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Nearly 10 years after the traumatic Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon, the world's most wanted terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan.
1: 16 pm: Imran's Bouncer: Former Pakistan cricket captain turned politico Imran Khan is profoundly disturbed by the events of yesterday, vide his signed column in The Independent. Here's a sample clip:"All this has led to other serious questions being raised in Pakistan. For instance, if the Pakistan government or the army had this intelligence, why did we not take out Bin Laden ourselves? Why did we have to rely on the Americans coming over from their airbases in Afghanistan? Equally disturbing is the tremendous level of distrust the US has for the Pakistanis, which led it to jam the radars during the duration of the operation.
There is not just confusion that prevails in Pakistan, but also a national depression at the loss of national dignity and self-esteem as well as sovereignty. There is no answer to these questions and this simply allows allegations from the West and from India to go unchallenged that Pakistan has been protecting Bin Laden and other terrorists; that Pakistan knew he was here and kept him safe.
The president, the prime minister and the army need to address this immediately and if, as they claim, they had the intelligence that led to the killing of Bin Laden, why it was not done by Pakistani forces? Until this happens, Pakistan will suffer a great loss of credibility - and this from a country that has the fifth biggest army in the world and a hefty defence budget.
The reason we will not get these answers, of course, is that we have the most corrupt and incompetent government in our history."
1: 13 pm: Wired for Intel: It is entirely possible that the killing of Osama bin Laden was not the single biggest outcome of the raid on the Abbottabad complex. Politico reports that the Navy SEALs who carried out the raid seized computers, thumb drives et cetera that are now being described as the motherlode of hard intel on the al Qaeda network. Hundreds of people are examining the find now, in the hope of getting actionable information, the report says.
12: 48 pm: Registration has begun for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, scheduled this year for the period June 29-August 13. Here are the details
12: 42 pm: Why did Pak give up Osama?: If the mood yesterday was celebratory, the mood today is somewhat skeptical, with more and more voices questioning the official version of events, and speculating about Pakistan's role. Here's Robert Fisk, in the Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion...g-2278028.html), on the topic of if, and if so why, Pakistan gave up Osama bin Laden to American interdiction. Sample quote:
"But talking of caves, Bin Laden's demise does bring Pakistan into grim focus. For months, President Ali Zardari has been telling us that Bin Laden was living in a cave in Afghanistan. Now it turns out he was living in a mansion in Pakistan. Betrayed? Of course he was. By the Pakistan military or the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence? Quite possibly both. Pakistan knew where he was.
Not only was Abbottabad the home of the country's military college - the town was founded by Major James Abbott of the British Army in 1853 - but it is headquarters of Pakistan's Northern Army Corps' 2nd Division. Scarcely a year ago, I sought an interview with another "most wanted man" - the leader of the group believed responsible for the Mumbai massacres. I found him in the Pakistani city of Lahore - guarded by uniformed Pakistani policemen holding machine guns.
Of course, there is one more obvious question unanswered: couldn't they have captured Bin Laden? Didn't the CIA or the Navy Seals or the US Special Forces or whatever American outfit killed him have the means to throw a net over the tiger? "Justice," Barack Obama called his death. In the old days, of course, "justice" meant due process, a court, a hearing, a defence, a trial. Like the sons of Saddam, Bin Laden was gunned down. Sure, he never wanted to be taken alive - and there were buckets of blood in the room in which he died.
But a court would have worried more people than Bin Laden. After all, he might have talked about his contacts with the CIA during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, or about his cosy meetings in Islamabad with Prince Turki, Saudi Arabia's head of intelligence. Just as Saddam - who was tried for the murder of a mere 153 people rather than thousands of gassed Kurds - was hanged before he had the chance to tell us about the gas components that came from America, his friendship with Donald Rumsfeld, the US military assistance he received when he invaded Iran in 1980."
In passing, Robert Fisk is the author of, among others, The Great War for Civilization, a gripping, often graphic, narrative of Islamic fundamentalism as it played out in the Middle East. During his researches, he met and spent time with Osama bin Laden. Here is an extract from the book that details that meeting. And here is a prescient passage the events of yesterday imbue with peculiar meaning:
"I said to Bin Laden that Afghanistan was the only country left to him after his exile in Sudan. He agreed. "The safest place in the world for me is Afghanistan." It was the only place, I repeated, in which he could campaign against the Saudi government. Bin Laden and several of his Arab fighters burst into laughter. "There are other places," he replied. Did he mean Tajikistan? I asked. Or Uzbekistan? Kazakhstan? "There are several places where we have friends and close brothers - we can find refuge and safety in them." I told Bin Laden he was already a hunted man. "Danger is a part of our life," he snapped back."
12: 35 pm: Remember when Osama died of 'kidney failure'?: Yesterday, former President Pervez Musharraf spent a lot of time in serial statements that aimed to make him all things to all people. Thus, he spoke of what a bad man Osama was, and how his killing was a victory for Pakistan as much as it was for America -- clearly aiming that statement at the international community, among which he still projects the image of a moderate man at odds with the militant side of Islam. Almost immediately thereafter, in another statement, he criticized the operation itself as an invasion of Pakistan's sovereignty, and said if he were president he would never have permitted it -- a statement clearly aimed at the domestic constituency, given that a majority of Pakistanis are none too happy about US military adventures on their soil (Oh, in passing, Musharraf might need reminding that his successor, Asif Ali Zardari, did not quite "permit" the US operation in Abbottabad that led to Osama's death -- he was merely told about it after the fact).
Against that background, this article dating back to 2002 is worth revisiting -- remember how Musharraf was claiming, at the time, that Osama was already dead of 'kidney failure'? Seymour Hersh, in a compelling article, talks of the US-backed airlift by Pakistan of its various elements in Afghanistan -- and how that airlift provided cover for Musharraf to get many Taliban out of harm's way. Read on
12: 15 pm: The in-joke among the Pakistan military-political establishment was that Osama bin Laden was 'al-Faida' -- a perennial source of profit, thanks to the millions the US continued to dole out annually to Pakistan in exchange for their "help" in hunting down the al Qaeda leader and other wanted terrorists. Since 2001, Pakistan got $19.6 billion in US aid, including $13.3 billion under 'security' heads. Why then would it not make sense for Pakistan to ensure that Osama bin Laden was safe and secure? And why would it not make sense for Pakistan to ensconce the wanted al Qaeda chief right in the middle of an area packed with military establishments, rather on the lines of Edgar Allan Poe's famed short story 'The Purloined Letter', where the key epistle is hidden in plain sight?
This is what Nitin Pai muses on, in his latest column on Y! Opinions. What he concludes is that (a) It was next to impossible for the US to have located Osama without a bit of help from Pakistan; (b) that Pakistan had a very good reason for providing that help and (c), finally, that the killing of Osama is cue for the end game -- and that game will be played out in Afghanistan. Read
12: 12 pm: Pakistan authorities are interrogating a woman found in Osama's Abbottabad mansion. She speaks some English, and could reveal how long Osama and his family had been in Pakistan, an official told Dawn newspaper. Details here.
11: 37 am: 'Abbottabad killing will help Al Qaeda': Osama bin Laden's death is a gift to Al Qaeda, which will turn him into a martyr and grow even bigger, an analysis in The Hindu concludes. Pravin Swami, diplomatic editor of The Telegraph, writes in the Chennai-based paper, "Even as America, and many others across the world, celebrate the killing of a man who more than any other came to represent evil, there is in fact little reason for jubilation. The stark truth is this: a decade after 9/11, the jihadist movement is more powerful than at any time in the past. The small group bin Laden built in Afghanistan has flowered."
11: 34 am: Sourav Ganguly back in IPL, joins Pune Warriors. "We decided that the amount of experience that Sourav has in cricket will no doubt help the team. So we finalised Ganguly last night," Pune Warriors Director Abhijit Sarkar said. Full article here
11: 22 am: Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu is missing for the fourth day today. With some leads from ISRO, around 3,000 security personnel are scouting the Sela Pass for possible wreckage of the chopper. Aerial search operations were cancelled after bad weather persists. More here
11: 13 am: Flying Low: The Air India pilot's strike is into its seventh day, and neither side seems prepared to budge an inch. Or at least, as far as the pilots are concerned, they seem prepared to move the goalposts around from day to day. They had first asked for a raise; then they said they wanted a CBI inquiry into corruption within the AI management. Last heard from, they want the management to re-recognize the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (which the AI management had de-recognized on day two of the strike); they want three sacked pilots who are key members of the union reinstated, and if these two things are done they will report for work, maybe. The Delhi High Court is, today, hearing the case filed by the management against the pilots, and some clarity should emerge. We hope.
11: 11 am: THE OSAMA BIN LADEN SPECIAL
10: 36 am: It's now a PR battle out there. The US hasn't decided whether it will release pictures and footage of Osama's corpse, but is letting it known that the terror mastermind tried to hide behind women when the US commandos confronted him. One of the women he used as a shield died, the US counter-terrorism chief has just told reporters. 10: 28 am: Iraqis reacted with joy and some skepticism to the news of Osama's death.
<span class="yui-media"/>
10:04 am: Osama was codenamed Geronimo, and a stonefaced American president Barrack Obama waited to hear the words 'Geronimo EKIA' (or Osama, enemy killed in action) while the Abbottabad operation was on, it has just been revealed. Details here
9: 15 am: The CIA isn't going to sit back in satisfaction after the killing of Osama, its chief indicated late last night. Leon Panetta, director of the American intelligence agency, warned that Al Qaeda without Osama bin Laden was still dangerous. "The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge him, and we must - and will - remain vigilant and resolute," Panetta has written to his employees. More details here.
9:02 am: CNNIBN reports Osama was shot in the head first and then on his chest. US officials say that he didn't retaliate when his mansion was being ambushed and the woman who died during the operations is not Osama's wife, as initial reports said.
8: 50 am: Today is the fourth phase in the West Bengal elections. 63 constituencies including Howrah, Hooghly, East Midnapur will vote.
8: 37 am: Even as the world rejoices, Pakistan is losing steam over questioned arising from his death. The US says Pakistan knew he was in the country. However, the people of Pakistan are angry over the government's silence over these allegations.
<span class="yui-media"/>
8: 30 am: Osama may have avoided capture for over ten years. But what was it that gave him away in the end? Ironically, it was the absence of a telephone or internet connection at his mansion in Abbotabad, Pakistan that raised suspicions.
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1: 16 pm: Imran's Bouncer: Former Pakistan cricket captain turned politico Imran Khan is profoundly disturbed by the events of yesterday, vide his signed column in The Independent. Here's a sample clip:"All this has led to other serious questions being raised in Pakistan. For instance, if the Pakistan government or the army had this intelligence, why did we not take out Bin Laden ourselves? Why did we have to rely on the Americans coming over from their airbases in Afghanistan? Equally disturbing is the tremendous level of distrust the US has for the Pakistanis, which led it to jam the radars during the duration of the operation.
There is not just confusion that prevails in Pakistan, but also a national depression at the loss of national dignity and self-esteem as well as sovereignty. There is no answer to these questions and this simply allows allegations from the West and from India to go unchallenged that Pakistan has been protecting Bin Laden and other terrorists; that Pakistan knew he was here and kept him safe.
The president, the prime minister and the army need to address this immediately and if, as they claim, they had the intelligence that led to the killing of Bin Laden, why it was not done by Pakistani forces? Until this happens, Pakistan will suffer a great loss of credibility - and this from a country that has the fifth biggest army in the world and a hefty defence budget.
The reason we will not get these answers, of course, is that we have the most corrupt and incompetent government in our history."
1: 13 pm: Wired for Intel: It is entirely possible that the killing of Osama bin Laden was not the single biggest outcome of the raid on the Abbottabad complex. Politico reports that the Navy SEALs who carried out the raid seized computers, thumb drives et cetera that are now being described as the motherlode of hard intel on the al Qaeda network. Hundreds of people are examining the find now, in the hope of getting actionable information, the report says.
12: 48 pm: Registration has begun for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, scheduled this year for the period June 29-August 13. Here are the details
12: 42 pm: Why did Pak give up Osama?: If the mood yesterday was celebratory, the mood today is somewhat skeptical, with more and more voices questioning the official version of events, and speculating about Pakistan's role. Here's Robert Fisk, in the Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion...g-2278028.html), on the topic of if, and if so why, Pakistan gave up Osama bin Laden to American interdiction. Sample quote:
"But talking of caves, Bin Laden's demise does bring Pakistan into grim focus. For months, President Ali Zardari has been telling us that Bin Laden was living in a cave in Afghanistan. Now it turns out he was living in a mansion in Pakistan. Betrayed? Of course he was. By the Pakistan military or the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence? Quite possibly both. Pakistan knew where he was.
Not only was Abbottabad the home of the country's military college - the town was founded by Major James Abbott of the British Army in 1853 - but it is headquarters of Pakistan's Northern Army Corps' 2nd Division. Scarcely a year ago, I sought an interview with another "most wanted man" - the leader of the group believed responsible for the Mumbai massacres. I found him in the Pakistani city of Lahore - guarded by uniformed Pakistani policemen holding machine guns.
Of course, there is one more obvious question unanswered: couldn't they have captured Bin Laden? Didn't the CIA or the Navy Seals or the US Special Forces or whatever American outfit killed him have the means to throw a net over the tiger? "Justice," Barack Obama called his death. In the old days, of course, "justice" meant due process, a court, a hearing, a defence, a trial. Like the sons of Saddam, Bin Laden was gunned down. Sure, he never wanted to be taken alive - and there were buckets of blood in the room in which he died.
But a court would have worried more people than Bin Laden. After all, he might have talked about his contacts with the CIA during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, or about his cosy meetings in Islamabad with Prince Turki, Saudi Arabia's head of intelligence. Just as Saddam - who was tried for the murder of a mere 153 people rather than thousands of gassed Kurds - was hanged before he had the chance to tell us about the gas components that came from America, his friendship with Donald Rumsfeld, the US military assistance he received when he invaded Iran in 1980."
In passing, Robert Fisk is the author of, among others, The Great War for Civilization, a gripping, often graphic, narrative of Islamic fundamentalism as it played out in the Middle East. During his researches, he met and spent time with Osama bin Laden. Here is an extract from the book that details that meeting. And here is a prescient passage the events of yesterday imbue with peculiar meaning:
"I said to Bin Laden that Afghanistan was the only country left to him after his exile in Sudan. He agreed. "The safest place in the world for me is Afghanistan." It was the only place, I repeated, in which he could campaign against the Saudi government. Bin Laden and several of his Arab fighters burst into laughter. "There are other places," he replied. Did he mean Tajikistan? I asked. Or Uzbekistan? Kazakhstan? "There are several places where we have friends and close brothers - we can find refuge and safety in them." I told Bin Laden he was already a hunted man. "Danger is a part of our life," he snapped back."
12: 35 pm: Remember when Osama died of 'kidney failure'?: Yesterday, former President Pervez Musharraf spent a lot of time in serial statements that aimed to make him all things to all people. Thus, he spoke of what a bad man Osama was, and how his killing was a victory for Pakistan as much as it was for America -- clearly aiming that statement at the international community, among which he still projects the image of a moderate man at odds with the militant side of Islam. Almost immediately thereafter, in another statement, he criticized the operation itself as an invasion of Pakistan's sovereignty, and said if he were president he would never have permitted it -- a statement clearly aimed at the domestic constituency, given that a majority of Pakistanis are none too happy about US military adventures on their soil (Oh, in passing, Musharraf might need reminding that his successor, Asif Ali Zardari, did not quite "permit" the US operation in Abbottabad that led to Osama's death -- he was merely told about it after the fact).
Against that background, this article dating back to 2002 is worth revisiting -- remember how Musharraf was claiming, at the time, that Osama was already dead of 'kidney failure'? Seymour Hersh, in a compelling article, talks of the US-backed airlift by Pakistan of its various elements in Afghanistan -- and how that airlift provided cover for Musharraf to get many Taliban out of harm's way. Read on
12: 15 pm: The in-joke among the Pakistan military-political establishment was that Osama bin Laden was 'al-Faida' -- a perennial source of profit, thanks to the millions the US continued to dole out annually to Pakistan in exchange for their "help" in hunting down the al Qaeda leader and other wanted terrorists. Since 2001, Pakistan got $19.6 billion in US aid, including $13.3 billion under 'security' heads. Why then would it not make sense for Pakistan to ensure that Osama bin Laden was safe and secure? And why would it not make sense for Pakistan to ensconce the wanted al Qaeda chief right in the middle of an area packed with military establishments, rather on the lines of Edgar Allan Poe's famed short story 'The Purloined Letter', where the key epistle is hidden in plain sight?
This is what Nitin Pai muses on, in his latest column on Y! Opinions. What he concludes is that (a) It was next to impossible for the US to have located Osama without a bit of help from Pakistan; (b) that Pakistan had a very good reason for providing that help and (c), finally, that the killing of Osama is cue for the end game -- and that game will be played out in Afghanistan. Read
12: 12 pm: Pakistan authorities are interrogating a woman found in Osama's Abbottabad mansion. She speaks some English, and could reveal how long Osama and his family had been in Pakistan, an official told Dawn newspaper. Details here.
11: 37 am: 'Abbottabad killing will help Al Qaeda': Osama bin Laden's death is a gift to Al Qaeda, which will turn him into a martyr and grow even bigger, an analysis in The Hindu concludes. Pravin Swami, diplomatic editor of The Telegraph, writes in the Chennai-based paper, "Even as America, and many others across the world, celebrate the killing of a man who more than any other came to represent evil, there is in fact little reason for jubilation. The stark truth is this: a decade after 9/11, the jihadist movement is more powerful than at any time in the past. The small group bin Laden built in Afghanistan has flowered."
11: 34 am: Sourav Ganguly back in IPL, joins Pune Warriors. "We decided that the amount of experience that Sourav has in cricket will no doubt help the team. So we finalised Ganguly last night," Pune Warriors Director Abhijit Sarkar said. Full article here
11: 22 am: Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu is missing for the fourth day today. With some leads from ISRO, around 3,000 security personnel are scouting the Sela Pass for possible wreckage of the chopper. Aerial search operations were cancelled after bad weather persists. More here
11: 13 am: Flying Low: The Air India pilot's strike is into its seventh day, and neither side seems prepared to budge an inch. Or at least, as far as the pilots are concerned, they seem prepared to move the goalposts around from day to day. They had first asked for a raise; then they said they wanted a CBI inquiry into corruption within the AI management. Last heard from, they want the management to re-recognize the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (which the AI management had de-recognized on day two of the strike); they want three sacked pilots who are key members of the union reinstated, and if these two things are done they will report for work, maybe. The Delhi High Court is, today, hearing the case filed by the management against the pilots, and some clarity should emerge. We hope.
11: 11 am: THE OSAMA BIN LADEN SPECIAL
10: 36 am: It's now a PR battle out there. The US hasn't decided whether it will release pictures and footage of Osama's corpse, but is letting it known that the terror mastermind tried to hide behind women when the US commandos confronted him. One of the women he used as a shield died, the US counter-terrorism chief has just told reporters. 10: 28 am: Iraqis reacted with joy and some skepticism to the news of Osama's death.
<span class="yui-media"/>
10:04 am: Osama was codenamed Geronimo, and a stonefaced American president Barrack Obama waited to hear the words 'Geronimo EKIA' (or Osama, enemy killed in action) while the Abbottabad operation was on, it has just been revealed. Details here
9: 15 am: The CIA isn't going to sit back in satisfaction after the killing of Osama, its chief indicated late last night. Leon Panetta, director of the American intelligence agency, warned that Al Qaeda without Osama bin Laden was still dangerous. "The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge him, and we must - and will - remain vigilant and resolute," Panetta has written to his employees. More details here.
9:02 am: CNNIBN reports Osama was shot in the head first and then on his chest. US officials say that he didn't retaliate when his mansion was being ambushed and the woman who died during the operations is not Osama's wife, as initial reports said.
8: 50 am: Today is the fourth phase in the West Bengal elections. 63 constituencies including Howrah, Hooghly, East Midnapur will vote.
8: 37 am: Even as the world rejoices, Pakistan is losing steam over questioned arising from his death. The US says Pakistan knew he was in the country. However, the people of Pakistan are angry over the government's silence over these allegations.
<span class="yui-media"/>
8: 30 am: Osama may have avoided capture for over ten years. But what was it that gave him away in the end? Ironically, it was the absence of a telephone or internet connection at his mansion in Abbotabad, Pakistan that raised suspicions.
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