Bin Laden hid from spy satellites under a cowboy hat, did not pay property taxes. DESIGN: AMNA IQBAL
KARACHI:
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.
COMMENTS (12)
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The best thing that Pakistan can say about the 10 years that Osama lived without being found is that "We were not looking for him, we have more important things to do"
the renting of a nearby house for people supposedly working for the USAID. Roshan Pakistan Really.!!!
@Saleem:
Commission doesn't had the guts to spell it out but of course doesnt take a genius to figure that there was collusion between Bin Laden and Pakistani agencies at substantial levels.
They take every persons i.d card in hundreds of flats around expo center whenever the city hosts Ideas defence equipment exhibition and you think they didnt know exactly who was living in this house?
I don't blame you for being embarrassed. Pretty clear to the rest of the World that Pakistan was complicit in hiding OBL - your American allies certainly didn't trust you and your actions post raid have made it clear that finding out who helped OBL was not on the agenda. OBL will remain and indelible stain on Pakistan - one that the World will remember every September. You made the bed I hope you enjoy sleeping in it.
whatever happened one thing is pretty obvious and scripted: the hero called 'obama' killed the villain 'osama'! some coincidence that the names rhyme!
"Osama bin Laden: How not to lose a fugitive in 10 long years" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ You can lose only that what you have found!
In Pakistan the intelligence agencies are overrated and maligned by media for political or power struggle reasons. So many media reports , articles mention about 'all powerful agencies'. I always tell my friends that agencies exist in every country and they try to malign each other globally. However where they are really powerful, you can not utter a word about them without consequences let alone ridiculing them in talk shows all year round. So our agencies are infact getting weaker by the day. You try to talk against national agencies in US , Europe or Middle East and soon you would be running for life. Snowdens case is just a recent example. The OBL fiasco just shows that my hypothesis is true and agencies in reality are very weak and ill prepared in Pakistan.
At least now this ludicrous charade will come to an end. Everybody knows the truth and the only thing new that this report tells us is the daily lifestyle of Osama. Everything else is obvious.
nothing but Obama's election wining strategy, sadly !
The bottom line is that is was not Pakistan that nabbed OBL and handed over to US, it was US who got OBL after a long man hunt.
Had Pakistani Intelligence Agecies arrested OBL and handed over OBL to US government, the things would have been different today, but what to say about our most efficient intelligence agencies?
OBL hided himself and his family members for six long years and Pakistani Authorities time and again gave press statements that OBL was hiding on the other side of Tora Bora mountain.
This is the efficiency of Pakistani law enforcement agencies.
I don't think that our intelligence agencies would ever be able to arrest the master minds of suicude bombers in Pakistan.
Just forget it once and for all.
We need to first figure out what is more humiliating for us, Osama being able to live undetected under our military's nose for all those years in a huge complex or the fact that US was able to enter our territory and kill him and leave without even a whimper. Once we are united on which one of those two realities are more difficult for us to swallow, we can begin to understand and analyze what went wrong and what can we do to stop it from happening again.
For number 7: i have been to Abottabad and that is completely stupid. It's free from terrorism because so many Army men and their families live there. Infact we also have the kakul academy over there and ISI office hence no terror attacks.