Alleged Pakistani support for Osama bin Laden

Diagram of the compound

Pakistan was alleged to have provided support for Osama bin Laden. These claims have been made both before and after Osama was found living in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and was killed by a team of United States Navy SEALs on 2 May 2011. The compound itself was located just half a mile from Pakistan's premier military training academy Kakul Military Academy (PMA) in Abbottabad.[1] In the aftermath of bin Laden's death, American president Barack Obama asked Pakistan to investigate the network that sustained bin Laden.[2] "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan", Obama said in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS News. He also added that the United States was not sure "who or what that support network was."[2][3] In addition to this, in an interview with Time magazine, CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that US-officials did not alert Pakistani counterparts to the raid because they feared the terrorist leader would be warned. However, the documents recovered from bin Laden's compound 'contained nothing to support the idea that bin Laden was protected or supported by the Pakistani officials'. Instead, the documents contained criticism of Pakistani military and future plans for attack against the Pakistani military installations.[4]

Based on an investigative report by the New York Times, Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, was aware of bin Laden's whereabouts and chose not to share this information with the United States.[5] According to Fred Burton, vice-president of the global intelligence firm Stratfor, officials of ISI, Pakistani military, along with one retired Pakistani military general, had knowledge of the arrangements made for bin Laden and the safe house. Bin Laden's compound was razed that day at his Abbottabad safe house.[6]

David Ignatius in The Washington Post referred to the claim of the former ISI chief General Ziauddin Butt that the Abbottabad compound was used by the Intelligence Bureau and noted that a report in the Pakistani press in December had quoted him as saying that Osama's stay at Abbottabad was arranged by Brigadier (retired) Ijaz Shah, senior ISI officer and the head of the Intelligence Bureau during 2004–2008, on Pervez Musharraf's orders.[7] Later Butt denied making any such statement.[8][9]

The allegations have led to tension between the two countries and raised questions about Pakistan's role in the war on terror.[5]

  1. ^ Carlotta Gall (March 19, 2014). "What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden". The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
  2. ^ a b "US presses Pakistan on Bin Laden". BBC. May 8, 2011. Archived from the original on 9 May 2011. Retrieved May 8, 2011.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference cnn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Bergen, Peter (30 July 2021). "The Last Days of Osama bin Laden". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021. Yet the thousands of pages of documents recovered from bin Laden's compound contain nothing to back up the idea that bin Laden was protected by Pakistani officials or that he was in communication with them.
  5. ^ a b "What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden". The New York Times. 2014-03-19. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rnews was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Ignatius, David (February 19, 2012). "Pakistan and Osama bin Laden". Washington Post. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  8. ^ Ashraf Javed (16 February 2012). "Ijaz Shah to sue Ziauddin Butt". The Nation. Archived from the original on 2012-04-02. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  9. ^ "Ijaz Shah to sue Ziauddin Butt". The Nation. 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2024-04-14.