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CIA spied on Bin Laden from safe house
The surveillance facility in Abbottabad had been set up after the discovery of the suspicious complex in August.
Pakistani security personnel measure a wall outside the hideout house of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. PHOTO:AFP
WASHINGTON:
The CIA maintained a safe house in Abbottabad for a small team of spies who conducted extensive surveillance over a period of months on the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces earlier this week, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
The secret CIA facility was used as a base of operations, one that relied on Pakistani informants and other sources to help assemble a “pattern of life” portrait of the occupants and daily activities at the fortified compound where Bin Laden was found, the newspaper reported US officials as saying.
The on-the-ground surveillance work was part of an intelligence-gathering push mobilized after the discovery of the suspicious complex in August. The effort was so extensive and costly that the CIA went to Congress in December to secure authority to reallocate tens of millions of dollars within assorted agency budgets to fund it, US officials said.
The discovery of bin Laden in Abbottabad has raised suspicion that he was placed there and being protected by elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence service, but US officials said they have seen no conclusive evidence that was the case.
The city offered a number of advantages for Bin Laden, chief among them was being at a safe distance from the tribal regions that are patrolled by armed US drones.
“He probably felt that if he could conceal his presence and it would be an unlikely area for the United States to pursue him,” a US official said.
US officials said there were also disadvantages for bin Laden in residing in Abbottabad, including the fact that the area is relatively welcoming to outsiders, including US soldiers who have at times been sent to Abbottabad to train Pakistani troops.
The CIA took advantage of that atmosphere to send case officers and recruited informants into Abbottabad undetected, and set up a safe house that functioned as its base.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2011.
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Both CIA and Osama in Abbotabad. Does ISI do any work these days?Recommend
After all the country belongs to them.Recommend
such operations are not delayed for months; if they’re 50% sure of presence of target, they go for a risk.
it is all made up story; that sick man on dialysis since 2002, didn’t have a dialysis machine in his house, how could he survive so long.
Such false flag attacks are part of US policy to:
1. Let down Pakistan, as Raymond red-handedly verified double game on thier part.
2. it was high time that Pakistan’s Intelligence was being smart with theirs.
3. Its start of (unpopular) Obama’s election campaign.Recommend
We must revisit and review the way we govern this country.
This not a matter of intelligence failure only as Salman Bashir tried to explain and sell the FO version of our story.
The dim wits must be thrown out of those sensisitive jobs. They were sleeping even during the night when the raid was taking place. This is crime against the country.
Just ponder what the country has done for you. No food, education, health, housing for the Pakistani on the street. But they paid for all your expenses. And look what you have given in return to the country. You have failed again! Sorry, but I feel terribly forsaken.Recommend
It is most expected and there is nothing to be sarcastic about it.
ISI would have done same in such situation.
One must not forget that how many US or CIA operatives are roaming Pakistan who entered in Pakistan on visa given to them by Pak Embassies located at Washington or Dubai without clearance from ISI.
Have a heart and face the crisis gracefully.
Didn’t you see how gracefully Japanese faced Tsunami just few weeks back. No blame-game, no shouting, no chaos and no criticism of the Govt.
Please learn something from Japanese.Recommend
@Khalid Massod – means just surrender 1971 style!Recommend
we need more newspapers like u. Disheart pakiz and tell them they have no future in there. Leave pak asap if you are educated.Recommend
@Khalid Masood:
What a big load of crap. English, and Arabic speaking foreigners are roaming around in our garrisons and we should not be worried and fire the incompetent security officials. They eat up several thousand percent more of the budget than education and healthcare combined.
These guys failed to detect the most feared Indian armored division near Lahore in 1965. They failed in Kargil, surrendered to Indian yet again in the worst defeat in human history in 1971 to name a few.
Unless these officials go to N. Waziristan and clean it out of the terrorists, we the US taxpayers are not going to give them a penny more. You would see how they would listen to us now.
Visas are given to all diplomatic applicants and the Pakistan embassies do not have the men and means to screen them out in hours and days. Their budget is a fraction of ISI and army. It is not the diplomat’s job to screen the terrorists when ISI cannot do it. That is the reason we have ISI, FBI, CID, Police, etc. When a foreigner lands in the country they enter through the main airports and can be easily tracked. However, the question is who gave the visa and sanctuary to OBL? Who actually designed a fortress home for him?
Wake up and smell the coffee. How many more failures would convince Pakistanis that their money is going in the DHA and subsidized luxuries.Recommend
*A defeat shall be accepted with grace without any blame game.
Some people shall be brave enough to resign and step down from their responsible positions*Recommend
@Gahratmand:
My dear Indian——- Why do not you people try it again on rest of Pakistan.
We are eager to settle the score this time.Recommend
I am beginning to wonder at Osama bin Laden’s IQ that he had to build himself a Colossaal
” Glass House” close to a restricted area to allow his pursuers to watch him undress and kill
him at leisure?Recommend
We should not trust whatever Americans have to say on OBL and others. For one, the same Americans told world media that they came under heavy gun fire due to which they had to respond. When investigators of Pakistan told the world that no guns were found and no evidence that OBL defended himself, Americans changed their statement. So you cannot trust them at all. You have to work up your evidences and find a credible story.Recommend
@Khalid Masood:
Stop day dreaming !!! Try stopping drones and American SEALs and if you people remain to see the sun light think of settling score this time. A single drone sends shivers down you peoples spine think what it will happen to you people when II armoured division, Kharga corps, which is tasked to cut Pakistan down in two halves would give a charge. Don’t bite what you can’t swallow.Recommend
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. If it’s any consolation, at least it’s the US navy seals and not, for example, the Bolivian Navy SEALS. Seriously, the CIA setting up a safe house near Bin Laden’s safe house? Who would have thought!Recommend