Bin Laden, Pakistan questions remain / LJWorld.com

Washington — Let’s see if we’ve got the numbers straight: Osama bin Laden lived in five houses in Pakistan, fathered four children there, kept three wives who took dictation for his rambling directives to his terror network, had two children born in public hospitals — and through it all, the Pakistani government did not know one single thing about his whereabouts?

Can this possibly be true? I suppose that if U.S. intelligence officials could fail to connect the dots about the 9/11 plot, then perhaps Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate could be equally incompetent. And U.S. officials, with the cautious tone of witnesses who hope they won’t have to testify at the trial, keep repeating that they haven’t found the “smoking gun” that would confirm official Pakistani knowledge about the al-Qaida chief hiding in Abbottabad.

But this isn’t a question for Americans, really. It’s a matter for Pakistani officials. They can tear down bin Laden’s compound — as Pakistani bulldozers did recently in a cleansing maneuver that reminded me of Lady Macbeth’s famous line, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” But they can’t wish away questions about the jihadist network that surrounded bin Laden and his accomplices during their nearly decade-long sojourn in the country. Here are some questions Pakistanis (with American acquiescence) have been ducking too long:

l How did bin Laden settle in Abbottabad? His movements are described by his youngest wife, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, in an Islamabad police report. She says that “everything was arranged by” two men she called “Ibrahim” and “Abrar” who shared their safe houses in Swat Valley, Haripur and finally Abbottabad.

What did the Pakistani authorities know about these Pashtun brothers? U.S. officials believe that one of them, known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, was bin Laden’s key courier. An intrepid AP reporter last week found their house in Haripur; the real estate broker said he had rented it to “Salim and Javed Khan,” who claimed to be from Charsadda, just north of Peshawar.

The AP reported that, according to a relative of the house’s owner, “two months ago, several ISI agents took all the records of the house and its tenants.” The same thing seems to have happened with the property records for the Abbottabad compound. What do these documents show? The ISI should explain.

l What role was played by Brig. Ijaz Shah? According to comments by Gen. Ziauddin Butt, a former ISI chief, Shah arranged the al-Qaida leader’s 2005 move to Abbottabad. At the time, Shah, a retired ISI officer, was running another spy agency, the Intelligence Bureau, for his patron, President Pervez Musharraf.

Shah’s name had surfaced in February 2002 as the alleged handler of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who claimed a role in kidnapping Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. It turned out that Pearl had been handed over to Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the al-Qaida mastermind, who beheaded him. Some Pakistanis argue that Sheikh was part of a jihadist organization, Harkat ul-Mujaheddin, that had close ties to Shah and the ISI. What does the ISI say?

l And where was the notorious KSM hiding out when he was captured in March 2003? He was at a Rawalpindi safe house linked to Ahmed Abdul Qudoos Khan, who is described in press reports as a member of Pakistan’s oldest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami. Pakistani analysts say this group, too, has long had quiet links with the ISI and the military.

l How about Abu Zubaida, the al-Qaida operative captured in Pakistan in March 2002? He was seized in Faisalabad at what was described in press reports as a safe house for the Kashmiri militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba, which is also alleged to have close links with the ISI. The ISI is said to have joined in his capture, but did they have advance word he was there? l What about the Pakistani sojourn of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian al-Qaida operative involved in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa? He was captured in July 2004 in the eastern city of Gujrat, far from the tribal areas. How did he get there? And what about Ramzi Binalshibh, a facilitator of the 9/11 attacks who was captured in September 2002 in Karachi. How did he make his way undetected to Pakistan’s commercial capital?

Perhaps the answers to these questions will show the ISI in a favorable light, providing helpful intelligence to the CIA. Perhaps they will tell a darker story of concealment and complicity. Either way, it’s time for some answers.

Paul R. Getto 1 year, 2 months ago

Ah, our good "friends" from Pakistan. What would we do without them? Good column, Sir.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 1 year, 2 months ago

Pakistan has nukes, too. If we bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, shouldn't we also be bombing all of Pakistan's nuclear facilities? How about India's? How about Israel's? How about our own?

jhawkinsf 1 year, 2 months ago

As difficult as this issue is (the prevention of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons), it does highlight that it's far easier to prevent a country from becoming nuclear than it is having a country return to non-nuclear status once they've become nuclear. It's difficult to put that genie back in that bottle.

And the multiple standards that are applied to who gets to let the genie out (and/or to make little effort to put it back in) make it even more difficult.

A good comparison might be Syria and N. Korea. With Syria, they were forcibly prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons. Looking at current events, only a fool would suggest that that was not the correct strategy. Compare that to North Korea, where not enough was done to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons. In the short time they've had them, the region has become much more dangerous. In hindsight, more should have been done to prevent that unstable regime from getting those weapons. Should Iran complete it's nuclear ambitions, will they become a stabilizing regional power or a destabilizing threat to regional peace? Got your crystal ball handy, Bozo?

Israel kills Palestinians and steals their land with just as much impunity as Assad does to his citizens. Does that mean Israel's nuclear arsenal should be taken out?

As I said, genies can't be put back in their bottles.

What you're really saying is that you like the double standard with regards to Israel-- nothing new there, though.

Hey Bozo, did you see the story a couple of days ago about the rocket being fired from Sinai into Israel? I guess the brotherhood isn't feeling too brotherly. But it does highlight a certain problem you fail to acknowledge. And that is that this conflict has never been Israel vs. the Palestinians. It's a much wider conflict with many more players. And those players, Israel's adversaries have vastly superior resources, vastly superior numbers of people, vastly superior numbers of conventional weapons. Because Israel can never match them in those areas, they embarked on a strategy to level the playing field in other ways. And you're solution to that inequity is to demand Israel give up the things where they hold the advantage while demanding nothing from it's adversaries. That may seem to make sense to you, but you'll excuse me if I disagree.

Bozo, you have a tendency to disappear when confronted with a question you would rather not face. Any particular reason?

While I agree that our involvement in the Middle East has put us at risk, I wonder what would happen if we decided to totally disengage from the region. The risk we now live with might double, given that we would have zero influence over any country, in any way, in any circumstance. Wanna guess what might happen?

And if we leave, taking our influence with us, things might work themselves out in a flashpoint leading to WW III. That wall you want to build around America better have a dome on it because the nuclear fallout won't recognize borders. A world wide depression is sure to follow. Unstable regimes will topple around the world. More millions will die than in World Wars 1 & 2 combined. Crops will fail as farmers won't have the oil to feed their machinery. More millions dead. Aide won't be forthcoming, we can look forward to an AIDS epidemic that will make the plague in Europe look like the common cold. Never mind. I'm sure you're right. The problems we've caused couldn't get any worse, could they?

If you think diplomacy will work in the absence of influence, then why even have us take the lead. Let The Falkland Islands intercede and broker a peace. But of course, no one cares about The Falkland Islands except with the two countries that have influence. The only reason any country in the region would care what we say or what we do is if we have influence and that come with us having legitimate interests. If we withdraw our interests, then we withdraw our legitimacy. We may as well be Zimbabwe.
As for your analogy with the USSR, remember, we were a direct party to that. Those missiles were pointed at us. We had interests and we had legitimacy.

wounded_soldier 1 year, 2 months ago

I saw an ad on TV today claiming that millions are starving to death in Israel and they are asking American Christians and Jews to send $25 to put together a box of food for these poor starving families. Somehow, I can't believe this is true because the American people send billions of $ and AIPAC supports them as well. Where does the money go? And what purpose is Israel in the world if it doesn't have a domestic product? What do Israelis do all day? Do they not work and make money? What are their industries? Besides killing and taking land, isn't someone making a living?

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