Pakistan : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 6

[Arun_S]

Add other dots:

1. Few days ago Paksitani ISI chief Gen Pasha met CIA director Leon Panetta. After the meeting Pasha was ash faced and complained of high handedness (read GUBO).
2. When the four choppers flew in the air corridor was opened by TSP military.
3. The TSP military guards were told to dissolve in darkness, else the US seals will clean them up involuntarily.
4. Five men were killed in that complex, I.e. apart from Osama Bin Laden and his son, couple of couriers, and a security minder.

Other independent sources have said that Paki Military was forced to cough up Bin Laden, and be a bystander as he is dispatched to hell.



Disposing Bin Laden's body in a hurry at sea without letting the free world press to see it (including some from Muslim country) is a disaster; have doen it correctly would have destroyed the myth that there was no dead body to show that OBL was in deed killed and that its not another westerns media psy-op myth.



Good things is no matter which way, Paki Army General Assh-phaack Kiyani is faacked

[Arun_S]

[url="http://www.samachar.com/Laden-hide-behind-his-wife-during-US-forces-raid-White-House-lfdjKXfifeg.html"]Laden hid behind his wife during US forces raid: White House[/url]

[Arun_S]

I forgot to add something that a respected Indian strageic analsyst mentioned: Injuries on Bin Laden indicate he was captured and then shot. The kill shot on the head was too clean.

[Guest]

Arun_s, Yesterday's Reuters news, -

US used technology to fool radar when they entered Paki Airspace.

They even kept this information from UK, Australia.

CIA was surprised that this compound was not guarded by anyone, so they have some doubts till operation that it may not be Osama.

This compound was fully secured by Paki Army and ISI. Compound was inside Cantt.

[Guest]

[quote name='Mudy' date='02 May 2011 - 09:51 PM' timestamp='1304387016' post='111494']

Viren,

here are Obama's statements during election



Obama said, "I'm not gonna make him a martyr," as a candidate for presidency in 2008. Obama said, "I'm not gonna make him a martyr. I would not kill him. I would capture him."

<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



Now he had given this man Islamic last rites. Continuation of appeasement policy.

[/quote]

I'm glad that about that one word that he didn't keep 100% - better than McNuts babble about Paki soverignity.

On last rites, if [url="http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_black_jack_pershing.htm"]Gen Pershing[/url] was in charge things might have been different - if one believed that myth.

[ramana]

[quote name='Arun_S' date='03 May 2011 - 07:17 AM' timestamp='1304406581' post='111501']

[url="http://www.samachar.com/Laden-hide-behind-his-wife-during-US-forces-raid-White-House-lfdjKXfifeg.html"]Laden hid behind his wife during US forces raid: White House[/url]

[/quote]



Arun< CNN reports WH says OBL and wife were unarmed when shot.



If this is true the wife might have tried to protect him as she knew he was unarmed.



Also confirms your analyst's views.

[Capt M Kumar]

What this episode does for the people of Pakistan is that it unequivocally demonstrates to them the duplicity of their Army and the ISI. Fed on a policy of denial ever since his escape from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden’s residence in Thanda Chuha, Abbottabad, is the most damning piece of evidence possible. What it does is to further lower the image of the Army as a provider of stability in a country habituated to political upheavals. The baton has to be picked up by political parties in Pakistan, but India, and Indians, can do their bit by not gloating.



In the annals of special operations Thanda Chuha will be remembered as a milestone. It is the most outstanding since September 1943 when Lt Col Otto Skorzeny rescued Benito Mussolini from his mountain-top prison during ‘Operation Oak’. From planning to launch to completion, the operation to get Osama bin Laden was kept to within textbook standards. It involved only one strike force, SEALs Team Six; used transport from one source, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade’s Task Force Raptor that moved to Ghazi Air Force Base for flood relief operations last September; and, on completion of the raid, the team exited using a different route from the one taken to target. All common sense, the most important tool needed to win a war. http://www.dailypioneer.com/336211/Secre...Chuha.html

[Guest]

[url="http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/158895-pakistan-looks-to-lobbyists-for-help-on-bin-laden-fallout"]Pakistan looks to lobbyists for help on bin Laden fallout[/url]

Pakistan will likely call upon Washington lobbyists to help repair its fraught U.S. relations after Osama bin Laden was found and killed in the country Sunday.



Locke Lord Strategies has been lobbying for the Pakistani embassy since May 2008, earning more than $1.9 million in fees, according to Justice Department records.



[color="#FF0000"]The firm’s lobbying team for Pakistan has been led by Mark Siegel, a veteran Democratic Party operative, Carter White House aide and close friend to Benazir Bhutto,[/color] the former Pakistani prime minister who was assassinated in 2007 as she campaigned for her old seat.

Siegel told The Hill that he is planning to talk to lawmakers to combat what he terms “speculation” from some in the media that Pakistan’s government must have known of bin Laden’s hiding place.



“It’s these consultants that all these networks have hired to talk about terrorism who are making all these speculations,” said Siegel, a partner at Locke Lord. “We have some education to do on the Hill. We don’t want this speculation to end up being considered as fact.”

[Guest]

Gallup: 89% of Americans Credit Military for Finding, Killing Bin Laden--35% Credit Obama

[Arun_S]

[url="http://www.samachar.com/Pakistan-criticizes-US-raid-on-bin-Laden-lfdwLigjefh.html"]Pakistan criticizes US raid on bin Laden[/url]

2011-05-04 05:30:00





Abbottabad: Pakistan criticized the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden as an "unauthorized unilateral action" and warned Washington on Tuesday not to launch similar operations in the future.



The comments laid bare the tensions triggered by Monday's attack, which came at time when U.S.-Pakistani ties were already near rock bottom.



The Pakistani government has been assailed by domestic critics, while the fact bin Laden was living in a house in a military town not far from the capital has led to international suspicions that elements of Pakistan's security forces may have been harboring him.



Those who lived near bin Laden's final hideaway said the terror chief and his family rarely strayed from the house, and most of the neighbors were not aware foreigners were living there. Still, glimpses of life from inside the 15-foot walls began emerging.



One man, Sher Mohammed Khan, said his sister went to the house to administer a polio vaccination as part of a government-backed drive. When she remarked on all the expensive SUVs inside the compound, a man immediately asked her to leave, but not before taking the vaccine to apparently administer to the children inside.



Khurshid Bibi, in her 70s, said one man living in the compound had given her lift to the market in the rain. She said her grandchildren played with the kids in the house and the people in the compound gave them rabbits as a gift.



But the occupants also attracted criticism.



"People were skeptical in this neighborhood about this place and these guys. They used to gossip, say they were smugglers or drug dealers. People would complain that even with such a big house they didn't invite the poor or distribute charity," said Mashood Khan, a 45-year-old farmer.



Washington said it did not inform Islamabad about commando attack early Monday morning on bin Laden for security reasons. The raid followed months of deteriorating relations between the CIA and Pakistan's main intelligence service.



In a statement, the government said "this event of unauthorized unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule."



"[size="4"][color="#0000ff"]The Government of Pakistan further affirms that such an event shall not serve as a future precedent for any state, including the U.S.," adding such actions can sometimes constitute a "threat to international peace and security[/color][/size]."



The statement may be partly motivated by domestic concerns. The government and army has come under criticism following the raid by those who have accused the government of allowing Washington to violate the country's sovereignty. Islamabad has also been angered at the suspicions it had been sheltering bin Laden.

No worry for TSP, Honerable Indian Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh does not have spine to order commando strike deep into Pakistan or Pakisan Occupied Kashmir to take down Hafiz Saeed, Dawood teh D-company, 26-11 terrorists etc.



For them all is well on the eastern front - Thanda hi Thanda Hai"

[Arun_S]

Knowing choppers and aircrafts, I know that 1:30 AM morning temperature is by no means adverse to chopper flying. That valley is also not at significant altitude where hot temperature produce severe reduction in lift and payload. If at all there was hard-landing due to pilot misjudgment of moderate altitude (Abbottabad altitude 3,900') compared with where the chopper came from viz Tarbala (1,600 ' altitude). the 3,000" altitude difference does very significantly reduce helicopter hover capabelity, and pilots are reminded of such things during pre-flight briefing.







[url="http://www.samachar.com/Osama-was-not-armed-photo-could-be-inflammatory-lfeaKBheaaj.html"]Osama was not armed, photo could be inflammatory[/url]

[url="http://www.ndtv.com/search?q=The+Associated+Press"]The Associated Press[/url], Updated: May 04, 2011 01:36 IST



Expand & Playhat



Washington: Osama bin Laden was unarmed when he was confronted by U.S. commandos at his Pakistani hideout, the White House said Tuesday as new details emerged about the audacious raid that killed the world's most wanted terrorist. The White House said it was considering whether to release photos of bin Laden after he was killed but that the photos were "gruesome" and could be inflammatory.



Other details that emerged on Tuesday: One of bin Laden's wives tried to rush the U.S. assaulters and was shot in the leg. [size="3"][color="#0000ff"]High temperatures caused a lumbering helicopter carrying elite commandos to make a hard landing.[/color][/size]



And as Navy SEALs swept through the massive compound, they handcuffed those they encountered with plastic zip ties and pressed on in pursuit of their target, code-named Geronimo. Then, once bin Laden had been shot, they doubled back to move the prisoners away from the compound before blowing up the downed helicopter.



The fuller picture of the high-stakes assault emerged as U.S. officials weighed whether to release secret video and photos of bin Laden, killed with a precise shot above his left eye.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and revealed some of the new details about the raid, said she'd known about the suspected bin Laden compound since last December -- offering rare proof that Washington can indeed keep a blockbuster secret.



President Barack Obama made plans to go to ground zero in New York on Thursday to mark the milestone of bin Laden's demise and to remember the dead of 9/11. [url="http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/for-72-hours-obama-held-worlds-best-kept-secret-103072"](Read: For 72 hours, Obama held world's best-kept secret)[/url]



White House counter terrorism advisor John Brennan said the U.S. already was scouring items seized in the raid -- said to include hard drives, DVD's, a pile of documents and more -- that might tip U.S. intelligence to Al-Qaeda's operational details and perhaps lead the manhunt to the presumed next-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.



As for publicly releasing photos and video, Brennan said in a series of appearances on morning television: "This needs to be done thoughtfully," with careful consideration given to what kind of reaction the images might provoke.



At issue were photos of bin Laden's corpse and video of his swift burial at sea. Officials were reluctant to inflame Islamic sentiment by showing graphic images of the body. But they were also eager to address the mythology already building in Pakistan and beyond that bin Laden was somehow still alive.



In a move that could increase pressure for the release of photos, Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah said talk of bin Laden's death was "premature," adding that the U.S. had not presented "convincing evidence," the SITE Intelligence Group reported.



Obama, who approved the extraordinarily risky operation and witnessed its progression from the White House Situation Room, his face heavy with tension, reaped accolades from world leaders he'd kept in the dark as well as from political opponents at home. Pakistan, however, called the raid "unauthorised"[color="#000080"] << ArunS: Just like a wh0re authorizes raid to her sovereign privacy as long as money is paid !>> [/color] Tuesday and said it hoped it wouldn't serve as a precedent for future actions.



CIA Director Leon Panetta, in interviews with Time and PBS' "Newshour," sketched the scene in the Situation Room as the tense final minutes of the raid played out.



"Once those teams went into the compound," he told PBS, "I can tell you there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes that we really didn't know just exactly what was going on."



Then, Panetta told Time, when Adm. William McRaven, head of the Joint Special Forces Command, reported that the commandos had identified "Geronimo" -- the code name for bin Laden -- "all the air we were holding came out."



And when the helicopters left the compound 15 minutes later, Panetta said, the room broke into applause.



Republican and Democratic leaders at home gave Obama a standing ovation at an evening White House meeting that was planned before the assault but became a celebration of it, and an occasion to step away from the fractious political climate.



The episode was an embarrassment, at best, for Pakistani authorities as bin Laden's presence was revealed in their midst. The stealth U.S. operation played out in a city with a strong Pakistani military presence and without notice from Washington. Questions persisted in the administration and grew in Congress about whether some elements of Pakistan's security apparatus might have been in collusion with Al-Qaeda in letting bin Laden hide in Abbottabad.



Brennan asked the question that was reverberating around the world: "How did Osama bin Laden stay at that compound for six years or so and be undetected?" [url="http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/osama-had-support-system-in-pakistan-us/198473"](Read: 'Osama had support system in Pak')[/url]



"We have many, many questions about this," he said. "And I know Pakistani officials do as well." Brennan said Pakistani officials were trying to determine "whether there were individuals within the Pakistani government or military intelligence services who were knowledgeable." He questioned in particular why bin Laden's compound hadn't come to the attention of local authorities.



Feinstein, for her part, said Congress may consider docking the almost $1.3 billion dollars in annual aid to Pakistan if it turns out the Islamabad government knew where Osama was.



In an essay published Tuesday by The Washington Post, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied suggestions his country's security forces may have sheltered bin Laden, and said their cooperation with the United States helped pinpoint his whereabouts.



As Americans rejoiced, they worried, too, that terrorists would be newly motivated to lash out. In their wounded rage, Al-Qaeda ideologues fed that concern. "By God, we will avenge the killing of the Sheik of Islam," one prominent al-Qaida commentator vowed. "Those who wish that jihad has ended or weakened, I tell them: Let us wait a little bit."



In that vein, U.S. officials warned that bin Laden's death was likely to encourage attacks from "homegrown violent extremists" even if Al-Qaeda is not prepared to respond in a coordinated fashion now.



U.S. officials say the photographic evidence shows bin Laden was shot above his left eye, blowing away part of his skull.



He was also shot in the chest, they said. This, near the end of a frenzied firefight in a high-walled Pakistani compound where helicopter-borne U.S. forces found 23 children, nine women, a bin Laden courier who had unwittingly led the U.S. to its target, a son of bin Laden who was also slain, and more.



Bin Laden could have lived at the fortified compound for up to six years, putting him far from the lawless and harsh Pakistani frontier where he had been assumed to be hiding out.



They said SEALs dropped down ropes from helicopters, killed bin Laden aides and made their way to the main building.



U.S. officials said the information that ultimately led to bin Laden's capture originally came from detainees held in secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe. There, agency interrogators were told of an alias used by a courier whom bin Laden particularly trusted.



It took four long years to learn the man's real name, then years more before investigators got a big break in the case, these officials said.



Sometime in mid-2010, the courier was overheard using a phone by intelligence officials, who then were able to locate his residence -- the specially constructed $1 million compound with walls as high as 18 feet topped with barbed wire.



U.S. counterterrorism officials considered bombing the place, an option that was discarded by the White House as too risky, particularly if it turned out bin Laden was not there.



Panetta told Time that a "direct shot" with cruise missiles was still under consideration as late as Thursday but was ruled out because of the possibility of "too much collateral" damage. Waiting for more information also was a possibility.



Ultimately, Obama signed an order on Friday for the team of SEALs to chopper onto the compound under the cover of darkness.



In addition to bin Laden, one of his sons was killed in the raid, Brennan said. Bin Laden's wife was shot in the calf but survived, a U.S. official said. Also killed were the courier, and the courier's wife and brother, U.S. intelligence officials believe.



Feinstein, asked if the information gleaned from high-value detainees in the CIA's former secret prisons had proved the worth of such tactics, said "nothing justifies the kind of procedures used."



Some people found at the compound were left behind when the SEALs withdrew and were turned over to Pakistani authorities who quickly took over control of the site, officials said. They identified the trusted courier as Kuwaiti-born Sheikh Abu Ahmed, who had been known under the name Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti.



Within 40 minutes, the operation was over, and the SEALs flew out -- minus the helicopter that had to be destroyed. Bin Laden's remains were flown to the USS Carl Vinson, then lowered into the North Arabian Sea.



Bin Laden's death came 15 years after he declared war on the United States. Al-Qaida was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.

[Arun_S]

[url="http://www.samachar.com/Bin-Laden-went-down-firing-source-lfdpPhgcbfj.html"]Bin Laden went down firing: source[/url]

Agencies Posted: May 03, 2011 at 1012 hrs

Washington A US official says Osama bin Laden went down firing at the Navy SEALs who stormed his compound. An official familiar with the operation says bin Laden was hit by a barrage of carefully aimed return fire. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because aspects of the operation remain classified.



The official says two dozen SEALs in night-vision goggles dropped into the high-walled compound in Pakistan by sliding down ropes from Chinook helicopters in the overnight raid.



US officials say bin Laden was killed near the end of the 40-minute raid.



The SEALs retrieved bin Laden\'s body and[size="3"] turned the remaining detainees over to Pakistani authorities[/size].

So there were Pakistani authorities in tow and waiting like peon while gora saab was executing the uber secret mission that was disclosed to Pakistani authrorities including President Zardari, PM Gilani, and mil-to-mil hug from US army general to Gen Ash-Phaq Kiyani, AFTER the mission was over !!!!

Mr Brennan revealed the United States did not inform the Pakistanis of the operation until its helicopters had exited Pakistani air space out of fears Islamabad would scramble fighters to intercept the mission.

This feat is first in "Time Wrap", a great scinitifc discovery, realized by dead Bin Laden's Jinn.<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[Arun_S]

[url="http://www.samachar.com/One-unwary-phone-call-led-US-to-bin-Laden-doorstep-lfdpPhceeai.html"]One unwary phone call led US to bin Laden doorstep[/url]

Before dawn Monday morning, a pair of helicopters left Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. The choppers entered Pakistani airspace using sophisticated technology intended to evade that country's radar systems, a US official said. Officially, it was a kill-or-capture mission, since the U.S. does not kill unarmed people trying to surrender. But it was clear from the beginning that whoever was behind those walls had no intention of surrendering, two US officials said.



The helicopters lowered into the compound, dropping the SEALs behind the walls. No shots were fired, but shortly after the team hit the ground, one of the helicopters came crashing down and rolled onto its side for reasons the government has yet to explain. None of the SEALs was injured, however, and the mission continued uninterrupted.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/03/us-pakistan-has-bin-laden-wife-children-idUSTRE7423SK20110503"]Pakistan has bin Laden wife, children in custody[/url]

The relatives -- one of bin Laden's wives and up to eight children -- will be interrogated and then probably turned over to their countries of origin, and not the United States, in accordance with Pakistani law, he said.



The official said the wife and children were left behind after an American transport helicopter, possibly an MH-60 Sea Hawk, was abandoned because of mechanical problems.



He said there was not enough room for the group on the other helicopters, which were transporting bin Laden's body, other male captives and the commandos.

US was able to get some trophies.

[Guest]

Knowing choppers and aircrafts, I know that 1:30 AM morning temperature is by no means adverse to chopper flying. That valley is also not at significant altitude where hot temperature produce severe reduction in lift and payload. If at all there was hard-landing due to pilot misjudgment of moderate altitude (Abbottabad altitude 3,900') compared with where the chopper came from viz Tarbala (1,600 ' altitude). the 3,000" altitude difference does very significantly reduce helicopter hover capabelity, and pilots are reminded of such things during pre-flight briefing.

Analyst were saying, it happened because of high walls around compound and lack of air to lift plane.

[Arun_S]

[url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-feared-Pak-could-mistake-American-raid-to-kill-Osama-bin-Laden-for-India-attack/articleshow/8152950.cms"]US feared Pak could mistake American raid to kill Osama bin Laden for India attack[/url]

Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN | May 3, 2011, 05.51pm IST



WASHINGTON: US President Obama and his national security team spent hairy moments in the [url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/White-House"]White House[/url] Situation Room on Sunday worrying among other things that [url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Pakistan"]Pakistan[/url] would mistake the Osama-specific American commando raid on Abbottabad for an Indian attack.



In fact, a top US official disclosed in a briefing on Monday that the Pakistanis even scrambled their jets when they realized something was afoot in Abbottabad, but the US commandos finished their operation in 40 minutes and were out of there before the Pakistanis acted.



''The Pakistanis were reacting to an incident that they knew was taking place in Abbottabad. Therefore, they were scrambling some of their assets,'' US counterterrorism czar [url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/John-Brennan"]John Brennan[/url] revealed while providing some operational details of the mission. It was not clear if the ''assets'' Brennan referred to included just fighter jets or other options ranging from anti-aircraft fire to missiles.



Brennan disclosed that the [size="3"]US was ''concerned that if the Pakistanis decided to scramble jets or whatever else... They had no idea about who might have been in there, whether it be US or somebody else,'' in what was an implicit reference to India.[/size] ''So we were watching and making sure that our people and our aircraft were able to get out of Pakistani airspace. And thankfully, there was no engagement with Pakistani forces," he added.



Washington did not keep any country, including [url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/India"]India[/url] and much less Pakistan, in the loop about the operation.



Brennan also addressed one of the key questions that arose from the episode: Why didn't the US use a Drone attack, as it does in Waziristan, instead of opting for a more dangerous commando ingress deep inside Pakistan and so close to its capital?



The answer it turns out is that President Obama wanted to be absolutely sure it was Osama bin Laden they were getting. A Drone attack or a heavy duty bombing raid would have reduced the compound to rubble, but there would be no way of knowing if it was bin Laden who died in the attack. Such a raid would also give Pakistan a chance to cover up its tracks.



Besides, Brennan said, the US had even hoped to capture bin Laden alive if possible. ''If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that. We had discussed that extensively in a number of meetings in the White House and with the President,'' Brennan said. ''The concern was that bin Laden would oppose any type of capture operation. Indeed, he did. He, therefore, was killed in that firefight.''



While Brennan and other officials provided some sketchy operational facts, they chose to keep much of it under wraps so as to not fully disclose American capabilities. For instance, questions about whether the US fully paralysed Pakistani air space during the nearly four-hour long operation from the time of the helicopter ingress into Pakistan to its safe exit, remained unanswered.



While US sources said the Navy Seals team took off from Jalalabad in [url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Afghanistan"]Afghanistan[/url], some 200 kms from Abbottabad, the Pakistani media insisted a team came from Ghazi Air Force Base near the village of Tarbela Ghazi in Pakistan, where the US is said to maintain a small team of special ops trainers. Ghazi also serves as the main logistics hub for US aid missions to Pakistan.



The Obama administration appears keen on not letting it be known that it has significant capabilities inside Pakistan (which the Pakistani military and ISI is now trying to whittle down), and not to jeopardize its civilian outreach there, just as [url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Islamabad"]Islamabad[/url] is anxious not to let on that it has given up operation discretion to the Americans and its talk of sovereignty is just lip service.



It is possible that the US teams came from both places with Seals from Jalalabad being supported by CIA operatives from Ghazi. The estimates for[color="#0000ff"] what President Obama initially described as a ''small team'' now ranges from 24 Navy Seals who took part in the actual assault, to a larger estimate of 79, including those who provided the logistical support and air cover.

[/color]

However one dices the operation, it was a daring ingress deep inside Pakistan that made mockery of its military's pledge that it will not tolerate foreign operations inside its territory even as it restored American pride in its capabiliteis.



As for President Obama, the US, White House spokesman Jay Carney prefaced Brennan's briefing by reading his (Obama's) campaign promise: ''If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will. We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights.''



He lived up to his pledge.

[Arun_S]

[url="http://swampland.time.com/2011/05/03/cia-chief-breaks-silence-u-s-ruled-out-involving-pakistan-in-bin-laden-raid-early-on/#ixzz1LJRHPkH5"]CIA Chief Breaks Silence: Pakistan Would Have Jeopardized bin Laden Raid, ‘Impressive’ Intel Captured[/url]

By [url="http://swampland.time.com/author/calabresim/"]Massimo Calabresi[/url] Tuesday, May 3, 2011

In his first interview since commanding the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, CIA chief Leon Panetta tells TIME that U.S. officials feared that Pakistan could have undermined the operation by leaking word to its targets. Long before Panetta ordered Vice Admiral William McRaven, head of the Joint Special Forces Command, to undertake the mission at 1:22 p.m. on Friday, the CIA had been gaming out how to structure the raid. Months prior, the U.S. had considered expanding the assault to include coordination with other countries, notably Pakistan. But the CIA ruled out participating with its nominal South Asian ally early on because “it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets,” Panetta says.



The U.S. also considered running a high-altitude bombing raid from B-2 bombers or launching a “direct shot” with cruise missiles but ruled out those options because of the possibility of “too much collateral,” Panetta says. The direct-shot option was still on the table as late as last Thursday as the CIA and then the White House grappled with how much risk to take on the mission. Waiting for more intelligence also remained a possibility. [url="http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2069208,00.html"](See photos of Obama monitoring the bin Laden mission.)[/url]



On Tuesday, Panetta assembled a group of 15 aides to assess the credibility of the intelligence they had collected on the compound in Abbottabad where they believed bin Laden was hiding. They had significant “circumstantial evidence” that bin Laden was living there, Panetta says — the residents burned their trash and had extraordinary security measures — but American satellites had not been able to photograph bin Laden or any members of his family. The Tuesday meeting included team leaders from the CIA’s counterterrorism center, the special-activities division (which runs covert operations for the agency) and officials from the office of South Asian analysis.



Panetta wanted to get those aides’ opinions on the potential bin Laden mission, and he quickly found a lack of unanimity among his team. Some of the aides had been involved in the Carter Administration’s effort to go after the hostages held by the Iranians 30 years ago; others had been involved in the ill-fated “Black Hawk Down” raid against Somali warlords in 1993. “What if you go down and you’re in a firefight and the Pakistanis show up and start firing?” Panetta says some worried. “How do you fight your way out?”



But Panetta concluded that the evidence was strong enough to risk the raid, despite the fact that his aides were only 60%-80% confident that bin Laden was there, and decided to make his case to the President. At the key Thursday meeting in which President Obama heard the arguments from his top aides on whether or not to go into Pakistan to kill or capture bin Laden, Panetta admitted that the evidence of bin Laden’s presence at the compound was circumstantial. But “when you put it all together,” Panetta says he told the room, “we have the best evidence since [the 2001 battle of] Tora Bora [where bin Laden was last seen], and that then makes it clear that we have an obligation to act.”



Obama decided that Panetta’s arguments trumped two other options: striking the compound remotely or waiting until more evidence was available to prove bin Laden was there. “If I thought delaying this could in fact produce better intelligence, that would be one thing,” Panetta says he argued, “but because of the nature of the security at the compound, we’re probably at a point where we’ve got the best intelligence we can get.” [url="http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2068945,00.html"](See photos of bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout.)[/url]



For weeks, Panetta had been pushing the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to try to get photographic confirmation of the presence of the bin Laden family. “NGA was terrific at doing analysis on imagery of that compound,” he says, but “I kept struggling to say, ‘Can’t you at least try to get one of the people that looks like [bin Laden]?’ ” NGA produced photographs of the two couriers and their families that McRaven’s Navy Seal team used to identify players in the compound as they made their way toward bin Laden.



Panetta only learned that the President had been convinced by his arguments on Friday, when Obama said he was authorizing the helicopter mission and made his order official in a signed letter. After he received the order, Panetta told McRaven of the President’s decision and instructed him to launch. He told him the mission was “to go in there [and] get bin Laden, and if bin Laden isn’t there, get the hell out!”



CIA officials turned a windowless seventh-floor conference room at Langley into a command center for the mission, and Panetta watched the operation unfold from there. As he and his team waited for McRaven to report on whether bin Laden was indeed at the compound, Panetta says the room was tense. “I kept asking Bill McRaven, ‘O.K., what the hell’s this mean?,’ ” and when McRaven finally said they had ID’d “Geronimo,” the mission code name for bin Laden, “All the air we were holding came out,” Panetta says. When the helicopters left the compound 15 minutes later, the room broke into applause. [url="http://swampland.time.com/2011/05/02/inside-the-situation-room-weve-idd-geronimo/#ixzz1LIbAFKNm"](See the moment of triumph at the White House.)[/url]



The aftermath of the mission has been productive. The U.S. collected an “impressive amount” of material from bin Laden’s compound, including computers and other electronics, Panetta says. Panetta has set up a task force to act on the fresh intelligence. Intelligence reporting suggests that one of bin Laden’s wives who survived the attack has said the family had been living at the compound since 2005, a source tells TIME.



That will raise questions about the Pakistani government’s possible awareness of bin Laden’s location in recent years. But one of Panetta’s predecessors says this can work to U.S. advantage. “It opens up some opportunities for us with Pakistan,” says John McLaughlin, former deputy CIA chief. “They now should feel under some great pressure to be cooperative with us on the remaining issues,” like going after the Taliban elsewhere in the country. “It’s called leverage.”

[Guest]

McCain, Kerry etc are still happy to give them AID.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1383067/Osama-Bin-Laden-dead-Pakistan-spy-agencys-failures-Abbottabad-hideout.html"]More pictures here[/url]

look charred shed, place where they burnt helicopter

[Naresh]

.



[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=15118"]ISI officer breaks the ice on OBL saga[/url]



ISLAMABAD : An officer of Pakistan’s intelligence agency has said that the presence of Osama bin Laden (OBL) in a compound in Abbottabad and ISI’s lack of knowledge on this is embarrassing, Geo News reported.



Talking to media men here, an ISI official said a 12-year daughter of OBL is under custody of Pakistani government. She saw US troops shoot her father to death, he said.



He said there were 17 or 18 people present in compound at the time of US raid.



He said, “But that a US chopper crashed amid operation, so US marine commandos would have taken all people back to America.”



Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, has said it is embarrassed by its failures on al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.



An ISI official told the BBC the compound in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed by US forces on Sunday had been raided several years ago.



But the compound "was not on our radar" since then, the official said.



The government of Pakistan has categorically denied any knowledge of the raid before it took place.



No base within Pakistan was used by US forces, the ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.



It went on: "US helicopters entered Pakistani airspace making use of blind spots in the radar coverage due to hilly terrain."



However, the ministry defended the ISI, saying: "As far as the target compound is concerned, ISI had been sharing information with CIA and other friendly intelligence agencies since 2009."



The ISI official gave new details of the raid, saying Bin Laden's young daughter had said she saw her father shot.



He told the BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones in Islamabad that the compound in Abbottabad, just 100km (62 miles) from the capital, was raided when under construction in 2003.



It was believed an al-Qaeda operative, Abu Faraj al-Libi, was there.



But since then, "the compound was not on our radar, it is an embarrassment for the ISI", the official said. "We're good, but we're not God."



He added: "This one failure should not make us look totally incompetent. Look at our track record. For the last 10 years, we have captured Taliban and al-Qaeda in their hundreds - more than any other countries put together."



The ISI official also gave new or differing accounts of some of the events of Sunday's raid. They included:



There were 17-18 people in the compound at the time of the attack.



The Americans took away one person still alive, possibly a Bin Laden son.



Those who survived the attack included a wife, a daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently Bin Laden's; all had their hands tied by the Americans.



The surviving Yemeni wife said they had moved to the compound a few months ago Bin Laden's daughter, aged 12 or 13, saw her father shot.



The official said it was thought the Americans wanted to take away the surviving women and children but had to abandon the plan when one of the helicopters malfunctioned.



The helicopter was destroyed by the Special Forces unit.



The US has not commented on anyone it captured or had planned to capture, other than saying it had taken Bin Laden's body.



The ISI official said the organisation had recovered some documents from the compound.



The CIA is already said to be going through a large number of hard drives and storage devices seized in the raid.



Cheers