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Pakistan Security Shielded Osama bin Laden from U.S. — Wikileaks

Posted: May 2, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breaking News, Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, U.S. Economy, U.S. Military, U.S. Politics, Wikileaks | Tags: , , , |46 Comments

I thought we needed a new thread to discuss the bin Laden breakthrough. I’ll continue to update if I find more new information.

From the Tim Ross at the UK Telegraph:

In December 2009, the government of Tajikistan warned the United States that efforts to catch bin Laden were being thwarted by corrupt Pakistani spies.

According to a US diplomatic dispatch, General Abdullo Sadulloevich Nazarov, a senior Tajik counterterrorism official, told the Americans that “many” inside Pakistan knew where bin Laden was.

The document stated: “In Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden wasn’t an invisible man, and many knew his whereabouts in North Waziristan, but whenever security forces attempted a raid on his hideouts, the enemy received warning of their approach from sources in the security forces.”

Intelligence gathered from detainees at Guantanamo Bay may also have made the Americans wary of sharing their operational plans with the Pakistani government.

Hmmm…maybe those billions that are going to Pakistan would be better spend on dealing with unemployment here in the U.S.?

More on the courier from the CSM:

It is widely reported that the detained 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gave his US interrogators the pseudonym of a man he described as Osama bin Laden’s most trusted courier, whose whereabouts were tracked last fall to a fortress-like compound in Abbottabad city, some 75 miles north of the capital Islamabad. But US intelligence was also monitoring the satellite calls made by bin Laden’s bodyguard, which also helped lead US forces to bin Laden’s hiding place.

Bin Laden avoided e-mail and phones for fear those lines could be tracked, and instead relied on a system of personal couriers who carried his messages to the outside world. His compound lacked any telephone or Internet connection, according to local sources, but he did have at least one satellite phone. Further backing their story, a Reuters reporter visiting the scene reportedly saw a satellite dish in the compound.

Here’s a fascinating story in the NYT about some of the intelligence work that went into finding out where bin Laden was hiding in plain sight.

A trusted courier of Osama bin Laden’s whom American spies had been hunting for years was finally located in a compound 35 miles north of the Pakistani capital, close to one of the hubs of American counterterrorism operations. The property was so secure, so large, that American officials guessed it was built to hide someone far more important than a mere courier.

[….]

American intelligence officials said Sunday night that they finally learned the courier’s real name four years ago, but that it took another two years for them to learn the general region where he operated.

Still, it was not until August that they tracked him to the compound in Abbottabad, a medium-sized city about an hour’s drive north of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

C.I.A. analysts spent the next several weeks examining satellite photos and intelligence reports to determine who might be living at the compound. A senior administration official said that by September the C.I.A. had decided that there was a “strong possibility” that Bin Laden himself was hiding there.

46 Comments on “Pakistan Security Shielded Osama bin Laden from U.S. — Wikileaks”

  1. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    May 2, 2011 at 5:38 pm

    bin Laden’s bodyguard’s satellite phone calls helped U.S. locate 9/11 mastermind:

    US intelligence agencies tracked the Kuwaiti bodyguard’s calls from the compound to Al Qaeda associates in the cities of Kohat and Charsada in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, a narrative that was corroborated by several sources.

    Their names and titles could not be disclosed because of sensitivities surrounding the operation, including whether the Pakistani government had any knowledge of the operation. The Pakistani government has not taken any clear stance as yet on the operation. The sources’ information has provided the Monitor new details of the intelligence process that led to bin Laden’s capture.

  2. minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
    May 2, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    I firmly believe that the Pakistani government and those people high up in their intelligence knew where he has been since the very beginning.

    I noticed the satellite dish when I first saw the pictures…

    • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
      May 2, 2011 at 6:32 pm

      yup, I think some of them do … especially the intelligence and miltary

    • madamab's avatar madamab says:
      May 2, 2011 at 6:47 pm

      It only makes sense…if you read “Blowback” by Chalmers Johnson, you will learn a lot of background about OBL, Al Qaeda and Pock-ee-ston. Suffice it to say there are a lot of ties there, and they go way back to the ISI.

  3. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    May 2, 2011 at 7:11 pm

    Steve Coll at the New Yorker:

    Abbottabad is essentially a military-cantonment city in Pakistan, in the hills to the north of the capital of Islamabad, in an area where much of the land is controlled or owned by the Pakistani Army and retired Army officers. Although the city is technically in what used to be called the Northwest Frontier Province, it lies on the far eastern side of the province and is as close to Pakistani-held Kashmir as it is to the border city of Peshawar. The city is most notable for housing the Pakistan Military Academy, the Pakistani Army’s premier training college, equivalent to West Point. Looking at maps and satellite photos on the Web last night, I saw the wide expanse of the Academy not far from where the million-dollar, heavily secured mansion where bin Laden lived was constructed in 2005. The maps I looked at had sections of land nearby marked off as “restricted areas,” indicating that they were under military control. It stretches credulity to think that a mansion of that scale could have been built and occupied by bin Laden for six years without its coming to the attention of anyone in the Pakistani Army.

    The initial circumstantial evidence suggests that the opposite is more likely—that bin Laden was effectively being housed under Pakistani state control. Pakistan will deny this, it seems safe to predict, and perhaps no convincing evidence will ever surface to prove the case. If I were a prosecutor at the United States Department of Justice, however, I would be tempted to call a grand jury. Who owned the land on which the house was constructed? How was the land acquired, and from whom? Who designed the house, which seems to have been purpose-built to secure bin Laden? Who was the general contractor? Who installed the security systems? Who worked there? Are there witnesses who will now testify as to who visited the house, how often, and for what purpose? These questions are not relevant only to the full realization of justice for the victims of September 11th. They are also relevant to the victims of terrorist attacks conducted or inspired by bin Laden while he lived in the house, and these include many Pakistanis, as well as Afghans, Indians, Jordanians, and Britons. They are rightly subjects of American criminal law

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      May 2, 2011 at 7:28 pm

      More:

      Of course, Mullah Omar and Al Qaeda’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, probably also enjoy refuge in Pakistan. The location of Mullah Omar, in particular, is believed by American officials to be well known to some Pakistani military and intelligence officers; Omar, too, they believe, is effectively under Pakistani state control.

  4. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    May 2, 2011 at 7:16 pm

    Muslim leaders accuse U.S. of creating a Frankenstein and then executing him when he got out of hand.

    Khan said Osama was a creation of the US, and had been trained by the CIA to fight the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in 1980s. But after the war, he turned against the US as it failed to keep its promise to rebuild Afghanistan.

    “Things got worse when US troops landed on Saudi soil to drive Iraq out of Kuwait in 1990. This was the turning point for Osama to turn the heat on his own master.”

    Khan said Muslims in India had nothing to do with Osama. “Muslims here are relieved that America has found and killed Osama and that US troops will finally leave Afghanistan. This will be a great moment of relief for people in Afghanistan.”

    Maulana Arshad Madani, who teaches at the Deoband seminary, expressed surprise that it had taken the US so long to trace an “ailing” man and kill him.

    “The US should be accountable for killing hundreds of people in Muslim countries…. I do not have any soft corner for Pakistan but the entire operation was also aimed at defaming an Islamic country. We cannot call Osama a terrorist to please America.”

    • Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Wonk the Vote says:
      May 2, 2011 at 7:24 pm

      [relieved] that US troops will finally leave Afghanistan. This will be a great moment of relief for people in Afghanistan.”

      That’ll be the day.

    • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
      May 2, 2011 at 7:46 pm

      Zbigniew Brzezinski was the doctor that helped to create Obama and lord knows what he taught him, in his efforts to fight the Russians.

      IMHO, Zbigniew Brzezinski didn’t fully explore the psychological profile of Usama Bin Laden and he had political cover via the Saudi Family which made things even more complicated.

      He isn’t the First, to get in bed with a truly evil person, just look at the backing then Governor Brown gave to Jim Jones of the Jones Town massacre.

      They need more psychological evaluations(vetting) done on ‘these’ assets of the CIA and the NSA, lest we repeat this chapter again.

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        May 2, 2011 at 7:58 pm

        I think you mean Osama, not Obama, right?

      • Woman Voter's avatar Woman Voter says:
        May 3, 2011 at 12:30 am

        Yup, Usama Bin Laden the hate filled man that got his followers to kill innocent people. The auto correct gizmo got me, and I had spent the day telling others (journos) and zap, it happened to me. Can you fix it for me, I will promise to do dishes or some such chore.

        I had even spelled it with a U to avoid the problem too! 😦

    • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
      May 2, 2011 at 7:49 pm

      In short BB, I agree… 😥

    • madamab's avatar madamab says:
      May 2, 2011 at 10:11 pm

      How very sad that people would actually think Obama will give up Afghanistan now. If only!

  5. Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Wonk the Vote says:
    May 2, 2011 at 7:49 pm

    Is this report true? The US matched the DNA from Osama’s body to DNA from his dead sister’s body…

    Report: DNA At Mass. General Confirms bin Laden’s Death
    DNA From bin Laden’s Sister Collected At Massachusetts General

    BOSTON — The death of a sister of Osama bin Laden at Massachusetts General Hospital allowed the United States to confirm bin Laden’s death, ABC News reported.

    When his sister died in Boston, tissue from her body was taken by government officials for DNA testing, ABC News correspondent Brian Ross reported.

    A source told NewsCenter 5 that bin Laden’s sister died in Boston about a year ago.

    The tissue sample was used to match the DNA found on the man killed by special forces troops who conducted the raid on bin Laden’s Pakistani compound.

    Government officials claimed the DNA evidence provides a match with 99.9 percent confidence.

    The officials did not immediately say where or how the testing was done but the test explains why President Barack Obama was confident to announce the death to the world Sunday night. Obama provided no details on the identification process.

    Read more: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/27739824/detail.html#ixzz1LFJKO4xs

    • Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Wonk the Vote says:
      May 2, 2011 at 7:55 pm

      what kind of test did they use to confirm? A PCR test? Seems really quick.

      • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
        May 2, 2011 at 7:59 pm

        Sibling studies genetics and they can confirm those tests pretty quick, especially with agents at the door tapping their feet…one can imagine.

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        May 2, 2011 at 8:00 pm

        At Corrente they think the entire thing is fake. Some people are saying they’ve had the body on ice for 10 years. I can’t wait till all the really weird conspiracy theories get started.

        • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
          May 2, 2011 at 8:44 pm

          Did you all see what Peter King said today?

          Peter King | Waterboarding Gitmo | Bin Laden Capture | Mediaite

          Earlier today word surfaced from a senior intelligence official that critical information that ultimately led to the attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound came from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Others, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, hinted that some interrogation techniques at Gitmo may have contributed to the successful capture of bin Laden. During tonight’s O’Reilly Factor, guest Rep. Peter King (R-NY) claimed to host Bill O’Reilly that the information that led to bin Laden’s death came as a result of waterboarding.

      • Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Wonk the Vote says:
        May 2, 2011 at 8:06 pm

        I don’t think this is a fake, something happened yesterday…but the official storyline has a Jessica Lynch feel to it so far.

        • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
          May 2, 2011 at 8:58 pm

          It does feel contrived to me…the whole burial at sea thing.
          I don’t know if it is because I am so jaded about any information the government puts out.

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        May 2, 2011 at 8:16 pm

        I agree. I really do need to see some proof. Why should I take Obama’s word for anything at this point?

      • Seriously's avatar Seriously says:
        May 3, 2011 at 1:50 am

        Honestly? If this were Bush, people would be suspicious as hell, and I can’t blame anyone for not taking O’s word, either. And since the Gitmo thing is making the rounds, soon the “anti-war” Obot liberals will be conveniently singing hosannas to torture, you betcha.

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      May 2, 2011 at 7:55 pm

      That’s what I heard. I’d still be more confident if they had had Mass General do an autopsy on the body. I’m very suspicious about the “burial at sea.”

      • Branjor's avatar Branjor says:
        May 2, 2011 at 8:58 pm

        Me too. I can’t believe they got rid of such a crucial piece of evidence as his body so fast, Islamic rules of burial within 24 hrs. or not.

  6. WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
    May 2, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    Good post BB, makes on sigh though…our friends????

  7. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    May 2, 2011 at 9:55 pm

    ABC News has obtained video from inside the Osama compound.

    http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/osama-bin-laden-dead-inside-pakistan-kill-site-13507839

  8. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    May 2, 2011 at 10:35 pm

    CNN Breaking news

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins explosions on a levee at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

    This marked the start of a three-stage process to intentionally breach the levee to alleviate pressure caused by historically high water levels in the rivers, paving the way for 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland to be flooded.

    • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
      May 2, 2011 at 11:15 pm

      This was an interesting thing…http://www.reuters.com/news/video/story?videoId=205675754&videoChannel=2602

      Fire ants form rafts to defy floods (1:22)

      Apr 27 – A team of researchers at Georgia Tech has established that fire ants bind together to create a water-tight raft. This research could have application to the construction of man-made flotation devices. Ben Gruber reports.

      I immediately thought of this old movie staring Charlton Heston, The Naked Jungle.
      Marabunta! Soldier Ants on the march…

  9. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    May 2, 2011 at 10:42 pm

    wow, Canada just screwed itself … the conservatives got only one 40 percent of the vote, but because the left split itself into three ways the conservatives got the ‘majority’… bummer!

    • Branjor's avatar Branjor says:
      May 2, 2011 at 10:44 pm

      The left – tactically brilliant as always/sarcasm

    • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
      May 2, 2011 at 10:44 pm

      that’s why Britain is trying to pass their rank voting … would totally change the face of their elections …

    • Seriously's avatar Seriously says:
      May 3, 2011 at 2:12 am

      But it’s not really the leftish parties’ fault, the 40% figure is the popular vote, but the Tories won an outright majority in terms of seats. Unlike in the UK, even if all the other parties formed a coalition they still wouldn’t have enough seats to take power, so for once, tactical stupidity probably isn’t to blame. 😉 That kind of thing could easily happen here too, the Democrat in House district A wins by 20,000 votes, the Republicans in House districts B, C, and D only win by a few hundred, but even if the straight popular vote count hugely favors the Dems, they’re still down 3 seats to one.

      • Seriously's avatar Seriously says:
        May 3, 2011 at 3:25 am

        Okay–that made NO sense! Booya! 😉 What I meant was, they’d all be idiots if they hadn’t made a tactical alliance to form a coalition before bringing down the government, but since they didn’t end up in a position to make that happen, I have to give them credit for not being completely stupid and screwing themselves. I’m having trouble finding the actual numbers, but granted, there may very well be at least 12 Conservative won districts where a 2nd and 3rd party coalition could have come in first, but going back to Gore and Nader and how much effort people tried to put into tactical voting across states and districts and how complicated and confusing many people found it, I feel like that’s a much harder thing to coordinate and pull off, especially among long established parties who are jockying for dominance and possibly not mad keen on each other. Not sure if that makes any sense, either!

  10. minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
    May 2, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    Obama is going to Ground Zero…Obama to meet with families at New York’s Ground Zero on Thursday – Monsters and Critics

  11. griffithinsider's avatar griffithinsider says:
    May 3, 2011 at 9:04 am

    Am writing a thesis on Public Trust in WikiLeaks, the Media and the Government and need to know what your opinions are. The online survey is multiple choice and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Please follow the link: http://www.kwiksurveys.com/?s=ILLLML_9669e09d. Would be great if you would encourage others to do the survey also.

    • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
      May 3, 2011 at 10:29 am

      I would say, that there is trust in wikileaks, as our government tends to classify the stocking of toilet paper and what brand they use at every mission, for our ‘protection’ of course.

      The press isn’t willing to look as hard since George W. Bush (Questioning people’s loyalties and able to look at every thing via the ‘Patriot Act’ which President Obama renewed) and that is one reason I believe President Obama is going after Wikileaks and Assange…to send a message that they had all better sing their tune…just ask the San Francisco Chronicle!

    • WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
      May 3, 2011 at 10:31 am

      I do think the Fourth Estate is coming back to their mission as keepers of honesty and truth, because they now have rebel blog journos that have come through many hardships to get the news out that are leading the way (In prior years they would be sources.).

  12. WomanVoter's avatar WomanVoter says:
    May 3, 2011 at 10:24 am

    2o Billion to Pakistan to ‘Fight Terrorism since 2001 and three billion more from the Obama Administration and another five to come (Remember Biden went over there personally to assure them the trickle of billions was going to keep on trickling. The world’s MOST WANTED is nestled in an up scale Pakistani military community, living (for last five to six years) in a three story Mansion he calls a CAVE!

    Most distressing to learn where he Bin Laden was, while our friends were supposedly looking in every CAVE and under every rock.

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