OPERATION OSAMA Intel Inside Outlook builds the eye-popping narrative of how Pakistan was very much in on Osama’s outing. Why isn’t it saying so? AMIR MIR

AP

Photo Finish Curious residents crowd Osama's hideout a day after he was killed

OPERATION OSAMA

Intel Inside

Outlook builds the eye-popping narrative of how Pakistan was very much in on Osama's outing. Why isn't it saying so?

AMIR MIR

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?271714

Eight Question Marks in Abbottabad

1. The Choppers: Were there two or four? How many Seals were involved, 20 or 79? If one chopper collapsed, could the lone returning one carry them all, plus Osama?
2. The Take-Off: Where did the choppers take off from, Jalalabad in Afghanistan or Tarbela in Pakistan? Could they have hovered on without the Pak army or its radars noticing?
3. The Town: Local residents, including coffee-shop owner Shoaib Athar who live-tweeted the incident, say power had been cut in Abbottabad 40 mins earlier. Was this is a routine outage?
4. The Police: At whose orders was the Pashto-speaking local police shooing away residents of Abbottabad, who wondered about the choppers and the "big blast" creating a blaze in the sky?
5. The Gunfight: Why has the narrative ranged from a "firefight throughout the operation" to "some firefights" to "the only shots fired by those in the compound came at the beginning of the operation"?
6. The Capture: If he had an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol at arm's reach, why didn't Osama use them? If he was unarmed, as is now being said, why was he shot so brutally for his photo not to be shown?
7. The Families: Apart from Osama's, there were two other families in Waziristan Haveli. Five of the 23 residents were killed, the rest were tied up and left behind. Have they spoken to the officials yet?
8. The Burial: US says Osama's body was ferried to USS Carl Vinson and buried in the North Arabian Sea, with due Islamic rites. Was an Imam readily available on board the ship, or was US prepared for only one eventuality: Osama dead?

***

At around 00:35 am on May 2, the power supply to the picturesque garrison town of Kakul, in Abbottabad district, was cut off abruptly. Some 40 minutes later, give or take 10 minutes, say the town's residents, they heard the clatter of helicopters. In the sky were four American choppers, two Black Hawks and two Chinooks, ferrying a special contingent of US Navy Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) forces. Two choppers, it's said, remained hovering even as a ferocious firefight ensued, prompting curious residents to step out of their houses to investigate what the din was about. They claim Pakistani security personnel shooed them back, telling them in Pashto that a deadly military operation was under way.

Forty minutes later, they heard a loud explosion—the Americans had decided to detonate a chopper which couldn't take off because of a technical snag. Hours later, one was to hear the details of the operation from TV—the hunt for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was over; he had been killed as he resisted capture; and his body had been whisked way, ultimately to be buried in the Arabian Sea. Five others had died in the operation, and another 18, including women and children, were subsequently found in the mansion, their hands and feet bound.

Was it a sheer coincidence that the power supply to Kakul had been switched off prior to the operation? Was the presence of Pakistani security personnel in the town routine? Such questions acquire a certain urgent salience as America tweaks its narrative of the operation—Osama had resisted but was not armed; and then again, he hadn't indicated surrender and was therefore shot dead.

Shots Video grabs of drugs and blood stains in Osama's room

On the evening of May 2, an ISI source told Outlook that the American choppers didn't fly out to Abbottabad all the way from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, as claimed, but had in fact taken off from the Tarbela Aviation Base of the Pakistan army, quite close to Abbottabad city. Too startling, one would think, until renowned journalist Najam Sethi reiterated the same in his TV programme, Aapas ki Baat. Ditto the famous Independent journalist, Robert Fisk.

"It's unlikely US raiders would've eluded the radars of 3 PAF bases en route from Jalalabad to Kakul," says an ex-brigadier.

Intrigued, Outlook decided to quiz Brigadier (retd) Ikram Sehgal on the issue. His response was: "From Jalalabad to Kakul would have taken the American raiders over three bases of the Pakistani air force (PAF), including the very active army helicopter base at Tarbela. Having myself flown extensively in the area, I find it hard to believe that the PAF radar units, fixed and mobile, failed to pick up all this aerial activity. Also, from Jalalabad to Abbottabad and back, with 40-45 minutes of hovering time at the target location in Kakul area, is quite an extended time for the choppers to go without refuelling, even with a disposable fuel tank." The Americans, however, say one of the choppers was precisely for the purpose: refuelling mid-air.

So as the details of the operation spilled out and ISI operatives began to talk off the record, a few more questions arose, flowing logically from the fog of details: Did Pakistan have prior information about the operation? What kind of intelligence did Pakistan share with the Americans that enabled them to track down Osama in his Abbottabad hideout? Why is Pakistan reluctant to admit all this? Primarily from the accounts of ISI sources and also from official briefings, Outlook has pieced together a narration to answer these questions.

Situation Room Obama and team watch the drama unfold

Osama's arrival in Abbottabad

It's said that Osama and his family arrived in the Kakul mansion, located close to the Pakistani military academy there, in January 2006, around the time Al Qaeda issued his taped audio message after a gap of 15 months. Built amidst a lush green field and spanning over six kanals (3,630 sq yards), the three-storey main complex has eight huge bedrooms. The compound also has a smaller residential quarter, which is where another Al Qaeda leader, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, arrested in 2005, had hid in 2003. His disclosure in custody had prompted the ISI to sweep the Kakul mansion months later. No fugitive was found.

By 2005-2006, the Osama trail had turned cold. From the interrogation of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, the Americans realised that Osama's favoured mode of communication was through human couriers. The identity of the one he most favoured was ultimately revealed by another Bay detainee, Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, who had been arrested from Pakistan in 2007. We now know the man as Sheikh Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, who was gunned down along with Osama. But then nobody knew his area of operation.

The Spiders

The breakthrough in the courier's identification came through the Spiders, a nomenclature for those retired Pakistani army officers who, using their connection with the Afghan militants forged during the heyday of Taliban, supply information to the Americans in return for hefty payments. The Spiders had supplied information about a terror suspect and the Americans began to monitor him. It was while listening to one of his telephonic conversations in July 2010 that the Americans realised that the man he was speaking to was none other than al-Kuwaiti. Through Kuwaiti's phone coordinates—not of Kakul though—the Spiders began to track him down, ultimately tracing him to the compound where Osama was eventually killed. The Spiders then tipped off the Americans that it seemed a third family, apart from al-Kuwaiti and his brother's, was residing there.

The Americans relayed this information to Pakistan, whose officials treated it with disdain, saying the military garrison of Kakul was under constant surveillance and there was no possibility of Osama hiding here. The trail turned cold again.

The Bali Bomber's arrest

The lucky break in Operation Geronimo came in January this year, courtesy Pakistan. Its intelligence operatives had put under surveillance Abbottabad resident Tahir Shehzad, who had been observed meeting an Arab, supposedly al-Kuwaiti. On January 23, Tahir travelled to Lahore, constantly shadowed by spooks. On reaching Lahore, he met two French nationals, Sharaf Deen and Zohaib Afzal—one of them a white French who had converted to Islam—at a venue close to the international airport. Believing a terror plot was afoot, the sleuths arrested the three on the spot.

Pak is mum on its role due to fear of reprisals, and to allow the US enough reason to pull out from Afghanistan.

Their interrogation in turn yielded the crucial information that Javanese Arab Umar Patek, who was accused of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombing, was hiding in Abbottabad. On January 29, Patek and his wife were arrested from the Abbottabad residence of Pakistani national Abdul Hameed, following a bloody gunbattle with the Pakistani security forces. His interrogation prompted the Pakistanis to undertake what the Americans had suggested in August 2010—a vigil on the suspicious compound where al-Kuwaiti and his brother lived, the couriers with whom Patek too had been in touch. Close monitoring suggested there was indeed a third family living in the house. The comings and goings there—the milkman leaving his delivery outside the complex gate, the high compound walls, the surprising absence of a telephone connection and the daily incineration of garbage, among other things—suggested that a high-value target was in residence there. Obviously, no one knew or believed it could be Osama.

Sky Eye Satellite images of Waziristan Haveli from '04 onward

Yet this information wasn't passed on to the Americans, nor were the arrests of Patek, Tahir and the French nationals made public. The reason was the raging controversy over the arrest of Raymond Davis, a former American soldier who had killed two Pakistanis on January 27. As the war of words between the US and Pakistan raged, Islamabad in pique chose to withhold from the Americans the information gathered from Abbottabad. Once Davis was released on March 16, and the US-Pak tension abated, Pakistan relayed to the Americans the presence of the high-value target residing in Kakul.

Hectic April

On April 12, ISI chief Shuja Pasha flew to Washington to meet CIA chief Leon Panetta, and inexplicably cut short his visit, returning home the same day. Then International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Commander Gen David Petraeus visited Islamabad on April 25 and met army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani at, of all places, the Chaklala air base. The two took a short trip to an undisclosed location on an aircraft. The same night, Gen Petraeus had participated, through teleconferencing, in a White House meeting chaired by President Obama. Analysts say it was this meeting that Obama referred to in his May 1 speech in which he announced Osama had been killed. On April 26, a meeting of Pakistan's Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, which consists of key army commanders, was convened. Though not a regular member of the body, Pasha was among the participants, invited, sources say, to help assess the consequences of a possible killing of Osama. Following the May 1-2 operation, Pasha confirmed to Asia Times Online that the ISI had been aware of the Abbottabad raid. This statement hasn't yet been denied. As Washington briefed journalists and issued statements, the ISI too began to leak information, claiming that it was Pakistan which had supplied information on the high-value target holed up in Abbottabad. This was subsequently reiterated officially.

So then, why is Pakistan wary of admitting to its role in the Osama hunt? Government sources insist that this stems from Pakistan's fear of a blowback for its role in the killing of Osama. They remind you of the 2007 Operation Sunrise at Lal Masjid, which the army had launched to break the siege of Islamists who had held seminary students hostage. The high death toll then saw Pakistan reel under a spate of suicide bombings subsequently. Besides, say sources, Islamabad wanted Obama to be provided sufficient reason and justification to pull back American forces from Afghanistan. They say this will enable Pakistan to consolidate its growing clout over the Kabul regime. Like Fisk, many here confidently predict, "It will soon be back to business".

That it's just another chapter in the Great Game.

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ALSO IN THIS STORY

PAKISTAN The False Prophets History closes its doors on Osama bin Laden's millenarian chapter, but pages full of question marks stare at Pakistan MARIANA BAABAR

PAKISTAN The Talks Are Nearing, The Hawks Are Circling Operation Geronimo has made it a season for Indian hardliners to up the ante PRANAY SHARMA

INTERVIEW "Osama Simply Got Shopped" The Independent's veteran Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk on Pakistan's role SAPTARSHI RAY

FIRST PERSON Twin Encounters Indelible impressions from two interviews with the Al Qaeda chief RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI

TERRORISM The Sheikh's Story To Tell What is Osama bin Laden's legacy? And what does it hold for West Asia and the subcontinent? ASHISH KUMAR SEN, PRANAY SHARMA, SAPTARSHI RAY, AMIR MIR

OPINION A Mosaic Of Myths Who wants a martyr in Osama? Certainly not the aam Muslim. NEELABH MISHRA

FILED IN: 
AUTHORS:  AMIR MIR 
PEOPLE:  OSAMA BIN LADEN 
TAGS:  AL-QAEDA | TERRORISM | TERROR: WAR ON | PAK-US | PAKISTAN ARMY | ISI 
SECTION:  INTERNATIONAL 
SUBSECTION:  COVER STORIES 
PLACES:  PAKISTAN | ABBOTTABAD

HAVE YOUR SAY

MAY 07, 2011 01:09 PM 1	My analysis is as follows: a) It is inconceivable that Osama could live safely without his bodyguards. His body guards would fight to death to save their "GOD". b) It is possible that the Pak Army struck a deal with the Al Qaeda to look after his security. After all hordes of body guards swarming around does create suspicion. A military cantonment is the best place. Nothing happens there without the military's permission. c) The US has been giving only bad news in the last 3-4 years. They were looking for something good. The presure on Pakistan worked. d) And then the Pakis betrayed him. For a few billion dollars.  e) The SEAL Ops was no big deal. It was a simple Sentry Ops especially when your quarry is a sitting duck. f) But then what next. My prediction is something terrible. Remember what Yamamoto said after Pearl Harbour. "All we have one is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve". g) The Al Qaeda does not forget easily.   CREAM PIE NEW DELHI, INDIA  PERMALINK  |   LIKE (2)  |   DISLIKE (0)  |   REPORT ABUSE
MAY 07, 2011 02:39 PM 2	this is just Pakistani spin.  The Pakistanis, even the liberal journalists, can't handle the fact that they were outmanuevered and made fools of there are many possibilites. If you hear a helicopter in the night, why assume it is foreign, especially if you are not expecting an attack from this quarter. Its also possible that the American helicopters impersonated Pakistani forces, if they knew the procedures. They have enough experience by now. face it, the Americans had done their homework and planned all aspects in meticulous detail. No longer are they bumbling fools MK SAINI DELHI, INDIA  PERMALINK  |   LIKE (0)  |   DISLIKE (0)  |   REPORT ABUSE
MAY 07, 2011 04:26 PM 3	http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=5806&Cat=13&dt=5/7/2011 The PAF clearly told the government that they never perceived any threat for urban areas of Pakistan from Afghanistan and that was why the radars deployed close to the western borders were "on rest". the truth is the Americans understood Pakistani weaknesses. It could not affford round the radar coverage. In sense this is typically South Asian, - the equipment is there but it is "inactive". MK SAINI DELHI, INDIA  PERMALINK  |   LIKE (2)  |   DISLIKE (0)  |   REPORT ABUSE
MAY 07, 2011 05:54 PM 4	even osama is not safe in pakistan. FINE DELHI, INDIA  PERMALINK  |   LIKE (2)  |   DISLIKE (0)  |   REPORT ABUSE

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