Still more evidence of how reliable an ally Pakistan has been. But there is no cause for concern in Karachi: nothing will stop the money flow from Washington. "ISI employed architect for bin Laden compound: Report," from the Press Trust of India, February 18 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Washington: An architect regularly employed by the ISI worked on the compound in which Osama bin Laden sheltered for years in Abbottabad and the slain al Qaeda chief communicated regularly with LeT from his hideout, a media report said on Saturday.Though the original property records for the compound near the elite Pakistan Military Academy have disappeared, the architect who worked on the structure was regularly employed by the ISI, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius quoted an intelligence source as saying.
The architect reportedly was told that a "highly placed VIP" was coming to the compound, Mr Ignatius wrote in a column posted on the daily's website.
Though materials taken from the compound after bin Laden was killed by US Special Forces in May last year did not show direct links with top Pakistani officials, US analysts "have found evidence that the al Qaeda chief communicated" with Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the Afghan Taliban, and with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Ignatious wrote.
"The ISI is thought to monitor both groups closely; how did the messages slip through the net?" he questioned. The columnist said any probe on bin Laden's presence in Pakistan should focus on several issues, including how the al Qaeda chief came to Abbottabad in 2005 and what Pakistani officials knew about his whereabouts.
Current army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was ISI chief at the time, but the "dominant figure was President Pervez Musharraf, the former army chief", the columnist wrote.
The commander of the PMA at Abbottabad from 2006 was Lt Gen Nadeem Taj, who succeeded Gen Kayani as head of the ISI in 2007.
Mr Ignatius referred to former ISI chief Gen Ziauddin Butt's claim that the Abbottabad compound was used by Intelligence Bureau and noted that a report in the Pakistani press in December had quoted Butt as saying that bin Laden's stay at Abbottabad was arranged by Brig Ijaz Shah, head of the Intelligence Bureau during 2004-08, on Musharraf's orders.
He further referred to the rumour that bin Laden was suffering from kidney failure and required dialysis and said this canard was "repeated for years, notably by Musharraf".
CIA analysts were dubious and no dialysis machines were found at Abbottabad.
"So was this a deliberate piece of misinformation? And what about bin Laden's claim in November 2001 to Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir that he had nuclear and chemical weapons? Was that a Pakistan-facilitated attempt to promote what bin Laden called his 'deterrent' against a US reprisal attack?" he wrote.
Pakistan's civilian and military leaders have denied reports that they were aware of bin Laden's presence in the country.
A judicial commission is currently investigating the matter.
Experts and US officials have contended that it would not have been possible for bin Laden to live for so long in a garrison town without some support from elements in Pakistan's security establishment....
Yep.
I wonder if the Pakistani military used to send him fruit baskets........... just to be neighborly.
Pakistanis are hopelessy bad liars, aside from their being totally commited liars.
. .Pakistan does not know its a** from its elbow, in the grand scheme of things. Muhammad led you up the proverbial garden path, didn't he? Admit it, if you still have a brain.
It stands to reason. I almost feel embarrassed for not having guessed that this was the case. We're talking about countries that have mostly single-story, earthen/mud/adobe style walls, with usually no more than a short fence--not tall stone walls--around the perimeter.
The Bin Laden compound was clearly designed with privacy and security in mind.
It is so sad that 3,000 Americans died and we still can't be honest about who is responsible, which is not just Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban, but Pakistan & Saudi Arabia too.
I actually thought that bin Laden was hiding out in New Jersey. Brooklyn would have been too hot because that's where the Brothers are stationed. So I figured he must have taken the Path train to New Jersey. I never thought of Pakistan because that was way to obvious.
It’s very obvious that among the top Porkie elite Osama bin was considered as the goose that laid the golden eggs. With him safely ensconced in a secure compound in a secure city they could easily hide him while the gullible Americans ran around Afghanistan on a wild goose chase. All the while they spend billions as well as lives lost. It was only thanks to our security and spy Afghanis that we were able to trace him down. Of course the raid was kept a secret from the Porkie elites to make sure he wouldn’t be quickly ferried out before the American arrived.
Architect for Pakistani spy service ISI designed bin Laden compound
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I'm shocked, shocked! Oh, wait...no, I'm not...
Hi Susan!
"I actually thought that bin Laden was hiding out in New Jersey. Brooklyn would have been too hot because that's where the Brothers are stationed. So I figured he must have taken the Path train to New Jersey. I never thought of Pakistan because that was way to (sic) obvious."
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Funny! But I have to tell you - as early as 2007, in Saudi, I told my wife that Binnie had to be in Pakistan.
Turns out I was correct.
I guess old Professors are right, from time to time...
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They're also wrong alot of the time, though...
:)
David Dowse,
You may have been right about bin Laden being in Pakistan. But I was sort of right too because New Jersey bears as certain similarity to Pakistan if you look real close.