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Musharraf ‘knew Bin Laden was in Abbottabad’: Former ISI chief
Gen. (retd) Ziauddin Khwaja says the Abbottabad compound ‘was made to order’ by a former intelligence...
Former president Pervez Musharraf was aware of Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad location and the safe house where he was sheltered was built by Pakistani intelligence agencies, according to a former Inter-Services Intelligence chief.
Former president Pervez Musharraf was aware of Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad location and the safe house where he was sheltered was built by Pakistani intelligence agencies, according to a former Inter-Services Intelligence chief.
In an article for American news website The Daily Beast, former Central Intelligence Agency official Bruce Riedel quoted former director-general of the ISI General (retd) Ziauddin Khwaja as saying that Musharraf “knew Bin Laden was in Abbottabad”.
Khwaja, also known as Ziauddin Butt, allegedly said that Bin Laden’s safe house in Abbottabad “was made to order” by Brigadier Ijaz Shah, a former head of the Intelligence Bureau.
“Ziauddin says Ijaz Shah was responsible for setting up Bin Laden in Abbottabad, ensuring his safety and keeping him hidden from the outside. And Ziauddin says Musharraf knew all about it,” Riedel wrote in the article.
Shah, who the assassinated premier Benazir Bhutto had linked to a failed plot to kill her, has been closely linked to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born Kashmiri terrorist who was imprisoned in India in 1994 for kidnapping three Britons and an American. Saeed was part of the plot to kidnap journalist Daniel Pearl and turned himself in to Shah.
However, Butt told Geo News that he had been misquoted in the article but refused to give details of what he had said which could have been misconstrued.
Butt was appointed to head the ISI by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and served at the post from 1997 to 1999. He was the first head of the army’s Strategic Plans Division, which controls the nuclear arsenal.
Riedel, however, notes that Butt had “a motive to speak harshly about Musharraf”. Nawaz had promoted Butt as the army chief in October 1999 when he tried to fire Musharraf who then launched a bloodless coup and deposed Nawaz’s government. Butt eventually spent two years in solitary confinement, was discharged from the army and his property was confiscated.
Riedel further wrote: “We don’t know who was helping hide Bin Laden but we need to track them down. If (Musharraf) knew, then he should be questioned by the authorities the next time he sets foot in America”.
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Common General Zia get real! Who told you? OBL before being killed. No wonder nobody in army was accepting you as COAS.
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Nonsense…
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Shabash! You people really help Musharraf to get famous. I appreciate and thank you very much.
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What can anyone say after reading this report? Europe and America, it seems, were right all the time.
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everyone is quiet at this great news. start argument say its conspiracy of someone from india, israel or usa
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Had a politician made this statement, there would have been coup by now, who is going to control these RETARD servicemen from putting country’s existence on stake. Although it is a open secret but coming from an intel chief is nothing less than a suicide attack!
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Good business decision by our commercial army generals.Take money from al-qaida to hide bin laden,take money from USA to find bin laden.Dollars hi dollars.
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uuffff.. Oops Pakistanis will have heart attack now…Sir ! Dont pull their pants down…you can wake up someone who is sleeping, not someone who is pretend to sleep.. .Come on guys ! start ur conspiracy theories.Recommend
These are all blame games for the establishmet’s project which went strayed !!!!
There is no way that someone in the establishment did not know as to OBL’s presence in the country !
Yet ! we have people who actually still question the very fact that he got taken out by the US.
The people in this nation have lost basic capacity to acknowledge facts !
Hence the society, that lives in delusional world of denialability and illusions !
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Slowly the truth is coming out
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Yes so ???
Even Zardari,Gillani & Rehman Malik Knew so ???:
Punish them tooo
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Ziauddin Butt is a relative of Nawaz Sharif and an enemy of Pervaiz Musharraf. Without any evidence his claims have no credibility at all.Recommend
The Abbottabad Commission should call Musharraf,!
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But interestingly General (retd) Ziauddin has now denied the same saying he was misquoted.
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This is not a news break. All educated, intelligent and informed Pakistanis know that such a hideout could not be built without the connivance of you know who. A thinking mind fails to accept the incompetent theory forwarded by the boots as a lesser evil of the two, the other being complicit.Recommend
… and now the fun starts
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I have heard him so many times on the media. And I firmly believe that he has developed a personal enmity with Pervaiz Musharaf.
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You people will accept all the truths but after 10-20 years Like you did in Kargil and bangladesh war.
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Absurd….and it’s coming from Bruce Riedel so automatically not worth giving importance to it. Ziauddin Butt should still clarify this.
@Hedgefunder, why are you obsessed with this delusional society? Is anyone forcing you to come here?
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@frank: Yup, there is no evidence – just that the americans found out where he was kept, sneaked in and killed him.
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Make no mistake about it,
Bruce Riedel is a jewish American with dual Israeli/American nationality.
The Israeli lobby in America (who run America’s policy) want the total disintegration of Nuclear Pakistan. We are going to be next after Iran.
9/11 was a false flag operation by Israel (Mossad) with the help of dual national (israeli/Americans) in important positions in the cia/white house/media and state department.
An excuse to launch the war against muslim countries, only for Israel’s power (and with total disregard of America’s interests).
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Some days back, we didn’t believe that OBL was in our country, turned out we were wrong. Also We shouted on Drone flights and attacks, Later we found that they were allowed by our authorities, turned out we were wrong. Also, we shouted on alleged links between ISI and talban, later it was revealed that there definitely was some liaison between the two, turned out, we were wrong.
In the same way, HIstory will prove one day, that we were wrong about OBL presence, certainly not someone, but the very top brass was not only aware of his presence but made this possible that he can travel across the country for medication (again future will reveal it). HIstory have proven that we have been wrong again and again and it will prove this again. We just have to wait.
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What evidence? you think Musharaf will sign an office order and tell all his associates that he is hiding OBL. Forget it. Anyway such secrets cannot be documented.The number of lies Mush has spoken, we have to believe that he was aware of OBL and he can speak another lie to deny it
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But these days Mushy advocates close ties with Israel. May be washing his old sins!Recommend
Every Indian knew even the dumbest, the rest of the world was naive specially the American presidents.
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Then we wonder why the world sees us with suspicion. When an ISI chief says that army chief new about Ladin, how can you expect rest of the world to ignore it
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“However, Butt told Geo News that he had been misquoted in the article but refused to give details of what he had said which could have been misconstrued” I strongly protest this piece of news, ” but refused to give details of what he had said which could have been misquoted. I myself heard Sana Mirza of Geo News asking Gen Zia-Ud-Din on telephone about the news and Gen Ziauddin categorically said that he has been misquoted. He said that Gen Zia and Ijaz Shah should have known it as one was President/COAS and other was IB Chief. He never said that they knew it. And this portion has been misquoted. ET is very high esteemed paper and should not indulge in wrong reporting and hope after verifying from Geo News will clarify the situation. As for authenticity of information leaked by The Daily Beast is concerned, it looks to be fact and who leaked it has to be seen in its true and factual perspective.
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Surprising coming from a general who was discharged from the army years before Bin Ladin’s purported arival in Abbotabad! So how did he get to know? Who informed him?
And most ironic is that this general, while DG ISI from 1997 to 1999 as ISI chief did not know about Kargil (or did he??).
Very convenient to know secrets when you are not in active service and not to know when on the seat!!!
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This is no news. Everyone in the world knows OBL had all the official Pak. support, without which it is impossible to build such a high-security bungalow and stay there for years together. Never mind whether it was the Bhuttos, Shariffs, or Gen. Musharaff. No use post-morteming things now. OBL should have been caught alive. I am sure many heads would have rolled, but having said that nobody knows why he was killed, probably to sweep some uncomfortable secrets under the carpet.
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I am shocked to hear this “news”!
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What’s the big deal, when the man himself clarified that his comments are mis-interpreted. What he said was that “”Musharaf should have known”" and that he knew.
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Let us pretend we all did not know it already and that we are shocked. lol
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Even more shocking ‘revelations’ on the way, depending on how long ‘they’ continue their blockade and non-cooperation.
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he himself denied it last night at geo tv yet editors did not know. its bad taste
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Of course all of this will be outlined in the Abbottabad Commission report — assuming they haven’t died of old age before the report is released.
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This is a very old news. An interview of Gen.Ziauddin Butt, in which he reveals all, has been on YouTube for many months.
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If at all OBL was there it was the joint venture of ISI/CIA and his complete family was housed as per the planning, cashed it when required,all those who did are no more in service just offering prayers for a excuse from GOD for the sin they have committed.All those who know are mum, all those who are talking is just non sense.
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He denied all this non-sense on TV. I heard him live on all leading news channels.
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After the discovery and slaying of Bin Laden in Abbotbad the author Ahmed Rashid was asked by an international news network the question of the day: “Was the Pakistani Establishment involved or was it incompetence on its part”.
I loved his answer.
Ahmed Rashid replied: “Why can’t they be both!!”
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Bruce Riedel you are famous in writing sensational story in your national interest at our cost ,let us wait and see for how long,it is heading for a natural end automatically.
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Musharaf is responsible for every bad thing happening to happening Pakistan all his policies and agendas damaged pakistan national security and made the image of esteemed institutions worst, Corruption, selling nationals and double cross was the worst thing http://707monty.blogspot.com/2012/01/musharraf-please-have-mercy-on-poor.html
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The U.S financed OBL and other terrorists during the Afghan war…..
India financed the Northern Alliance, Mukthi Bahini, Balochi
Israel is FINANCING Jundallah
When is that going to be BREAKING NEWS???
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I hate to be detail oriented, but the general’s name is Khwaja Ziauddin and not Ziauddin Khwaja.
Secondly, he is NOT also known as Ziauddin Butt. Stop using Butt with his name. I don’t know where you guys get this idea that every Kashmiri is a Butt. May be in Panjab, but not everywhere.
Khwaja Ziauddin’s family, which is Kashmiri in origin, is from Lucknow, United Provinces (UP) of Awadh and Agra, India.
His father Khwaja Ziauddin, worked for Bhopal’s army. After the partition of India, they eventually settled in Peshawar.
Tribune, please stick to the right name.
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Although Ziauddin Butt has clearly said that he has been “misquoted”, the title of this article is the opposite. What sort of reporting is this?
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Why this is such great news?. I have been writing in Yahoo, and tribune and other newspapers that Musharaff has hid him in his basement to get American money from 2001 onwards. You can go to yahoo and rediff and see my comments. The tribune doesn’t publish it because I am harsh with the lying Pakistani government and people. Recommend
zia butt is on avenging agenda with Nawaz Shareef his objective is only to destroy Musharraf whereas he is undermining and supporting US agenda of maligning ISI & Pakistan Army.
zia is an oldman shall refrain from carrying out personal agenda & live peacefully for remaining of his retired healthy life.
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Musharraf saved his life in 98.
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This is another propaganda coup for the Israelis/CIA. Is it? Bruce Riedel is an Israeli agent working for MOSSAD and not an American citizen. This is another and last concerted attack (and effort) by the Jewish Americans to highlight the dangers of Pakistani nukes. Well they can do whatever they like they are in safe hands – more so than the Israelis/American or Indian. You expect this from the Jewish Americans given that their original objectives for invading Afghanistan have been defeated and Iraq was a victim of Sadam’s friendship with America/Israel and India. The Pakistani nuclear assets are the third largest and are protected by 20,000 elite troops. This is a last ditch attempt by the Jewish Americans to malign Pakistan. Bin Laden had died during the Toora Boora bombing and his body was taken to Israel – he was an Israeli/CIA agent. The claim the Americans killed him is a big lie.
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@Beatle:
Did this ex chief of ISI know about Kargil? He was the boss then.
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Make a very high profile accusation, then backtrack. Not very befitting for Mr Butt considering the level he had been raised to in the past. Lack of ……?
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The Bush administration believed that someone close to Musharraf was hiding/assisting OBL (documented in Dick Cheney’s autobiography). The Obama administration believed that someone high up in the Military/ISI knew the whereabouts of OBL – Hillary Clinton said as much in front of an audience at a Pakistani University. Is it any wonder that Obama did not inform Pakistan before the Abbottabad raid?
.
When you combine the American suspicions with the fact that OBL was discovered in Abbottabad and that Pakistan has yet to lift a finger to determine who inside Pakistan was helping OBL – it’s abundantly clear that Pakistan was helping OBL.
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Keeping OBL alive for extra 10 years at the cost of 1000′s of innocent lives, billions of dollars served the interest of many. Now it is coming out as to who did what, who lost, who won, who got paid what.
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@usmanx:
The U.S financed OBL and other terrorists during the Afghan war…..
India financed the Northern Alliance, Mukthi Bahini, Balochi
Israel is FINANCING Jundallah
do you see? India has been (almost) always on the right(just) side and Pakistan on the wrong(unjust) side.
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@Khan Jr:
ISI and CIA both have been working hand in gloves for decades,so it was joint venture and CIA cashed the situation when it suited them at home for political mileage.
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@sandeep limaye:
it is true that what you are famous for,India and Israel will be the biggest dilemma for American public in times to come,mark my words.
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This is also like Memo gate. Supreme Court should immediately form a judicial committee and order investigation. Summon the editor of The Daily Beast and former CIA official Bruce Riedel to depose before the judicial commission.
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@ahsan: “India and Israel will be the biggest dilemma for American public in times to come,mark my words.” …. Haven’t you guys wished for that since almost 65 years now ? Truth is that Pakistan is the biggest dilemma for USA and rest of the world.
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@shazada zahid mahmoud malik loan:
Your conspiracy rantings are really tiresome! I recall that al-Qaida announced OBLs death after the Abbottabad Raid, and Ayman Al Zawahiri took over command from him! Maybe al-Qaida and company are really Israeli agents, or maybe they really are from MARS but couldn’t get proper visas, or maybe they really are working for Burger KIng, or was it KFC, I really can’t keep up with all the news my SUPER SECRET AGENT DECODER RING tells me these days!!!
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@Akbaruddin:
You just don’t get it. Americans don’t respond to the demands of PAK SC or for that matter to demands of PAK in general
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Dr.Afridi isn’t the traitor. Even the ex-Afghan Intelligence head, Amrullah Saleh, claimed he mentioned the Abbottabad location to Musharraf who became incensed and denied it, and continued to make excuses that Saleh was ‘anti-Pakistani’, despite Saleh being correct on the location of many known Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in Pakistan which the Pak authorities continued to deny until exposed through peace talks and following suspicious pre-empted or premature arrests or drone strikes.
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Can the myopic faux patriot and militant friendly judiciary finally take on the military to investigate and confirm, instead of hiding and sweeping the truth like in the Saleem Shahzad case, the treasonous ‘open secret’ of our current and former military state officials, Musharraf, Kayani, Pasha, Hamid Gul, Ijaz Shah, and the other army and intelligence generals?
They employed a dangerously stupid, irrational, anti-peace, chaos spreading, terrorist sponsoring and murderous ‘strategic depth’ policy, protecting a wanted international foreign Saudi Wahhabi/Salafi radical and terrorist over the lives of local Pakistani citizens, most of whom are sadly themselves steeped in brainwashed religious nationalist ideological prejudice and xenophobic conspiratorial denial, killed by their domestic and foreign spawned extremist militant products for regional hegemony based on anti-India paranoia and regressive religious-nationalism/globalization in Kashmir, India, Afghanistan, and further West, even targeting non-conformists and random citizens in Pak on the basis of ‘national interests’. Sickening.
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For god’s sake, ARY and other news channels have taken his interview and he has denied giving such statement. Please confirm your news before putting it out in the masses !! or at least when the denial has come, mend it !!
So much for freedom of media….
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I dont think it is a revelation, it sounds more like a confirmation
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Not their best work if the ISI made the Bin Laden hideout to order, I must say.
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@Ali: Ya I too refuse to believe ISI would do such a sloppy job. Politics aside, I believe ISI is one heck of a meanly efficient and formidable spy machine – one of the best if not the best.
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Not only Musharraf must have this, but he might have approved the scheme & budget & event selected the location in Abbottabad!
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This Bruce Reidel is a big-time nut.. Either he does not know or he is deliberately trying to push the fact under the carpet that General Ziauddin Khwaja was the one whom Musharraf replaced in his infamous coup and he was put under detention and removed from service dishonourably. Ziauddin has his own axe to grind. Bruce Reidel on the other hand like all CT experts is trying to win cheap publicity by harping on this theme time and again. Reidel is just a sham and he should be ashamed of himself. Same is true of this Khwaja, who belonged to the Engineering Corps but was eyeing on becoming COAS while knowing fully well that the COAS mainly comes from a fighting corps.
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Retired General Zia Butt’s claim that General Musharaf knew that OBL is hiding in Pakistan. This may be true, however, he needs to explain that why did he take so long to disclose this secret. Looks like that General Zia Butt must have very well known the hiding place of OBL in Pakistan and to discredit General Musharaf is now making noise. Interesting thing is that the top brass of Army is now washing their dirty linen in Public.Recommend
Why does pakistan regularly make shocking news of deciet, double-cross and lies at regular intervals? No wonder it has the most untrustworthy reputation in the world. No country (including the muslim brothers) want to have anything to do with a clountry which has unsavoury politicians, a rougue amry, and sleaze in its DNA.
Time for Pakistan to completely turn around 180 degrees, and restart from 1947. Pakistan must pray for amnesia so it completely forgets its last 65 years of decietful policy against neighbours and patrons both.
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@international perspective:
Very nicely percieved and quoted. But who will do it is the million dollar question. Cleaning up of 65 year mess overnight is impossible that too when those running the helm of affairs do not call it a mess.
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Correction: I made a typeo. I meant ‘Khwaja Allaudin’ for Khwaja Ziauddin’s father’s name.
Sorry.
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With “friends” like this General Khwaja Ziauddin Butt who says we are threatend by any enemies from outside. Feel sorry for Pakistan “! Recommend
That Musharaf knew that bin Laden was hiding in Abbotabad is not news. Everyone in the world knew that the Pakistani military/ISI leadership was aiding and hiding Osama. Musharaf once said in a news conference that Alquaeda is no longer a problem, but the Pakistani Taliban is the problem. Now, how would he know that if he was not hiding Osama?Recommend
@Painfully Sane:
SO, you say that ” I believe ISI is one heck of a meanly efficient and formidable spy machine – one of the best if not the best.”
WOW, So how did Osama bin Laden live in Abbottabad, in a secure compound, without the “formidable” ISI tripping over him?????
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@numbersnumbers: You should be able to solve the puzzle if you have the ability to connect the dots. Don’t expect that to be published!!
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@numbersnumbers:
There’s life beyond numbers
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Bruce Riedel is known to have hawkish views about Pakistan, just like General Hamid Gul has about india and america. So should we believe both, or discredit both? That is the question.
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In one hand carry the flag of our beloved religion & in other about the liberation of Kashmir and you can reach at all the top in Pakistan. After that you will have the PERMIT to make as much money as you want. Yes, it’s better if you have an unruly beard like Saeed.
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This article is not really worth wasting time on, but I will. It basically boils down to some retired official reporting what some retired official told some retired official about Bin Laden being installed in an Abbottabad mansion, and that former President Mussaraf knew about it. In the whole sorry episode, all I have been able to deduce is that six U.S. helicopters flew several I hundred kilometers all across Northern Pakistan, a twenty minute gun fight took place, a U.S. helicopter blew up in flames, another was disabled, none of the mansion windows were broken, presumably a third helicopter managed to get down and pick up Osama Bin Laden’s body, take it all the way across Pakistan to Afghanistan, get it to an American aircraft carrier somewhere and then drop it into the sea. Whilst all this was happening President Obama and staff watched the whole thing on television, but have not released any video footage of the incident in several months, and the navy personnel who carried out the operation were all killed a few weeks later. So what do we have ? Cent. Comm. said that they were having trouble navigating the Afghan/Pakistan border region in broad daylight and that caused the recent aircraft shoot up of 40 dead and injured Pakistani troops, in Salala, who were well inside Pakistan. However, with Abbottabad they say they crossed right across Pakistan at night, singled out a single home, created mayhem for twenty minutes and were then allowed to peacefully make their way home to Afghanistan after at least one helicopter blew up, and another crashed. As a result, we do not have is a body, no video footage, and no reliable witnesses. I am a little confused, but I think President Mussaraf is quite safe.
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@Cautious:
Dear Cautious,
I am not quite sure what your timing is in this disastrous, U.S. created conflict, but if the Bush administration knew that Pakistan was caring for Osama Bin Laden why did they attack Afghanistan, and remove the Taliban Government ? It is my understanding that President Bush was conveniently, and perhaps incorrectly, holding the Taliban fully responsible. But then apart from continually telling lies the Americans usually shift position when it become convenient or when they decide upon a new strategy. For example, after fully training, and supplying the various militants (freedom fighters) some years ago, and who have now got out of hand (out of American control), they cannot blame the Taliban Government any more, or the Kabul Puppet Government so they are blaming the Pakistan Government, military, I.S.I. for all the problems they created. That is, Pakistanis are the only ones left to blame now the U.S. have got rid of all the other culprits. However, give the Americans time and they will find someone else to blame if it becomes necessary.
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