Agorism
05-02-2011, 06:10 PM
Bin Laden killing was "joint U.S.-Pakistani operation"
Pakistan damage control? (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/pakistan-vital-defeating-al-qaeda-white-house-183812625.html;_ylt=AisgkeIssliE_U.vidSDqliYn8h_;_ ylu=X3oDMTNhNjhlcHMyBHBrZwMxZmM1NWJiNi0xNmQ1LTM1MD YtOTllYi04Y2VmNzI3YjFlNmEEcG9zAzgEc2VjA01lZGlhU3Rv cnlMaXN0BHZlcgNmYzA4YmE5MC03NTBkLTExZT)
LONDON (Reuters) - An operation to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden was run jointly by Pakistan and the United States, Pakistani sources said on Monday, belying perceptions of a rift in relations between the two countries' spy agencies.
Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan on Monday, ending a nearly 10-year manhunt for the man who orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"Without our involvement, this operation would not have succeeded," one Pakistani official source said.
"Was it possible without our help? No," another Pakistani security official said. "It was a joint intelligence operation."
Pakistan has been reluctant to detail the extent of its involvement in the raid on a compound in Abbottabad, a garrison town north of Islamabad, in an area which is also home to the Pakistan Military Academy.
The announcement by President Barack Obama that U.S. forces had killed bin Laden -- not in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan but rather in the heart of the country -- has also raised questions about how far Pakistan was cooperating in the battle against al Qaeda and other Islamist militants.
A senior U.S. official, quoted on the White House website, suggested at a press briefing that Pakistan had been excluded.
"We shared our intelligence on this bin Laden compound with no other country, including Pakistan. That was for one reason and one reason alone: We believed it was essential to the security of the operation and our personnel.
"In fact, only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance."
Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, told Reuters, however, that the operation would not have been possible without Pakistan's help.
"NO RIFT"
"It is a joint operation, secretly collaborated, professionally carried out and satisfactorily ended," he said.
"Yesterday's operation has belied all the allegations in the past that the CIA and ISI were not cooperating and that there was a rift between the CIA and the ISI," he said.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have had a very public row over recent months, including tensions about drone missile attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas, and the arrest of a CIA contractor after he shot dead two Pakistanis in the city of Lahore.
Yet at the same time, the United States and Pakistan have moved closer together in their views about the need for a political rather than military solution in Afghanistan.
Official sources from three different countries have said the United States had begun talking to the Taliban to try to reach a political, rather than military, settlement in Afghanistan -- something long demanded by Pakistan.
One official source said however that it would be wrong to suggest that Pakistan had "done a deal" with the United States, under which it might have delivered bin Laden in return for greater American acceptance of its position on Afghanistan.
"'You give us Afghanistan and we give you bin Laden' would not be a correct statement," he said.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement that the two countries were determined to cooperate on terrorism after several thousand Pakistanis had died in bomb attacks blamed on al Qaeda linked militants.
Pakistan's High Commissioner to London said that discussions on the raid would have come up in during a visit last month by ISI chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha to Washington
Pakistan damage control? (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/pakistan-vital-defeating-al-qaeda-white-house-183812625.html;_ylt=AisgkeIssliE_U.vidSDqliYn8h_;_ ylu=X3oDMTNhNjhlcHMyBHBrZwMxZmM1NWJiNi0xNmQ1LTM1MD YtOTllYi04Y2VmNzI3YjFlNmEEcG9zAzgEc2VjA01lZGlhU3Rv cnlMaXN0BHZlcgNmYzA4YmE5MC03NTBkLTExZT)
LONDON (Reuters) - An operation to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden was run jointly by Pakistan and the United States, Pakistani sources said on Monday, belying perceptions of a rift in relations between the two countries' spy agencies.
Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan on Monday, ending a nearly 10-year manhunt for the man who orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"Without our involvement, this operation would not have succeeded," one Pakistani official source said.
"Was it possible without our help? No," another Pakistani security official said. "It was a joint intelligence operation."
Pakistan has been reluctant to detail the extent of its involvement in the raid on a compound in Abbottabad, a garrison town north of Islamabad, in an area which is also home to the Pakistan Military Academy.
The announcement by President Barack Obama that U.S. forces had killed bin Laden -- not in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan but rather in the heart of the country -- has also raised questions about how far Pakistan was cooperating in the battle against al Qaeda and other Islamist militants.
A senior U.S. official, quoted on the White House website, suggested at a press briefing that Pakistan had been excluded.
"We shared our intelligence on this bin Laden compound with no other country, including Pakistan. That was for one reason and one reason alone: We believed it was essential to the security of the operation and our personnel.
"In fact, only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance."
Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, told Reuters, however, that the operation would not have been possible without Pakistan's help.
"NO RIFT"
"It is a joint operation, secretly collaborated, professionally carried out and satisfactorily ended," he said.
"Yesterday's operation has belied all the allegations in the past that the CIA and ISI were not cooperating and that there was a rift between the CIA and the ISI," he said.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have had a very public row over recent months, including tensions about drone missile attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas, and the arrest of a CIA contractor after he shot dead two Pakistanis in the city of Lahore.
Yet at the same time, the United States and Pakistan have moved closer together in their views about the need for a political rather than military solution in Afghanistan.
Official sources from three different countries have said the United States had begun talking to the Taliban to try to reach a political, rather than military, settlement in Afghanistan -- something long demanded by Pakistan.
One official source said however that it would be wrong to suggest that Pakistan had "done a deal" with the United States, under which it might have delivered bin Laden in return for greater American acceptance of its position on Afghanistan.
"'You give us Afghanistan and we give you bin Laden' would not be a correct statement," he said.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement that the two countries were determined to cooperate on terrorism after several thousand Pakistanis had died in bomb attacks blamed on al Qaeda linked militants.
Pakistan's High Commissioner to London said that discussions on the raid would have come up in during a visit last month by ISI chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha to Washington