ISLAMABAD: Osama bin Laden was able to avoid detection and live in plain sight for almost a decade due to the incompetence and negligence of Pakistan’s intelligence and security services, Pakistan’s official report into his killing concluded yesterday.
Following a decade-long hunt, the CIA tracked down the
Al Qaeda leader in 2011 to a compound within sight of an elite Pakistani military academy in Abbottabad, a city close to the capital Islamabad.
In a secret night-time mission by US Navy SEALs, the world’s most wanted man was killed on May 2 that year in an episode that humiliated Pakistan’s military and heavily strained ties between the strategic allies Washington and Islamabad.
The much-anticipated 336-page report, obtained and circulated late yesterday by Al Jazeera, offered a scathing read, with evidence of incompetence at almost every level of Pakistan’s vast security apparatus.
It also chastised Pakistan’s leadership for failing to detect CIA activities on its soil in the run-up to the raid, while criticising the United States for the “illegal manner” in which the operation was conducted.
“The US acted like a criminal thug,” said the report by the Abbottabad Commission, formed a month after the raid to investigate the circumstances surrounding bin Laden’s killing.
“But above all, the tragedy refers to the comprehensive failure of Pakistan to detect the presence of OBL (Osama bin Laden) on its territory for almost a decade or to discern the direction of US policy towards Pakistan that culminated in the avoidable humiliation of the people of Pakistan.” REUTERS
