Yet according to the Associated Press, bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad had been "known" to the US intelligence community "for years""--"in what sense it was known, AP does not clarify:
"The walls surrounding the property were as high as 18 feet and topped with barbed wire. Intelligence officials had known about the house for years, but they always suspected that bin Laden would be surrounded by heavily armed security guards. Nobody patrolled the compound in Abbottabad."
In October 2010, a senior NATO official "with access to some of the most sensitive information in the NATO alliance" told CNN that both bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were believed by the intelligence community "to be hiding close to each other in houses in northwest Pakistan, but are not together."
The CNN report explained:
-- al Qaeda's top leadership is believed to be living in relative comfort, protected by locals and some members of the Pakistani intelligence services, the official said."
This report suggested that NATO intelligence had pinpointed both bin Laden's and al-Zawahiri's location to particular "houses" in northwest Pakistan"--"but, contrary to the Official History, that NATO was fully aware of their protection by ISI officials. This corroborated the CIA intelligence extracted from al-Libi between 2005 and 2006 on the proximity of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri in Abbottabad, under ISI tutelage.
Therefore, the evidence is overwhelming that by 2008, the US intelligence community was in receipt of detailed, specific information from Indian, Afghan and Pakistani intelligence, locating Osama bin Laden in a military cantonment area in Abbottabad"--"and pinpointing the location of his compound.
If Hersh's account is correct, this means that despite all this intelligence pinpointing the Abbottabad compound, the CIA waited several years before establishing a safe-house nearby to conduct extensive surveillance on the premises using telephoto lenses, eavesdropping equipment, infrared imaging, and radars"--"only after walk-in source exposed bin Laden's concealment in August 2010.
The CIA also, according to the Official History, deployed dozens of high-altitude stealth drones in Pakistani airspace for months before the raid to capture high-resolution video.
In the context of the evidence of mounting intelligence pinpointing bin Laden in the Abbottabad compound, the Official History raises the following question: Why, in the wake of all the intelligence that bin Laden was in Abbottabad, and despite receiving the request from a Pakistani counter-terrorism agency to investigate the Abbottabad compound in July 2008"--"as reported by Brig. Gen. Qadir"--"did the CIA wait until late 2010 to do so?
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the CIA inexplicably sat on intelligence pointing to bin Laden's presence in the Abbottabad compound for over two years, and perhaps much longer.
When the CIA finally began moving into action, the Official History has it that these efforts were done in such secrecy that even Pakistani intelligence, which was also monitoring the compound, did not know about the CIA surveillance operation (despite having requested it in 2008).
And despite the sophistication of that operation, the Official History has it that the CIA was never able to identify Osama bin Laden. Instead, they managed to catch a glimpse of a man taking regular walks through the compound's courtyard, who roughly fit bin Laden's description, and whom intelligence officers dubbed "the pacer."
Former Canadian Army officer and electronic communications specialist Prof. Sunil Ram, who teaches members of the US Armed Forces at the American Military University in West Virginia, dismissed the idea that such sophisticated surveillance could not have identified bin Laden:
"The public farce around the months of CIA surveillance to determine if it was bin Laden defies logic."
This is backed-up by Jack Murphy, an eight year US Army Special Operations veteran, in a 2011 article for Sofrep, the news and analysis website run by former US military and special operations officers:
"In reality, Bin Laden was not tracked to the Abbottabad compound by following his courier network. That story was ludicrous when it was first leaked and got even sillier in Bigelow's movie. Also, the use of stealth aircraft and reports of UAVs conducting electronic jamming operations to obscure the radar signature of the helicopters was also a myth. The truth is that the highest levels of the Pakistani government knew that the [SEAL Team Six's] Red Squadron assaulters were coming. At least two Pakistani Generals were informed, and this is how Operation Neptune Spear was able to take place so deep into Pakistan without the Pakistani military scrambling fighter jets or troops to the scene."
Murphy's confirmation that "at least two Pakistani Generals" had advanced knowledge of the raid, corroborates Hersh's identification of former Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and ISI director Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, as the senior Pakistani generals complicit in the raid.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
3
3
