Why did US attack Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 when everyone knew where the epicenter of terrorism is?
The Afghan president said the death of the terror network founder in Abbottabad vindicated his long-standing criticism of Nato tactics inside Afghanistan.
He told a gathering of tribal leaders and cabinet ministers in Kabul that large numbers of innocent civilians had died in Nato raids and search operations despite his protestations the war on terror should instead be waged in Pakistan.
His former spy chief also told the Daily Telegraph he believed Pakistan had to have known of bin Laden’s location and have been hiding him.
“Again and again, for years and every day we have said that the war on terror is not in Afghan villages, not in Afghan houses of the poor and oppressed,” Mr Karzai said.
“The war against terrorism is in its sources, in its financial sources, its sanctuaries, in its training bases, not in Afghanistan,” Karzai said.
“It was proved that we were right.” The Afghan president welcomed the death as important news and said the Saudi militant leader had “paid for his actions” though emphasised he had been found “close to Islamabad” He also used the death to call on the Taliban to “learn a lesson from this” saying the movement should “refrain from fighting”.
Amrullah Saleh, who ran Afghanistan’s intelligence agency until last year, said bin Laden could not have lived in the town of Abbottabad without the connivance of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies.
Mr Saleh said there was “no way” bin Laden could have lived in a mansion in a town populated by Pakistan’s military and middle classes without the knowledge of the powerful ISI spy agency.
He said: “Does Pakistan want the whole world to believe that the intelligence agency of a nuclear state did not know Bin Laden was there?”
“If bin Laden can hide there for ten years, of course Mullah Omar [leader of the Taliban] and his Quetta Shura are nearby and can be protected,” he said.