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US had briefed Gen Kayani on kill Osama mission?
A new book by an American journalist claims that the United States may have briefed Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani five months ahead of its daring commando operation to kill Osama bin Laden and secured tacit consent for the mission.
The book, by Richard Miniter, formerly with The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times, goes on to say that an ISI colonel helped the CIA with vital clues in locating the Osama hideout in the Abbottabad garrison town.
And the hideout itself came up on land “carved out” of the property owned by Pakistan’s Kakul Military Academy, Miniter writes, citing CIA research on this score.
The book’s assertions seek to nail Pakistan’s contention that it had no prior knowledge of the former al-Qaeda chief living in that fortified compound for more than five years or of the US Navy SEALs operation that killed him on May 1 last year.
Titled Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him, the book goes on to say that it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who prodded Obama to press ahead with the mission after he had nixed it thrice — in January, February and March of 2011.
According to Minter, Obama feared the commando operation “might go tragically wrong” and he would be blamed for it.
The White House promptly dismissed the narrative, terming the claim “completely made up and wrong”. “The decision to take out Osama bin Laden was made by the president, as many of those involved have said on the record,” Fox News quoted National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor as saying. And Clinton’s spokesman Philippe Reines termed Miniter’s analogy “wronger than wrong”, saying: “It was a tough and decision, and the President made it.”
Dealing with Pakistan, the book says in its “never-before-reported account” that the country was more involved in the bin Laden operation than Obama’s team admitted.
“A colonel in Pakistan’s feared intelligence service, the Inter-Services Institute or ISI, provided vital help in locating Bin Laden when he walked into the CIA’s Islamabad station in August 2010,” says the book.
“Was this a secret sign that the head of the ISI himself was pointing out bin Laden’s hiding place or was the colonel actually the patriot who hated extremism that he claimed to be? Whatever the motivation, the CIA found bin Laden’s hiding place within a month of the colonel’s visit,” Miniter writes.
As for taking Gen. Kayani into confidence on the mission to kill bin Laden, the book says: “Pakistan’s Army chief of staff may have been briefed in December 2010, five months before the night-time raid on bin Laden’s concrete castle. Far from taking a risk, there are indications that a cover story had been developed with the Pakistani military and that Obama had their tacit consent for the mission.”
“There was talk about devising a cover story that would allow Pakistan to be helpful while keeping its leaders from political harm. The story, according to an official with second-hand knowledge of the White House discussion, was that bin Laden was killed in a drone strike and that the US later sent in a team to recover the body. That was believed to be less politically harmful than a commando team treading on Pakistan’s soil,” the book says, adding: “When the SEAL helicopter crashed into bin Laden’s compound, the cover story was abandoned.”
A new book by an American journalist claims that the United States may have briefed Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani five months ahead of its daring commando operation to kill Osama bin Laden and secured tacit consent for the mission.
The book, by Richard Miniter, formerly with The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times, goes on to say that an ISI colonel helped the CIA with vital clues in locating the Osama hideout in the Abbottabad garrison town.
And the hideout itself came up on land “carved out” of the property owned by Pakistan’s Kakul Military Academy, Miniter writes, citing CIA research on this score.
The book’s assertions seek to nail Pakistan’s contention that it had no prior knowledge of the former al-Qaeda chief living in that fortified compound for more than five years or of the US Navy SEALs operation that killed him on May 1 last year.
Titled Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him, the book goes on to say that it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who prodded Obama to press ahead with the mission after he had nixed it thrice — in January, February and March of 2011.
According to Minter, Obama feared the commando operation “might go tragically wrong” and he would be blamed for it.
The White House promptly dismissed the narrative, terming the claim “completely made up and wrong”. “The decision to take out Osama bin Laden was made by the president, as many of those involved have said on the record,” Fox News quoted National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor as saying. And Clinton’s spokesman Philippe Reines termed Miniter’s analogy “wronger than wrong”, saying: “It was a tough and decision, and the President made it.”
Dealing with Pakistan, the book says in its “never-before-reported account” that the country was more involved in the bin Laden operation than Obama’s team admitted.
“A colonel in Pakistan’s feared intelligence service, the Inter-Services Institute or ISI, provided vital help in locating Bin Laden when he walked into the CIA’s Islamabad station in August 2010,” says the book.
“Was this a secret sign that the head of the ISI himself was pointing out bin Laden’s hiding place or was the colonel actually the patriot who hated extremism that he claimed to be? Whatever the motivation, the CIA found bin Laden’s hiding place within a month of the colonel’s visit,” Miniter writes.
As for taking Gen. Kayani into confidence on the mission to kill bin Laden, the book says: “Pakistan’s Army chief of staff may have been briefed in December 2010, five months before the night-time raid on bin Laden’s concrete castle. Far from taking a risk, there are indications that a cover story had been developed with the Pakistani military and that Obama had their tacit consent for the mission.”
“There was talk about devising a cover story that would allow Pakistan to be helpful while keeping its leaders from political harm. The story, according to an official with second-hand knowledge of the White House discussion, was that bin Laden was killed in a drone strike and that the US later sent in a team to recover the body. That was believed to be less politically harmful than a commando team treading on Pakistan’s soil,” the book says, adding: “When the SEAL helicopter crashed into bin Laden’s compound, the cover story was abandoned.”
