Panetta believes Pakistan knew of bin Laden hideoutWASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta still believes someone in authority in Pakistan knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding before US forces went in to find him, he said in a TV interview to air Sunday.
Intelligence reports found Pakistani military helicopters had passed over the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan where US Navy SEALs discovered and killed bin Laden last year, according to excerpts of an interview Panetta gave to CBS News.
"I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound. Don’t forget, this compound had 18-foot walls… It was the largest compound in the area.
“So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell’s going on there?’” Panetta told CBS.
The Pentagon chief said that concern played a significant factor in Washington not warning Pakistan officials of the impending raid: “it concerned us that, if we, in fact, brought (Pakistan) into it, that-- they might…give bin Laden a heads up,” he said.
Panetta acknowledged he did not have “hard evidence” Pakistan knew of the Al Qaeda leader’s whereabouts.
US Navy SEALs killed Bin Laden on May 2 in a raid on a compound in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, north of the capital Islamabad, and later buried the 9/11 mastermind at sea. (AFP)
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
Panetta for the first time has acknowledged that the key intelligence citing the presence of Osama bin laden was provided by Pakistani doctor shakil afridi. the Americans have abandoned him now as he is awaiting facing death in Pakistani custody according to huffington post. I will post the details later.
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
I once asked a senior retired military person in Pakistan if it was possible that our intelligence agencies did not know about OBL located in a compound hardly 500 meters from Kakul.. his reply was that in that location the army intelligence would know the pedigree of your dog even.
It's an eye opener for people who still defend the ex illegal President/army chief General Musharraf. I had been writing about the kind of double games this opportunist was playing to ensure the longevity of his illegal tenure for a long time.
These kind of dangerous games have become a serious security threat to Pakistan. Imagine a scenario where God forbid a major terrorist attack happens in US or some country where a few thousand people die and the leads come to Pakistan. What will be the outcome for Pakistan after that. We will probably face carpet bombing on our cities instead of drone attacks. I can assure you that our army leadership will be the first people to abandon the GHQ and army installations and hide somewhere deep under ground in some safe bunkers. Poor people of Pakistan will face the wrath of such public/international media/foreign army aggressions which will follow such incident.
Whenever such questions arise in our country where army leadership have to answer these valid concerns.. they try to avoid these discussion on the pretext that it will harm the national security. In fact these covert jihadi agendas are the biggest security risk for the people of Pakistan who are sitting on a time bomb. It's a question of "when".. not "if"... this major terrorist attack will happen. As a nation we are justified to ask the wisdom of supporting these covert terrorist outfits by our army intelligence/leadership which are a big/genuine risk for the people of our country.
It's high time our military leadership answers these questions instead diverting attention to the non-issues like memogate.. It's a dangerous game they are playing which can result in economic/physical hardship for the poor people of this unfortunate country.
We need a strong Civilian government in Pakistan who is not compromised and does not face embarrassing financial scandals on daily basis to control the army from making a state within our state. We need a civilian government who is genuinely liked by the masses and has the courage to ask all these questions from our army leadership.
I have raised these questions in the past in this forum also. If you see recent Imran Khan interviews he is also talking about this possible major terrorist attack somewhere and consequences for Pakistan after such incident. This concern was raised by me in this forum about 2/3 years ago. It's very important that Imran Khan is able to form at least a strong opposition with good numbers in the parliament to give a voice to these genuine concerns. I would be really delighted to to see some miracle happening and he could actually form the next government in Pakistan..
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
The thing is that if you question the logic behind some of the activities of our army you are labelled as an Indian/Jewish agent and going against national interests. But the army does not for a moment think what it has brought to Pakistan
1) Bangladesh
2) zia siding with the Americans in the mindless war in which he might have got billions of dollars but Pakistan got afghan refugees, heroin and Kalashnikov culture
3) use of jihadis as strategic force and then a sudden uturn by Musharraf creating monsters called ttp as a consequence
4) the situation of balochistan which is waiting to implode
Now the situation is that we have the ttp attacking Pakistan at will, balochistan is also far from normal. More than 50% of the country has been converted into a war zone and the impacts of that can be felt in the rest of the country.
By siding with the Americans with our eyes closed we have had all the infrastructure of the country destroyed, the revenues they should have had through the NATO supplies rolling through the country we couldn't get. The impacts of this WOT has been extensive on our economy as well, as we have had flight of capital and no new investor is willing to invest in the country unless the law and order situation improves there. And now Americans have started negotiating with the taleban with the monster still alive and kicking in Pakistan. If you question this you are labelled traitors and against Pakistani interests.
The army generals have for a very long time usurped our resources the time has come when we ask them what they have given to the country? Fata and balochistan situation? Kidnappings and extra judicial killings by the army/intelligence agencies?
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
I am merely pointing out that if we know where OBL was we also know where Atlantis is and who killed Kennedy. I am surprised you don't get the allusion. What my post implies is that Panetta is prone to flights of fancy and there is no truth to it. If Musharraf knew OBL was in Pakistan and in Abbottabad he would have used that to his advantage to stay in power. The Americans would have backed him all the way if he had handed over OBL and the winds of democracy would have changed course.
Also what benefit do we get from protecting OBL? What do we get out of it? Be it the Military Brass or the political leadership.
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
Sometimes I think about a statement by Ahmed shah masood, the leader of northern alliance who had said the war going on in Afghanistan will end in Pakistan, that's exactly what we are seeing now.
The obsession of our army with Afghanistan has not only cost us Afghanistan but Pakistan as well. I have never seen an army which is hell bent on destroying its own country, America and other countries go fight wars in far flung areas not in their own countries. Eg they allowed the Yemeni alqaeda leader to go to Yemen where they killed him in a drone attack.
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
I am merely pointing out that if we know where OBL was we also know where Atlantis is and who killed Kennedy. I am surprised you don't get the allusion. What my post implies is that Panetta is prone to flights of fancy and there is no truth to it. If Musharraf knew OBL was in Pakistan and in Abbottabad he would have used that to his advantage to stay in power. The Americans would have backed him all the way if he had handed over OBL and the winds of democracy would have changed course.
Also what benefit do we get from protecting OBL? What do we get out of it? Be it the Military Brass or the political leadership.
I don't want to reply you in a public forum.. but if you want I can answer your questions in your inbox..
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
Alright lets not be melodramatic like an Indian soap opera actress. As a guy who works in the worst locations in the world I know for a fact that Pakistan is no where near the doom and gloom that every Pakistani seems to complain about. You do realize that people said the same thing in 1988, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2007 and now? We will weather this storm like we have all others and come out a bit stronger and a bit weaker. The difference this time around is that we may inshallah have a government that last 5 years.
And Ali do tell me how its gonna end in Pakistan? The Taliban are negotiating with the US. The Pakistanis have been all but excluded from the talks. We didn't meet Grossman. We don't even bother to pay attention to whats going on in Afghanistan with our focus on Zardari, the Supreme Court and Memo-gate.
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
if OBL was found where US claimed he was, there is no way in the world that at least a few generals didn't know about it. Anyone who's 'toured' Abbottabad knows it. Even the traffic controllers at street crossings in the city are from Military Police.
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
If its not war then what is it? We have already lost more than 40,000 people in this war, millions are living in temporary shelters as IDP in their own countries. Drone attacks are carried out with tacit approval from the army and there is no record as to how many people have been killed in them (the ratio of militants versus civilians). And this seems to be the tip of the iceberg.
Now this is the situation on which I dont know whether we should be happy or sad:
The war that Musharraf imposed on the ‘terrorists’ as per the orders of Americans without taking into account the ground situation there has gifted us TTP. With the FCR in place he didnt bother to differentiate between the miscreants and the ordinary people in the tribe, he successfully converted whole tribes into taleban by launching operations against them indiscriminately. He surely got tons of dollars from the Americans by behaving as their pet, but what he has given to Pakistan we (and our children) will have to bear that. He is enjoying his life in Dubai and London. This is exactly what will happen if some other attack in any country is traced back to Pakistan (like yazdi pointed out), our current generals will go underground or get asylum in some western country leaving the country to burn.
What they dont understand is that with internet things have changed (they cant quieten things now in the name of the fake national interests), we have already witnessed what has happened in the middle east to the dictators ruling them for decades, the same is awaiting our army if they dont start behaving. They cannot crush the dissent by kidnappings and killings alone, even the Americans have come to this conclusion in Afghanistan, but our army is blinded as usual. They are very quick in trying to conquer their own people but when its PA versus some western country they suddenly become a ‘bheegi billi’.
Shakil Afridi, Pakistani Doctor, Provided Key Information To U.S. In Advance Of Bin Laden Raid: Defense Secretary
WASHINGTON --** Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is acknowledging publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor provided key information to the U.S. in advance of the successful Navy SEAL assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound last May.
****Panetta told CBS’s “60 Minutes,” in a profile to be broadcast on Sunday, that Shakil Afridi helped provide intelligence for the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
**
Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden’s presence in the compound. He has since been charged by Pakistan with treason. Panetta said he is “very concerned” for the doctor.
Panetta also told “60 Minutes” that he remains convinced that someone in the Pakistani government “must have had some sense” that a person of interest was in the compound. He added that he has no proof that Pakistan knew it was bin Laden.
The Pakistani government had hoped to resolve the Afridi matter quietly, once media attention died down, perhaps releasing him to U.S. custody, according to two Pakistani officials. They requested anonymity because the investigation into charges the doctor behaved treasonously was ongoing.](“http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/shakil-afridi-bin-laden-raid_n_1238198.html”)
Re: Pakistan knew about Bin Laden hideout: Panetta
It means they also know who fired 9 rockets at the PMA day before yesterday. Right?
Allow me to disagree with the gentleman you asked about OBL. Professional and operational capabilities of the ISI never stood so badly exposed as they do now. At least I maintain no illusion about their capabilities anymore.
May be you are right that our agencies had no clue about the Osama hideout.. which was 500 meters from Kakul Academy.. connected with a side road of just 50 meters from Awami Road which goes directly to Kakul.. where army was strip checking even a cycle rider with a chicken.. and the large suspicious compound had 12 feet high wall with another 8 feet of barbed wires surrounding it.. and the dwellers who were of Arabic origin living with a large family who never inter acted with the locals and never sent the children to any school..
Let's all fool ourselves and start believing in their incompetence to this extent.. will it make our country any safer?
What happens if a major terrorist incident happens anywhere in the world and links come to Pakistan..???
The world opinion will simply say that it doesn't matter if your agencies are incompetent or indulged in playing these double games of allowing terrorist to operate from your territory.. the bottom line is you failed to act against them.. they will be justified to take some serious military action against our country..!!!
