Geee Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Pajamas Media:“A top White House official said it was ‘inconceivable’ Osama bin Laden had not had a support system to help him inside Pakistan, but he declined to speculate if there had been any official Pakistani aid,” according to Reuters. Gulf News reported that the compound which Bin Laden occupied may once have been an ISI safe house. “Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin and other senior senators sharply questioned Monday whether the Pakistani military and intelligence community had protected Osama bin Laden before Navy SEALs killed the terrorist leader in a Sunday night raid.”The official suspicions began last year, according to the transcript of a briefing given by the White House to the press following the raid. “In the beginning of September of last year, the CIA began to work with the President on a set of assessments that led it to believe that in fact it was possible that Osama bin Laden may be located at a compound in Pakistan,” the briefing went. It went on to say they were “very concerned about — that he was inside of Pakistan.”What is implied, but not stated in the briefing was that they were worried the raiding team had to go through the Pakistanis to get at him. The location of Osama bin Laden’s safe house was designed not only to control him but to defend his location from a raiding team. The dangers to the team were potentially significant. Abbottabad is home to at least one Pakistani Army regiment and has thousands of military personnel. An AP report says that the four incoming helicopters were fired on from Bin Laden’s rooftop. The Daily Mail reports that President Obama considered a proposal to strike the compound with B2 bombers, which underscores how dangerous the mission was.Many reports suggest that the raiding team took off from Pakistan’s Ghazi aviation base. Located in the area of the Swat Valley, it is home to many U.S.aviation assets and has been visited by dignitaries like John Kerry. From there the assault team had a 100 mile flight southeast to Abbottabad. The White House transcript continued: “shortly after the raid, U.S. officials contacted senior Pakistani leaders to brief them on the intent and the results of the raid.” It was safe to tell them only after the fact.This casts doubt on the claim by John Brennan, the deputy national security adviser, that the killing of Osama bin Laden is “a strategic blow to Al Qaeda.” It is a strategic blow, rather, to the fiction of America’s alliance with Pakistan. Bin Laden has, for much of the last ten years, been the creature of someone else. OBL did not have, and apparently has not had for some time, any operational independence. Who he worked for is the question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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