#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 31 May 12 17:15:16 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=386954</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld says he would have approved OBL raid &quot;in a minute&quot;.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has scoffed at some quarters who praised President Barack Obama for ordering the killing of Osama bin Laden, saying he would have recommended the operation in a minute.

The blunt-talking and controversial former Pentagon chief, best known for the Iraq invasion, was asked in an interview whether he agreed with remarks by his successor, Robert Gates, that Obama made a "gutsy" call.

"I don't," Rumsfeld, a Republican, said late Wednesday on "The Charlie Rose Show" on public television.

"It seems to me that it is a 15-minute decision and the first 14 are for coffee. For me, not a complicated answer. Do it," he said.

But Rumsfeld conceded that he agreed with Obama's decision to send in special forces and not an alternative - which Gates later said that he recommended in internal deliberations -- to hit bin Laden's compound with a missile.

Had Obama ordered a missile strike, the United States would not have known immediately whether it killed bin Laden and would not have been able to collect valuable intelligence, Rumsfeld said.

Gates -- appointed by president George W. Bush to succeed the unpopular Rumsfeld and kept on by Obama -- said he had been concerned by the lack of irrefutable evidence before the raid that bin Laden was living at the house in Abbottabad.

In a separate recent interview on "The Charlie Rose Show," Gates said that, if bin Laden turned out not to be there, Pakistan may have shut down supply lines for US troops or become "even more aggressive in supporting the Taliban."

US officials have long suspected that Pakistani intelligence maintains ties to extremists.

The successful raid also infuriated Pakistan. Later last year, it closed the supply routes in retaliation for a US air raid that killed 24 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border.

Rumsfeld denied accounts that the United States botched the 2001 assault on the Tora Bora cave complex in Afghanistan, allowing bin Laden to slip into Pakistan.

"I can assure you that no one got up to any level anywhere near me or the president suggesting that anything should be done that was not done," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld, however, said he has "never bothered" to ask then CIA chief George Tenet for details about the intelligence agency's operations during the Tora Bora battle.]]>
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			<title>Pakistani interrogator says Bin Laden wives gave little away</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/384076/pakistani-interrogator-says-bin-laden-wives-gave-little-away</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/384076/pakistani-interrogator-says-bin-laden-wives-gave-little-away#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 25 May 12 10:10:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=384076</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[They were all nostalgic whenever they talked about him says the intelligence agent.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Osama bin Laden's three wives were fiercely loyal to him and gave little away when they were interrogated after the al Qaeda chief was killed in a US raid over a year ago, a Pakistani intelligence agent who questioned them said.   

The three women were arrested by Pakistani security forces after the Navy SEAL raid on Bin Laden's safe house in Abbottabad, about 35 km (60 miles) from Islamabad.

Slowly puffing on a cigarette in a rundown Islamabad villa as he described months of questioning the women, the agent said he struggled to glean any worthwhile information.

Yemeni-born Amal Al-Sadeh, the youngest of the three, was headstrong and showed fury when asked questions, while the others, Saudi citizens, expressed displeasure by mostly keeping silent behind their veils, the agent said.

All appeared to strongly support Bin Laden, despite the militant's long and bloody record of orchestrating violence across the world.

"They were all nostalgic whenever they talked about him," said the intelligence agent, a slim man in a dark suit.

"I could sense Amal was always angry whenever I spoke with her," he added. "She objected to being questioned and rarely gave away anything."

But at times Amal was somewhat flexible.

"Amal once told me that she and Bin Laden liked Che Guevara. She seemed like a rebel so I questioned her about Latin American leftists. I found her very interesting," said the agent.

It was not possible to independently confirm his account.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was an Argentine Marxist who was a major figure in the Cuban revolution. He was executed in Bolivia in 1967.

Amal, who was wounded in the raid that killed Bin Laden, traveled to Afghanistan to marry Bin Laden when she was 18 years old and he was in his early 40s, her father told Reuters in an interview in Yemen in 2011.

"The other wives didn't say much. They were boring," said the agent.

Pakistan deported Bin Laden's three widows and 11 children to Saudi Arabia last month. A Pakistani court had sentenced them to prison for entering Pakistan illegally and ordered their deportation after the end of their prison term.

The agent did not say whether other Pakistani or US officials questioned the women. He also did not give details on whether his questioning included anything about the night of the raid.

Based on his conversations, the agent said he concluded the al Qaeda leader lived in the country for about six or seven years, in two towns.

Pakistani officials describe Bin Laden's long presence in the garrison town of Abbottabad as a security lapse and reject suggestions that members of the military or intelligence services were complicit in hiding him there.

Empty-handed

Pakistan dismisses Western criticism of its performance against militancy, saying it has sacrificed more lives than any other country which joined the US war on militancy after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Pakistan also stresses that it captured several high-profile al Qaeda figures on its soil such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed architect of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The intelligence agent, who said he questioned the widows once a week, sometimes twice, recalls seeking information on whereabouts of other senior al Qaeda leaders, and coming up empty handed.

"I wanted to know if any others are in Pakistan," he said. "I wanted to know about Zawahri," he said, adding that he didn't believe the former Egyptian doctor and current al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri was in the country.

Turning to information he said he had come across on al Qaeda over the years, the agent said he was convinced that Zawahri was running al Qaeda's show in the region.

"Bin Laden was an inspirational figure for militants. It was Zawahri who was the main man. He was much more violent than Bin Laden," he said. "These are my conclusions".

The intelligence agent said Pakistani authorities had retrieved some computers and cellphones from Bin Laden's Abbottabad home, but trying to make sense of coded Arabic language proved frustrating -- with only a few clues on al Qaeda activities in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas.

The agent was non-committal about Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi, who was sentenced to 33 years imprisonment by a court this week for running a fake vaccination campaign that helped the CIA pinpoint Bin Laden's location in Abbottabad.

"Discovering that Afridi was helping the CIA and arresting him was not a problem," he said without elaborating.

But the agent, who was once stationed in Abbottabad while Bin Laden was said to live there, only shrugged when asked how it was possible that the al Qaeda chief evaded capture in Pakistan for so long despite a global manhunt.]]>
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			<title>Amnesty criticises US for ‘unlawful’ OBL raid</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/383950/amnesty-criticises-us-for-%e2%80%98unlawful%e2%80%99-obl-raid</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/383950/amnesty-criticises-us-for-%e2%80%98unlawful%e2%80%99-obl-raid#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 25 May 12 04:45:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=383950</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Amnesty also hit out at human rights violations committed by former president George W Bush's administration.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Amnesty International has criticised the US for its use of lethal force, particularly for the “unlawful” killing of Osama bin Laden in a clandestine US commando raid in Abbottabad last May.


“The US administration made clear that the operation had been conducted under the US’ theory of a global armed conflict between the US and al Qaeda in which the US does not recognise the applicability of international human rights law,” it said in its annual report.

“In the absence of further clarification from the US authorities, the killing of Bin Laden would appear to have been unlawful,” it said. Amnesty said a request for clarification over an apparent US drone strike in Yemen last September that killed US-born radical cleric Anwar al Awlaqi, his al Qaeda co-conspirator Samir Khan and at least two others had also gone unanswered. “These killings appeared to have amounted to extrajudicial executions,” the rights watchdog said. Amnesty also hit out at human rights violations committed by former US president George W Bush’s administration and condemned the “impunity” with which his officials operated.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Bin Laden informant: Dr Shakil Afridi sentenced to 33 years</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382955/bin-laden-informant-dr-shakil-afridi-sentenced-to-33-years</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/382955/bin-laden-informant-dr-shakil-afridi-sentenced-to-33-years#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 23 May 12 11:17:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=382955</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[In addition to his jail sentence, he was fined Rs320,000 under the tribal justice system in Khyber district.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Dr Shakil Afridi, a government surgeon who helped the CIA uncover Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, was sentenced to 33 years for treason, officials confirmed.

Afridi, who was sacked as a government doctor two months ago, was found guilty under the tribal justice system in Khyber district, part of Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt.

In addition to his jail sentence, he was fined Rs320,000. The doctor had worked for years as a surgeon in lawless Khyber, part of the Taliban and al Qaeda infested tribal belt.

Afridi was not present in the court and not given a chance to defend himself, officials said. Under the tribal system, he would not have had access to a lawyer.

“He has been sentenced for 33 years on treason charges and has been moved to Peshawar central jail after the verdict was announced by the local court,” said Mohammad Siddiq, spokesman for the administrative head of Khyber.

Afridi’s trial took place over several days under assistant political agent Nasir Khan in Khyber. The verdict was confirmed by his boss, the political agent, in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, the officials told AFP.

Under Pakistan’s tribal justice system, Afridi has the right to appeal.

Critics said Wednesday that he should not have been tried under tribal law in the tribal belt for an alleged crime that took place outside their jurisdiction.

He was sentenced under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) clauses related to offences against the state, conspiracy, or attempt to wage war against Pakistan, concealing with intent designs to wage war against the state and on charges of working against the country's sovereignty, a Khyber administration official said.

In January, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed Afridi had aided US intelligence by collecting DNA to verify Bin Laden’s presence, and expressed concern about Pakistan’s treatment of him.

Seventeen other health officials, who worked on the same fake vaccination program set up by the CIA in a bid to confirm the al Qaeda chief was living in Abbottabad, have already been sacked from their government posts.]]>
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			<title>US spy agency unveils scale model of Bin Laden hideout</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380184/us-spy-agency-unveils-scale-model-of-bin-laden-hideout</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/380184/us-spy-agency-unveils-scale-model-of-bin-laden-hideout#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 12 06:36:04 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=380184</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Model was built in six weeks by a special team at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA).]]>
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				<![CDATA[US intelligence officials have unveiled a once top secret scale model of Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan, a precise replica used to plan the raid that killed the al Qaeda chief a year ago.

The table-top model made its public debut Wednesday in the halls of the Pentagon, where soldiers and office workers stopped in the corridor and gazed in fascination at the elaborate miniature of Bin Laden's compound.

With farm fields carved out of clay and the building's walls made of styrofoam, the model was built in six weeks by a special team at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA).

The NGA, which provides satellite imagery to the country's spy agencies, has displayed the model in the entryway of its headquarters in Virginia since October, a spokeswoman said.

"This is actually the first time the model has been out of the building. Although it's been declassified for a while, we were just able to make it publicly releasable," spokeswoman Erica Fouche told AFP

The NGA brought the model to the Pentagon "to show service members first hand what it is they've been hearing about for the past year," she said.

"They've seen cartoon graphics of it, but until you lay your eyes on the actual model, you really dont get the full scope of the Abbottabad mission," she said.

Officials had said previously that US commandos rehearsed the raid at a full-scale model of the compound, but the NGA's miniature model had painstaking details, including concertina wire on the compound walls, a dark red minivan parked out front and a white Land Cruiser inside the compound grounds.

The team that constructed the replica is part of a permanent "model shop" at NGA that creates scale models to help bring to life sites captured in satellite imagery, officials said.

The model on display on Wednesday afternoon may be the original but officials said copies of the replica were also constructed.

The scale of the Bin Laden compound model is one inch to seven feet.

"It really puts it into perspective how large the compound actually is -- or was, sorry, because it no longer exists," Fouche said.

After US Navy SEALs killed Bin Laden in a daring nightime assault on May 2 2011 in the garrison town of Abbottabad, Pakistani authorities later razed the building that served as the al Qaeda mastermind's home for five years.]]>
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			<title>Probing May 2 raid: Abbottabad panel seeks to record PM’s statement</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/378442/probing-may-2-raid-abbottabad-panel-seeks-to-record-pm%e2%80%99s-statement</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/378442/probing-may-2-raid-abbottabad-panel-seeks-to-record-pm%e2%80%99s-statement#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 14 May 12 04:19:15 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zahid.gishkori]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=378442</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Commission member says Gilani was chief executive of Pakistan when US killed Bin Laden; must know something important.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The judicial commission probing the Abbottabad incursion which killed the al Qaeda chief is hoping to pencil in a ‘meeting’ with the prime minister to ‘record his statement’ before concluding its report, a top official revealed.


“The commission will send a formal request to the premier to have a meeting with its members when he comes back from his London trip,” an official privy to the Abbottabad Commission proceedings told The Express Tribune on Sunday.

“Yousaf Raza Gilani was the chief executive of the country at the time when Osama bin Laden was taken out by American commandos… He must have something important to share with us,” the official quoted one of the commission members as saying.

“His is going to be a very crucial statement and we would like to hear from him.”

Commandos of the US Navy, known as SEALs, raided a housing compound in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011 and killed the al Qaeda chief who had been living there for more than five years.

The government subsequently formed a five-member judicial commission to probe the presence of the world’s most-wanted man close to Pakistan’s premier military training facility and the circumstances leading to his death in a night raid by US troops.

The commission was due to submit its report by the end of 2011 but is still struggling to finalise the investigations reportedly because of “indecision” on whether to hold somebody from within the Pakistani political or military leadership responsible.

The revelation that the commission wanted to record the premier’s statement comes weeks after it was reported that the judicial body was likely to partially blame Gilani for the raid.

It was on his orders, according to reports, that former Pakistan ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani issued visas to several hundred operators of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who tracked down the al Qaeda leader.

But the commission denied these reports in a statement the next day. It was reported last week that the commission was also waiting for replies to a set of questions it sent to President Asif Ali Zardari more than two months ago.

A member of the commission also clarified that the questions sent to Zardari were not sent bearing in mind that he was the head of the state but the chief of a political party.

The judicial body has interviewed heads and representatives of almost every political party to ‘seek their suggestions’.

Reports also surfaced suggesting the completion of the report was highly unlikely by the end of this month as announced earlier.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14th, 2012.]]>
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