May 2 operation: Book claims ISI colonel helped US track OBL down
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.
COMMENTS (21)
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Pakistan even handled over small preys like mola zaef to america,let alone obl.
This book appears to be a political jab at Obama and doesn't pass the smell test. If true then you sure handled the entire event badly. The outcome tells the entire store - the World views you as a duplicitous country that sponsors terrorism and the American public views you as the enemy. You got no Kudos -- only contempt.
It appears to be a true story keeping in view of Americans conducting Abbotabad operation with utmost ease.
@Zain: So as not to get blamed from someone. After May 2 Someone traveled to Riyadh and whole palace was assembled to listen to the visitor and that speaks volume.
purpose is to build more pressure on general kiyani to motivate him to initiate new military offences in Pakistan against more Pakistani population!
I agree with this - there was no way the operation could have been conducted without knowledge of the Pakistanis. Even Obama and Clinton said this was done with the cooperation of Pakistan when they first announced that Osama was dead. The only reason the Pak leadership and army wants to keep this quiet is so that there is less risk of retaliatory terrorist strikes in Pakistan (yes worse than we are already facing). Let the US take all the credit - no problem and thank you!
another attempt to thwart Pakistan by intentionally igniting extremist's emotions...and fabricating causes of Kamra base like attacks. Hypocrites.
All will be revealed in the Abbottabad Commissions Report...just wait another 100 years. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
But then OBL did not live in Pakistan and died long ago, if you believe Pakistanis.
The "WINDOW OF BELIEVE-ABILITY" is closed shut..and Pakistan lost out because they don't have a credible TV ANCHORMAN.
Everyone in power is a great actor in Pakistan. They can conceal the truth like masters of the game and keep a straight face.
Now tell them where Mullah Omar is hiding please?
uh oh
Election year junk in America, not to be taken seriously
If you see the documentary called "Shoot to kill:Osama Bin Laden" , Obama and people of his administration said clearly they did not see it fit to inform the Pakistani authorities because of fear the might find an empty compound...
The only contacted pakistan once the operation had been executed and accomplished.
If Gen. Kayani really did know about this so called 'raid' in advance, and had no objection to the killing of 'OBL', then why did he not simply order a bunch of Jawans from the PMA to walk down the road and shoot him in the head? Why wait for several months? LOL ridiculous. If he was living so close to the PMA, that means the army was keeping him there. So basically what this book is saying that it took the US several months to come over and kill a single man. Meanwhile the Pakistan army kept feeding him and keeping him alive, all so that the brave US soldiers could come and take the credit and mollify their population back home over the massive waste of time and resources that the Afghan war has been. IF the US killed OBL in Abbotabad, and that is a big IF, then the Pakistanis knew nothing about it. That is the only plausible scenario that makes sense.