Associated Press – 2011-05-07 00:07:48
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Pakistan Paints Dismal Image of bin Laden’s End
Associated Press
ISLAMABAD (May 6, 2011) — Pakistan’s military paints a far different picture than the United States of Osama bin Laden’s final days: not the terror mastermind still trying to strike America, but an aging terrorist hiding in barren rooms, short of money and struggling to maintain his grip on al-Qaida.
Three of bin Laden’s wives were living with him in the compound and are being interrogated by Pakistani authorities, who took them into custody after Monday’s raid, along with 13 children, eight of them bin Laden’s.
Their accounts could help shed light on the US military operation that killed the al-Qaida leader and reveal how he was able to avoid capture for nearly 10 years.
One of the wives, identified as Yemeni-born Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah, told interrogators she had been staying in bin Laden’s hideout since 2006 and never left the upper floors of the large but sparsely furnished building, said a Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the agency’s policy.
The official did not indicate whether bin Laden was with her the whole time, a period in which the Pakistani military says the al-Qaida chief’s influence and financial status eroded.
Disputes over money between bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, led the group to split into two factions five or six years ago, with the larger faction controlled by al-Zawahri, according to two senior Pakistani military officials. Bin Laden was “cash strapped” in his final days, they said.
The officers spoke to a small group of Pakistani reporters late Thursday, and their comments were confirmed for The Associated Press by another top military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issues. The officer didn’t provide details or say how his agency knew about bin Laden’s financial situation or the split with his deputy.
The image coming out of Washington based on information seized from bin Laden’s compound was far different. The confiscated materials revealed al-Qaida plans for derailing an American train on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, US counterterrorism officials say.
They believe the plot, which seemed to be formulated in February 2010, was only in the initial planning stages, and there was no recent intelligence about any active plan for such an attack. The FBI and Homeland Security issued an intelligence bulletin with details of the plan to law enforcement around the country. The bulletin, marked “for official use only,” was obtained by the AP.
Already tense military and intelligence relations between the US and Pakistan have been further strained by the raid that killed bin Laden. Both countries have an interest in their version of bin Laden’s hidden life.
A weak bin Laden would make Pakistan’s failure to unearth his hiding place in Abbottabad, a military town just two-and-a-half hours’ drive from the capital, seem less of a glaring embarrassment, while a menacing bin Laden would make the US Navy SEAL raid that killed him a greater triumph.
The proximity of the al-Qaida chief’s hideout to an elite military academy and the Pakistani capital has raised suspicions in Washington that bin Laden may have been protected by Pakistani security forces while on the run.
Pakistani officials have denied sheltering him and have criticized the US operation as a violation of their country’s sovereignty. Pakistan’s army, a key US ally in the Afghan war, threatened on Thursday to review cooperation with Washington if it stages any more attacks like the one that killed bin Laden. The army is considered the strongest institution in Pakistan, but its reputation has taken a beating in the wake of the raid.
Risking more tensions, a US drone strike on Friday killed 15 people, including foreign militants, in North Waziristan, an al-Qaida and Taliban sanctuary close to Afghanistan, said Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Such attacks were routine last year, but their frequency has dropped this year amid opposition by the Pakistani security establishment and people on the street.
Hundreds of members of radical Islamic parties protested in several Pakistani cities Friday against the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden.
“America is celebrating Osama bin Laden’s killing, but it will be a temporary celebration,” said Abdullah Sittar Chishti, a member of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party who attended a rally in Khuchlak, a town in southwestern Baluchistan province. “After the martyrdom of Osama, billions, trillions of Osamas will be born,” Chishti said.
Some of the protesters expressed doubt that bin Laden was actually killed since the US has refused to release pictures of his body.
Al-Qaida confirmed bin Laden’s death in an Internet statement Friday and warned that it would seek revenge by attacking the United States. And the Afghan Taliban issued a statement saying the al-Qaida leader’s death would boost morale among insurgents battling the US and NATO in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden and his associates did not offer significant resistance when the American commandos entered the compound, in part because “stun bombs” thrown by the US forces had disoriented them, two Pakistani officials said late Thursday, citing accounts by bin Laden’s wives and children.
Pakistani authorities found an AK-47 and a pistol in the house, with evidence that one bullet had been fired from the rifle, said one of the officials.
“That was the level of resistance” they put up, he said.
His account is roughly consistent with the most recent one given by US officials, who now say only one of the five people killed in the raid was armed and fired any shots, a striking departure from the intense and prolonged firefight described earlier by the White House and others in the administration.
US officials say three men and a woman were killed alongside bin Laden, including one of his sons.
Bin Laden’s wife, Abdullfattah, was shot in the leg and did not witness her husband being killed, a Pakistani military official said. One of the al-Qaida leader’s daughters did see the Americans kill her father, he said.
CIA officers have not been given access to the women or children in custody, the official said.
Associated Press writers Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Obama to bin Laden Assault Team: ‘Job Well Done’
Associated Press
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (May 06, 2011) — Brimming with pride, President Barack Obama on Friday met and honored the US commandos he sent after terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, saluting them on behalf of America and the world and capping an extraordinary week for the country. “Job well done,” the president declared.
Obama addressed roughly 2,000 troops after meeting privately with the full assault team — Army helicopter pilots and Navy SEAL commandos — who executed the dangerous raid on bin Laden’s compound and killed the al-Qaida leader in Pakistan early Monday. Their identities are kept secret.
Speaking to a sweltering hangar full of cheering soldiers, Obama said: “The terrorist leader that struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again.”
Al-Qaida will be defeated, he promised from this Army post, whose troops have sustained heavy losses in an Afghanistan war that has grown on his watch. Fresh warnings emerged, though, underscoring Obama’s caution that the fight against terrorists still rages.
The Afghan Taliban said the death of bin Laden would only boost morale of insurgents battling the US and its NATO allies. Al-Qaida itself vowed revenged, confirming bin Laden’s death for the first time but saying that Americans’ “happiness will turn to sadness.”
Soldiers at Fort Campbell were careful not to celebrate bin Laden’s death, voicing instead a sense of professional pride for the work of the commandos. “We’re not done,” said Major Luis Ortiz, who was at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan when Obama visited the troops there last December. “We cut off the head of the snake, but the snake is still wiggling around.”
Obama called the bin Laden raid one of the most successful intelligence and military operations in America’s history, and said he had to come to extend personal thanks. Vice President Joe Biden joined Obama in a briefing with the mission members and then emerged to put it bluntly: “We just got to spend time with the assaulters who got bin Laden.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with members of the bin Laden mission team a day earlier to express his admiration and appreciation, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
Obama’s appearance here culminated a week-long response to the demise of the long-hunted al-Qaida leader, from the White House to ground zero in New York to Fort Campbell, home of the famous 101st Airborne Division. The division has been integral to Obama’s war plan in Afghanistan, and many of its combat teams have returned recently from tours of duty.
The week gave a political and emotional lift to the president; in turn, he called for the unity that has eluded him in divisive Washington for most of his term. “This week has been a reminder of what we’re about as a people,” the president said. “The essence of America, the values that have defined us for more than 200 years, they don’t just endure — they’re stronger than ever.”
With his comments here, Obama offered a counterpoint to a growing cry within his party and even among some Republicans that the time has come to withdraw from Afghanistan. Obama will start drawing troops home as promised this summer but has signaled no change in mission.
The day also illustrated Obama’s governing life as it has been and as it is likely to be going ahead. A favorable jobs report still showed the challenges he faces sustaining an economic recovery. And his address at an Indianapolis transmission plant — before he flew to Fort Campbell — aimed to promote his energy policy just as high gas prices, as the president put it to workers, “have been eating away at your paychecks.”
At Fort Campbell, the president and vice president first met with the men who raided the compound itself, probably including those who killed bin Laden. Obama was then briefed on how the operation was carried out, by those who coordinated the attack from command centers in Afghanistan, and in other undisclosed parts of the region. That team was headed by Vice Admiral William McRaven, a Navy SEAL himself and head of the military’s elite counterterrorism unit, the Joint Special Operations Command.
Obama and Biden then met with the entire SEAL team unit that carried out the raid — both the two dozen troops who stormed the compound, and roughly the same number who circled above as backup, in case the SEALs on the ground met overwhelming force.
The president also met with the air crews from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, who flew the SEALs to the mission, as well as Green Berets from the 5th Special Forces Group.
It’s not known whether the Green Berets were involved in the bin Laden mission, but the 5th Special Forces Group gave rise to the Horse Soldiers, who first invaded Afghanistan right after 9/11. The President awarded the units involved in the raid a Presidential Unit Citation — the highest such honor that can be given to a unit — in recognition of their extraordinary service and achievement.
Associated Press writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report from Washington.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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