U.S. granted access to speak to bin Laden's wives

By the CNN Wire Staff

May 10, 2011 5:12 p.m. EDT

Abbottabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The United States will be given access to Osama bin Laden's wives and children, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik told CNN on Tuesday.
On Monday, a senior Pakistani intelligence source had said the United States could question bin Laden's wives only if their "country of origin has been asked for permission."
One of bin Laden's wives is from Yemen. A well-placed U.S. official who would not speak on the record said the other two wives are from Saudi Arabia.
Malik, in an interview Tuesday with CNN, said Pakistan is giving the United States access "so they can interrogate them, they can interview them."
Malik did not say when or where the United States would have such access. Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Tuesday U.S. and Pakistani officials were discussing the matter.

 

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration is optimistic that U.S.-Pakistani cooperation "will continue with regards to" access to bin Laden's wives "and also to the materials that were collected by the Pakistanis after the U.S. commandos left" the compound where they killed bin Laden.
Carney described the U.S.-Pakistani relationship as "important and complicated."
Malik, in his interview with CNN, said allowing the wives to be interviewed should make clear to the United States that Pakistan has nothing to hide -- and put to rest any suspicions that the world's most-wanted terrorist might have had a support network inside the Pakistani government, military or intelligence services.
If Pakistan had "skeletons" to hide, "do you think we would allow access to the wives and the children of Osama?" he asked.
Malik called the decision "proof" that Pakistan is "very clear that we didn't know" bin Laden was living in a compound in Abbottabad, a Pakistani city with a major military presence, rather than in mountainous areas which Pakistani and U.S. officials often said were believed to be bin Laden's hiding place.
U.S. President Barack Obama told CBS' "60 Minutes," "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don't know who or what that support network was."
Malik said there is "not an iota of doubt" in his mind that bin Laden had "no support network from official sources."
Acknowledging an intelligence failure, he said the investigation that Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has ordered will explore what went wrong, and the answers "will be made public."
One U.S. official said "both sides understand the importance of the relationship," but expressed concerns over Pakistan's control over all of its political participants.
"The boat is moving, but there is some chop in the water."
The official said that CIA Director Leon Panetta and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Chief Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha "have always had productive exchanges, even though there have been disagreements."
Pasha's position atop the ISI is considered valuable to the U.S., the official said, because of his close connection to chief of army staff, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.
Meanwhile,Pakistani officials have said bin Laden's family members will be repatriated to their home countries after their initial interrogations.
All three wives and eight of his children were taken into Pakistani custody after the May 2 raid by U.S. commandos that killed bin Laden, the leader of the al Qaeda terrorist movement.
The 29-year-old Yemeni wife, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, was wounded during the raid. The U.S. official identified the other two women as Khairiah Sabar, also known as "Umm Hamza," and Siham Sabar, or "Umm Khalid."
Although U.S. officials have warned of possible reprisal attacks by bin Laden supporters, there has been no surge of attacks inside Afghanistan, the commander of NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan said Tuesday.
"There has been a lot of talk about revenge, about (insurgents) coming at both the coalition and the Afghan forces here, but we have not seen that here since the first of May," said Regional Command East Commander Maj. Gen. John Campbell. U.S. and coalition forces were already on guard against an expected Taliban spring offensive even before bin Laden's death, Campbell added.
Campbell said he hoped that bin Laden's death, and the images of him inside the compound that the United States released, may discourage insurgents. But he also cautioned that bin Laden will certainly be replaced with a new al Qaeda leader.
"I don't think that one person makes the war on terror here," Campbell said. But he added that he expects insurgents to face some difficulties raising money without bin Laden's "charisma" as part of the effort.

The commander also noted al Qaeda is just one of the insurgent groups that NATO and U.S. forces are fighting in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden death means possible power struggle in al Qaeda

From Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst, From Barbara Starr and Pam Benson, CNN

May 18, 2011 5:20 p.m. EDT

Jihadists are restive about the lack of an announcement of a successor to Osama bin Laden, an al Qaeda analyst says.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Choice of a "caretaker" leader signals organizational disarray
• A new leader would have to win allegiance from various factions
• Materials seized from bin Laden compound likely to hurt the group

(CNN) -- Osama bin Laden's sudden elimination created a leadership void for al Qaeda, setting up a possible power struggle involving the organization's various factions, CNN sources and analysts say.
After the May 2 attack by U.S. special operations forces that killed bin Laden in his Pakistan compound, a "caretaker" leader was chosen by several al Qaeda leaders in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area rather than the group's formal shura council, according to an expert on the organization.
At the same time, the group's Yemeni wing -- al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- is trying to position itself for greater power and influence in the aftermath of bin Laden's death, a U.S. official told CNN on Wednesday.
"They are using the death of bin Laden as a way to bolster their own image," the U.S. official said. The source declined to be identified because of the sensitive intelligence information that led to this assessment.
It all signals some disarray and operational difficulties for al Qaeda in the immediate aftermath of bin Laden's killing.
Al Qaeda's interim leader is Saif al-Adel, who has long played a prominent role in the group, said Noman Benotman, an analyst who is a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that once aligned itself with al Qaeda. Benotman knew the al Qaeda leadership well for years before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
Benotman said based on his personal communications with militants and discussions on jihadist forums, al-Adel had been chosen interim chief of al Qaeda because the global jihadist community had grown restive in recent days about the lack of a formal announcement of a successor to bin Laden.
According to Benotman, this was not a decision of the formal shura council of al Qaeda, because it is currently impossible to gather them in one place, but was rather the decision of six to eight leaders of al Qaeda in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.
Al-Adel, also known as Muhamad Ibrahim Makkawi, was already one of the top leaders of the group.
At the same time, Benotman said, bin Laden's top deputy in al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, remains the most likely successor to bin Laden. However, some questions persist about whether al-Zawahiri will receive the loyalty oath, or baya, that al Qaeda commanders swore to bin Laden.
A senior U.S. official told CNN on Wednesday that there is "absolutely no information at this time that points to a definitive succession plan" for al Qaeda.
The official could not rule out that al-Adel was given the interim position, but said there was no intelligence so far to confirm it.
In addition, the official said, the notion of al Qaeda choosing an interim leader was "strange," as the organization was believed to have rigid rules involving its leadership. While al-Zawahiri is presumed to be the next leader, that succession doesn't appear to have happened yet, the official added.
Al-Adel is an Egyptian who was once a Special Forces officer and has long played a prominent role in al Qaeda, according to Benotman.
The choice of an Egyptian may not sit well with some Saudi and Yemeni members of al Qaeda, who believe bin Laden's successor should come from the Arabian Peninsula, a region that is holy to all Muslims, Benotman noted. Bin Laden was from a wealthy Saudi family.
Al-Zawahiri is also Egyptian, and Benotman said the temporary appointment of al-Adel may be a way for the leadership to gauge reaction to the selection of someone from beyond the Arabian Peninsula as the group's leader.
Al-Adel fought the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s. After the fall of the Taliban in winter 2001, he fled to Iran. According to senior Saudi counterterrorism officials, al-Adel then authorized al Qaeda's branch in Saudi Arabia to begin a campaign of terrorist attacks in the Saudi kingdom that began in Riyadh in May 2003, a campaign that killed scores.
Some reports in the past year have suggested al-Adel had moved from Iran to Pakistan.
However, the senior U.S. official said there was "nothing definitive" to indicate al-Adel had left Iran, which has said al-Adel was held under house arrest in the country.
The U.S. official said al-Adel's involvement in al Qaeda operations has been limited over the years, but he was far from "retired," having some influence over the organization's activities while living in Iran.
Al-Adel initially opposed the 9/11 attacks on the United States as a strategic misstep that would make al Qaeda the focus of global anti-terrorism efforts, said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Kayyem said al-Adel eventually returned to bin Laden's fold after going to Iran.
A key issue for al Qaeda amid the leadership question is the fallout from large quantities of sensitive information recovered by U.S. forces at the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden was killed.
U.S. officials have indicated the information could prove damaging to al Qaeda operations.
By naming an interim leader, al Qaeda can begin the process of collecting allegiance, or baya, from al-Qaeda affiliates such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the North Africa-based al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Baya was a religious oath of allegiance to bin Laden rather than to the organization itself, in the same way Nazi Party members swore an oath of fealty to Hitler rather than to Nazism.
That baya must now be transferred to the new leader. However, there is scant evidence that al-Zawahiri has the charisma of bin Laden or commands the respect bordering on love that al Qaeda members held for their slain leader.
Al Qaeda affiliates such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula also have yet to swear loyalty to al-Adel.
According to the U.S. official who spoke about the group, there are indications al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is sending messages and issuing statements using bin Laden's death as a rallying cry to seek money, recruits and any resources it can get.
"They are definitely trying to take advantage of the situation," the U.S. official said, adding: "They are clearly trying to improve their capabilities," as they were even before bin Laden's death.
"We have seen a steady progression of al Qaeda presence in Yemen and efforts by them to organize and become more efficient," the official said.
The United States has long felt al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a growing threat. One of its leaders, the American-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, has inspired attacks against America and its interests.
On another issue, bin Laden's death presents an opportunity for the Taliban to disassociate itself from al Qaeda, as required by the U.S. and Afghan governments for the Taliban to take part in peace talks.

Bin Laden swore an oath of allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar sometime before the 9/11 attacks. Omar could now take the position that the new leader of al Qaeda does not need to swear an oath of allegiance to him as commander of the faithful. Such a move could be considered a Taliban rejection of al Qaeda, something it has yet to do.

Call for Gadhafi arrest a step towards justice

By Marco Vicenzino, CNN

May 16, 2011 7:30 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Marco Vicenzino says move on Gadhafi is milestone for International Criminal Court
• ICC's call for his arrest a diplomatic gain for opposition; black eye for regime, he says
• Move should buoy uprising; world must call for pursuit of Gadhafi himself, he says
• Vicenzino: Bringing Gadhafi to justice will elevate ICC's role in global affairs

Editor's note: Marco Vicenzino writes about geopolitical risk analysis for global media outlets and is director of the Global Strategy Project, a geopolitical research and analysis organization based in Washington

(CNN) -- The call by the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor for the arrest of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, his son and intelligence chief for crimes against humanity is a defining moment for the ICC -- a coming of age during a nine-year quest for broader international acceptance.
But it also provides an enormous breakthrough for the Libyan opposition's pursuit for greater diplomatic recognition and a huge moral boost for the international mission, its mandate and U.N. Security Council resolution 1973 authorizing action in Libya.
It's not valid to claim that the action of the ICC prosecutor complicates the possibility for a negotiated solution to the crisis or Gadhafi's voluntary exit from power.
Since the popular insurrection's start in February, Gadhafi has shown no serious intent to negotiate or step down. His answer has been unrestrained violence against his people leading to substantial loss of innocent life. Mounting evidence left the ICC prosecutor with no viable alternative.
By criminalizing Gadhafi and his cohorts, the chief prosecutor has effectively made them outcasts and further delegitimized the regime at home and abroad. The action provides further justification for ordinary Libyans to defy a wanted criminal and an additional pretext for nations to extend diplomatic recognition to the Libyan opposition.
Nations must not deal with the outlaw leader of a rogue regime. The Libyan opposition must seize upon this to pursue with even greater vigor its campaign as legitimate representative of the Libyan people.
Prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Gadhafi
What's more, the call for Gadhafi's arrest strengthens the international mission's ability to pursue him directly. Activities and operations must increase exponentially and include greater U.S. participation.
In its quest for greater international acceptance, the ICC has gradually developed a track record of modest achievements. The call for Gadhafi's arrest marks the second for a standing head of state.
The genocide charge against Sudanese President Omar Bashir over Darfur in 2009 was an historic step. But after a 42-year reign of terror, the Gadhafi brand name is far more global.
Pursuing Gadhafi and bringing him to justice presents the ICC with a groundbreaking opportunity to elevate its status to a remarkably higher level, consolidate its credibility and cement its role as a central institution in global affairs.
However, the ICC's present and future effectiveness will always remain dependent upon the ability and willingness of nation-states and the U.N. Security Council to pursue its agenda. The potential for effective international legal action largely increases whenever multilateral convergence of diplomatic and political interests prevails.

Bin Laden relatives want probe and proof of death

(CNN) -- Relatives of Osama bin Laden want proof that the terrorist leader is dead and are calling for an investigation into how he was killed, according to Jean Sasson, an author who helped one of bin Laden's sons write a memoir.
"They just really want some answers, and they would just really like to know what exactly happened, why they weren't called," said Sasson, who worked with Omar bin Laden to pen a memoir titled "Growing Up bin Laden."
The United States says U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden during a May 2 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he was hiding out.
On Wednesday, a key lawmaker on Capitol Hill said the death of bin Laden presents an opportunity to "break the back" of al Qaeda.
The forces collected a trove of intelligence from the compound and later buried bin Laden's body at sea. While the Obama administration has decided not to release photos of the slain bin Laden, some U.S. lawmakers will be allowed to view them.
Bin Laden's relatives "would like to have been able to have witnessed seeing the body, at least identified the body, because, you know how it is in the Middle East so many times: They really need proof or people start believing -- this has been discussed by a lot more people than me -- that many people will not believe that he's dead," Sasson told CNN Wednesday.

 

 Her comments come a day after a statement from Omar bin Laden and his brothers was provided to The New York Times.Asked about the statement, Sasson said Omar bin Laden -- who has publicly denounced his father's violence -- contacted her and told her he has some things to say. She said she prepared a letter for him and he approved it.
Another family member had gotten an attorney to write a letter about what relatives were thinking and feeling and Sasson said it was decided to go with the attorney's letter.
The statement published in The New York Times is from bin Laden's sons -- "the lawful children and heirs" of the notorious al Qaeda leader.
It says that despite the extensive coverage of his death, "we are not convinced on the available evidence in the absence of (a) dead body, photographs, and video evidence that our natural father is dead."
"We seek such conclusive evidence to believe the stories published in relation to 2 May 2011 operation Geronimo as declared by the President of United States Barack Hussein Obama in his speech that he authorized the said operation and killing of OBL and later confirmed his death," they said.
The statement argued that if bin Laden has been "summarily executed," "international law" might have been "blatantly violated" and that U.S. legal standards were ignored.
The statement cites the trials for late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, and notes that Osama bin Laden didn't get a "fair trial" or "presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a court of law."
"If OBL has been killed in that operation as (the) president of United States has claimed then we are just in questioning as per media reports that why an unarmed man was not arrested and tried in a court of law so that truth is revealed to the people of the world."
"We maintain that arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems and crime's adjudication as justice must be seen to be done," the statement said.
Three other men, including one of bin Laden's sons, and a woman were killed in the raid, and bin Laden's 29-year-old Yemeni wife, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, was wounded.
All three of bin Laden's wives and a number of children, some of whom were bin Laden's, were taken into Pakistani custody after the raid. A U.S. official identified the other two women as Khairiah Sabar, also known as "Umm Hamza," and Siham Sabar, or "Umm Khalid."
"It is also unworthy of the special forces to shoot unarmed female family members ... killing a female and that of one of his sons," the statement said.
"In making this statement, we want to remind the world that Omar (bin Laden), the fourth-born son of our father, always disagreed with our father regarding any violence and always sent messages to our father, that he must change his ways and that no civilians should be attacked under any circumstances.
"Despite the difficulty of publicly disagreeing with our father, he never hesitated to condemn any violent attacks made by anyone, and expressed sorrow for the victims of any and all attacks. As he condemned our father, we now condemn the president of the United States for ordering the execution of unarmed men and women," the statement said.
It also urged Pakistan "to release and hand over" the wives and the children of bin Laden. The authors of the statement called for a U.N. investigation into the event and said they will pursue justice in bodies such as the International Criminal Court if questions aren't answered.
A senior U.S. official Wednesday angrily rejected the charge that international law was violated.
"There is an inherent right of self-defense enshrined in the U.N. charter within Article 51. This is a man who is a terrorist, who declared war on the United States, killed Americans and continued to plan operations against the U.S. and its allies," the official said.
On Capitol Hill, one lawmaker was talking about the opportunity the death of bin Laden presents. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, said that although al Qaeda is still alive and well, "they are hurt, they are damaged. Their inspirational and operational leader has been taken off the battlefield, which is a huge opportunity for us.
"The confusion with them is opportunity for us and this is the time to step on the gas and break their back."
Rogers raised the possibility that there are Pakistani officials who knew about bin Laden's hideway in the country.
He spoke of a "confusing" relationship with Pakistan, one which was cooperative at times, taking thousands of casualties battling extremists and helping arrest hundreds of al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, bomb makers, financiers and weapons dealers. However, Rogers maintained there are renegade intelligence officers and others in the Pakistani government who are sympathetic toward the Taliban and al Qaeda.
The raid in which bin Laden was killed dealt a blow to the relationship between the United States and Pakistan. The revelation that bin Laden had been living in Pakistan has fueled suspicions that Pakistani officials knew the whereabouts of the terrorist leader, while Pakistan has complained about the U.S. military incursion.
But while the ties between the CIA and Pakistan's intelligence agency are strained, they are not shut down, another U.S. official said.
This official, who did not want to be identified for safety concerns, said both sides need to continue working together.
"Both sides understand the importance of the relationship," the official said. "Cooperation is continuing, discussions are continuing, but there are issues to work through."
Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, plans to go to Pakistan soon, a Senate source familiar with his plans said Wednesday. He has visited the country at other times and has the trust and respect of many senior Pakistani officials.
Most recently, Kerry visited Pakistan to help defuse tensions over the detention of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who was jailed in Pakistan after he shot and killed two Pakistani men in what he said was a robbery attempt. He was released from jail after compensation was paid to the victims' families.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration is encouraging Kerry's trip.
"We think it's important as part of the overall efforts by the United States government to continue our collaborative relationship with Pakistan and the cooperation that we have seen in the past," Carney said.
"While we don't see eye to eye on the issues, that cooperation has led to some very important successes in our war against al Qaeda. We are working at the administration level to continue our consultations with Pakistani leaders, to continue that kind of cooperation, and are glad to see Senator Kerry make that trip as well."
In the aftermath of the U.S. raid on bin Laden's compound, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik told CNN Tuesday that the United States will be given access to bin Laden's wives and children "so they can interrogate them, they can interview them."
A senior Pakistani intelligence source had said earlier that the United States could question bin Laden's wives only if their "country of origin has been asked for permission."
Malik did not say when or where the United States would be able to question the wives. Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Tuesday U.S. and Pakistani officials were discussing the matter.
Carney said the administration is optimistic that U.S.-Pakistani cooperation "will continue with regards to" access to bin Laden's wives "and also to the materials that were collected by the Pakistanis after the U.S. commandos left" the compound where they killed bin Laden.

He described the U.S.-Pakistani relationship as "important and complicated."

Exclusive: Bin Laden's Yemen bride, 18, was confident, conservative

From Mohammed Jamjoom and Tim Lister, CNN

May 10, 2011 9:03 a.m. EDT

 

Amal al-Sadah's passport, which a relative said was obtained for the purpose of marrying bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2000.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Osama bin Laden was 43 when he married an 18-year-old Yemen woman in 2000
• Amal al-Sadah became his fifth wife, and they had a daughter shortly after 9/11
• She comes from a big, respectable, conservative family in Yemen, a relative tells CNN
• Her family didn't have any ties to al Qaeda prior to the marriage, the relative says

Ibb, Yemen (CNN) -- When 18-year-old Amal al-Sadah became the fifth wife of 43-year-old Osama bin Laden in 2000, she was "a quiet, polite, easygoing and confident teenager" who came from a big, conservative family in Yemen, a relative told CNN in an exclusive interview.
The relative, Ahmed, who knew al-Sadah growing up, said she came from a traditional family in Ibb, Yemen -- established and respectable but certainly with no militant views paralleling the al Qaeda leader's terrorism.
The family had no connection to al Qaeda prior to the arranged marriage, Ahmed told CNN during an interview in Ibb on Friday.
While some accounts say a matchmaker put the couple together, the relative wasn't sure of that report, adding he heard many stories about how the two were betrothed.
"She was a very good overall person," Ahmed told CNN. "The Sadah family is a big family in Ibb. The family of Amal was like most Yemeni families. They were conservative but also lived a modern life when compared to other families.
"The family is a respected family and is well known. The family had no extremist views, even though they came from a conservative background," Ahmed said, referring to al-Sadah's parents and siblings.
The Yemeni government is apparently pressuring the family not to speak publicly about their notorious in-law, bin Laden, Ahmed said.
"From what I know, the government would give the Sadah family an extremely difficult time and always warns them from talking to the media," Ahmed said. "The government tells them that the information or comments they give would be misunderstood or misinterpreted and could hurt the family more than the government."

 

An al Qaeda figure in Yemen named Sheikh Rashed Mohammed Saeed Ismail said he arranged the marriageand told the Yemen Post in 2008 that he was "the matchmaker" and that al-Sadah was one of his students, describing her as "religious and pious enough."

Ismail, whose brother spent time as a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, accompanied the young bride-to-be to Afghanistan in July 2000, where she and bin Laden were married after he gave her family a $5,000 dowry.
The marriage was apparently a political alliance to shore up bin Laden's support in the land of his ancestors.
"I was told after they got married that Osama did not want to cut his ties with his ancestral home, Yemen," Ahmed said.
Back in Yemen, al-Sadah was barely spoken of again, Ahmed told CNN.
"After her marriage, we heard a little about her, and her direct family knew the dangers of talking about such topics," Ahmed said. "Even if anyone asked them about her, they would avoid talking about the issue."
At first, Yemeni authorities didn't seem aware that they were giving al-Sadah a passport in 2000 for the purpose of marrying bin Laden in Afghanistan, Ahmed said.
"Only a small number of people knew about the story of the marriage in the start, so it wasn't difficult to travel," Ahmed said. "The Yemeni government gave the family a hard time after she left Yemen. The family is still being watched and have been interrogated dozens of times. Her father also went through a lot."
The marriage was immediately fruitful, and al-Sadah and bin Laden gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Safiyah, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in the weeks after 9/11.
According to Pakistani officials this week, Safiyah was inside the Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound where bin Laden was killed Monday by U.S. Navy SEALs, and she probably saw her father shot dead.
Ahmed asserted that al-Sadah and bin Laden also bore other children, but he couldn't provide details in his brief interview with CNN.
In "The Osama bin Laden I Know", Peter Bergen spoke with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who met bin Laden soon after the 9/11 attacks. Mir said bin Laden had told him that he had plans for his youngest daughter, Safiyah.
"I became a father of a girl after September 11," he said. "I named her after Safiyah who killed a Jewish spy at the time of the Prophet. (My daughter) will kill enemies of Islam like Safiyah."
In the aftermath of bin Laden's death, al-Sadah has told interrogators that for five years, she didn't venture outside the walled compound, according to a Pakistani military spokesman.
Al-Sadah, now 29, who was wounded in the raid, said she lived in the compound in Abbottabad with eight of bin Laden's children and five others from another family, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN this week.
All of them have been in Pakistani custody since the pre-dawn U.S. commando raid Monday that killed bin Laden, and they will eventually be returned to their country of origin, Abbas said.
With five wives, bin Laden had a total of 20 children, and one of his adult sons was also reported killed in the commando assault.

Al-Sadah is the youngest of the five wives

Al Qaeda threats, terror plans surface

By the CNN Wire Staff

May 6, 2011 5:31 p.m. EDT

Protesters burn tires Friday at a rally organized by the Jamrat-E-Islami party in Abbottabad, Pakistan, to condemn the U.S raid.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: "We are going to ultimately defeat al Qaeda," Obama says
• Dozens of people are arrested in Abbottabad, a Pakistani intelligence official says
• Al Qaeda says bin Laden's death will curse the United States
• The group says it isn't going away and will continue to plot

CNN looks back at the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden in the award-winning documentary "In the Footsteps of bin Laden" at 11 ET Friday night.

(CNN) -- Al Qaeda warnings against the United States emerged Friday as the materials taken from Osama bin Laden's compound continued to yield a trove of intelligence, including details about a possible attack on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
Al Qaeda, the bin Laden terrorist network that carried out the deadly attack in 2001, confirmed its leader's death on Friday in a Web statement and used that opportunity to taunt and threaten the United States.
"Sheikh Osama didn't build an organization that will vanish with his death or fades away with his departure," according to the statement, which CNN could not independently authenticate.
The statement, which congratulates the "Islamic Nation on the martyrdom of their devoted son Osama," repeated themes and threats made over the years in prior al Qaeda statements.
"The blood of the mujahid sheikh, Osama bin Laden, may God have mercy on him, is very dear to us and more precious to us and to every Muslim from being shed in vain," the statement said. A mujahid is defined as a Muslim engaged in what he considers to be jihad.
"This blood will be a curse that will chase the Americans and their agents, a curse that will pursue them inside and outside their country, and soon -- with God's help -- we pray that their happiness turns into sorrow and may their blood mix with their tears and let Sheikh Osama's resonate again."

 

In its pronouncements, al Qaeda frequently cites the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and it did so again, saying Friday that America "will neither enjoy nor live in security until our people in Palestine live it and enjoy it."
"The soldiers of Islam in groups and as individuals will continue to plan and plot without any fatigue, boredom, despair, surrender or indifference until you receive from them a cunning misfortune that will gray the hair of the child even before he gets old," the statement said.
Pakistanis were urged to "rise up" and cleanse the "disgrace that was brought upon them by a handful of traitors and thieves" and "their country from the filth of the Americans who have wreaked havoc in the land."
The statement surfaced as protesters packed the streets of Abbottabad -- where bin Laden was shot and killed -- in a rally organized by Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamist party. The demonstrators denounced the U.S. and Pakistani governments.
Also, the statement expressed disdain for the United States, both its efforts and its motives, saying that the Americans managed to kill bin Laden "by disgrace and betrayal." Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. Navy SEAL raid on his compound early Monday in Abbottabad, a military garrison town north of the capital of Islamabad.
"Men and heroes only should be confronted in the battlefields but at the end, that's God's fate. Still we ask, will the Americans be able -- through their media outlets, their agents, their instruments, soldiers, intelligence services and their might -- be able to kill what Sheikh Osama lived for and was killed for? How far! How impossible!"
Bin Laden was buried at sea in what U.S. officials have described as a proper Islamic burial.
But the statement said if Americans treat the bodies of bin Laden or his family members improperly, either dead or alive, or do not hand over the bodies to families, there will be retribution.
"Any offense will open unto your doors of multitudes of evil for which you will only have yourselves to blame."
According to the statement, bin Laden recorded an audio message a week prior to his death regarding the revolutions sweeping the Muslim world and offering advice and guidance. Al Qaeda indicated that the release of this message is forthcoming.
Meanwhile, investigators poring over material seized in the Monday raid found details about a possible attack on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and the intelligence led Thursday to a nationwide alert regarding rail security.
As early as February 2010, al Qaeda members discussed a plan to derail trains in the United States by placing obstructions on tracks over bridges and valleys, the alert said, according to one law enforcement official.
The plan was to be executed later this year, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, though no specific rail system was identified, the official said.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed a notice was sent to federal, state, local and tribal authorities.
"We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the U.S. rail sector, but wanted to make sure our partners are aware of the alleged plotting. It is unclear if any further planning has been conducted since February of last year," spokesman Matt Chandler said.
Rail agencies across the United States heightened security.
The Chicago Transit Authority reissued security bulletins, "reminding employees of what activities to look for and what steps to take should they encounter any suspicious or criminal activity during the course of their duties," said Wanda Taylor, a CTA spokeswoman.
Amtrak employees also were on a heightened "state of vigilance," spokesman Marc Magliari said.
At Fort Campbell, Kentucky, President Obama thanked the troops for their efforts and vowed to achieve more. "We are going to ultimately defeat al Qaeda," he said to applause. "We have cut off their head and we will ultimately defeat them."
He said the U.S. strategy is working, "and there is no greater evidence of that than justice finally being delivered to Osama bin Laden."
A U.S. official said that "valuable information has been gleaned already" from the information gathered at bin Laden's compound, though no specific plots or terrorist suspects were identified.
But the material suggests that al Qaeda was particularly interested in striking Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, according to the law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. authorities have found that al Qaeda appeared especially interested in striking on significant dates like July 4, Christmas and the opening day of the United Nations.
The material seized from the compound included audio and video equipment, suggesting bin Laden may have taped messages there, a U.S. official said.
Ten hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices, such as disks and thumb drives, were also found, a senior U.S. official told CNN.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the CIA had a safe house in Abbottabad "for a small team of spies" who performed surveillance on the compound.
Citing U.S. officials, the effort "relied on Pakistani informants and other sources to help assemble a 'pattern of life' portrait of the occupants and daily activities at the fortified compound where bin Laden was found."
It was "mobilized after the discovery of the suspicious complex last August that involved virtually every category of collection in the U.S. arsenal, ranging from satellite imagery to eavesdropping efforts aimed at recording voices inside the compound," the Post reported.
Dozens of people in Abbottabad have been arrested because of their suspected connections to the compound where Osama bin Laden was shot and killed, a Pakistani intelligence official said Friday. Investigators want to know whether any of the people are al Qaeda members or sympathizers.
The United States and Pakistan have been allies for years in the anti-terrorism effort, but U.S. concerns that Pakistanis haven't been robust enough in the fight against Islamic militants and suspected U.S. drone attacks that killed innocent civilians have heightened tensions. Another suspected drone strike killed 12 suspected militants on Friday in the Pakistani tribal region.
Questions remain over why and how Pakistani intelligence officials could not have known bin Laden was hiding out in the city, which is home to a military academy and has a strong military presence.
Pakistani armed forces chiefs issued a statement Thursday admitting "shortcomings in developing intelligence" on the terrorist leader's presence in the country.
The army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, "made it very clear that any similar action, violating the sovereignty of Pakistan, will warrant a review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States," the statement said.

Since the raid, Pakistan has ordered U.S. military personnel on its territory drawn down to the "minimum essential" level, the statement said.

Al Qaeda, in Web message, confirms bin Laden's death

By the CNN Wire Staff

May 6, 2011 10:18 a.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Al Qaeda released a statement on jihadist forums Friday confirming the death of its leader, Osama bin Laden, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist websites.
The development comes days after U.S. troops killed bin Laden in a raid on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
The statement, translated by SITE, lauded the late militant, threatened to take action against the United States, and urged Pakistanis to "rise up and revolt."
Bin Laden's death will serve as a "curse that chases the Americans and their agents, and goes after them inside and outside their countries," the message said.

 

 

FBI: Bin Laden was plotting new attack "Soon -- with help from Allah -- their happiness will turn into sorrow, and their blood will be mixed with their tears," it said.

The statement said al Qaeda will "continue on the path of jihad, the path walked upon by our leaders ... without hesitation or reluctance."
Full statement from al Qaeda on Osama bin Laden's death
"We will not deviate from that or change until Allah judges between us and between our enemy with truth. Indeed, He is the best of all judges. Nothing will harm us after that, until we see either victory and success and conquest and empowerment, or we die trying."
It said that Americans "will never enjoy security until our people in Palestine enjoy it."
"The soldiers of Islam, groups and individuals, will continue planning without tiredness or boredom, and without despair or surrender, and without weakness or stagnancy, until they cause the disaster that makes children look like the elderly!"
It urged Pakistanis "to cleanse this shame that has been attached to them by a clique of traitors and thieves" and "from the filth of the Americans who spread corruption in it."

Bin Laden and other militants used the Internet to post messages to their followers before and after al Qaeda's September, 11, 2001 attack on the United State

Bin Laden raid's lone glitch could be headache for U.S. military

By Larry Shaughnessy, CNN Pentagon Producer

May 6, 2011 4:49 p.m. EDT

The Navy SEALs' helicopter tail rotor assembly came down on the other side of the compound wall.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Helicopter crashed during raid on bin Laden compound in Pakistan
• Design, color scheme raise questions of whether it had "stealth technology"
• U.S. Department of Defense won't comment
• Some concerned about where wreckage will end up

Washington (CNN) -- The one major problem for the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden was the crash of one of their helicopters.
It was no ordinary military chopper. Numerous aviation experts say they see several telltale signs of stealth technology in photos of what was left after the SEAL team tried to destroy the craft.
Some think it was a secret aircraft.
"Had this particular helicopter not crashed, we still would have no idea of its existence," said Gareth Jennings, the aviation desk editor for Jane's Defence Weekly.
Jennings and other aviation experts say the helicopter may have been a heavily modified version of the UH-60 Black Hawk, a mainstay of the military's helicopter fleet.
But it may include stealth technology developed for the now-canceled RAH-66 Comanche helicopter. That aircraft was designed to be an armed reconnaissance craft capable of carrying only two people.
Two of the aircraft were built for test flights before the Army canceled the program in 2004, not because of performance but because it needed money to upgrade existing helicopters. At the time, Les Brownlee, then acting secretary of the Army, said, "We will retain relevant technologies developed in the Comanche program."
At the same 2004 briefing about the cancellation of the Comanche, then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker said, "much of what we've gained out of Comanche we can push forward into the tech base for future joint rotorcraft kinds of capabilities as we look further out."
The helicopter in question was left on the ground at the al Qaeda leader's compound during the raid early Monday.
The SEALs were able to destroy much of the main body of the helicopter when it became clear it couldn't fly. But the tail rotor assembly came down on the other side of the compound wall and was left largely intact deep inside Pakistan when the SEALs finished their mission.
Pakistani troops were seen hauling the wreckage away on trucks covered with tarps. The Department of Defense, which would not comment about any speculation about a "stealth helicopter," also wouldn't say whether it's asked Pakistan to give the wreckage back to the United States.
"Given the very strong defense ties that Pakistan and China currently have, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see this wreckage end up in Beijing," Jennings said.

 

"And that has to be of great concern to the U.S. Department of Defense, because with that technology, the Chinese or any third party could either incorporate that technology into their own aircraft or they can figure out ways to defeat that technology, thereby rending stealth technology like this largely useless in future operations," he said.
What makes the experts think the aircraft that crashed in Abbottabad was a secret "stealth helicopter?"
• "The first thing that stood out, and it may seem like a small thing, is the color scheme. Whereas most Black Hawk Army helicopters are painted olive green, this particular one is gray. Not just any gray; it's infrared-suppressant gray, and the purpose of the IR gray, as it's known, is to help reduce the vulnerability of the helicopter to ground-launched heat-seeking missile systems," Jennings told CNN Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence.
• Photos from Abbottabad show that the chopper had a five-bladed tail rotor. "On a conventional Black Hawk, you have four blades. The addition of the extra rotor blades on the tail rotor hub reduces the acoustic signature of the helicopter there by making it hard to hear, giving the SEALs that extra few minutes to get over the compound before anyone on the ground quite knows what's going on," according to Jennings.
• Those five tail rotor blades are partially covered by a disk-like object that Jennings called a "hub-mounted vibration suppression system." He believes it provides more noise suppression and some possible protection for the tail rotor from bullets of shrapnel. And it's not typical on military helicopters. "No, I've never seen that on an operational helicopter before," Jennings said. But he added that a similar system was part of the Comanche helicopter design.
• The blades on that tail rotor also appear to be shorter and thinner than typical Black Hawk helicopter's blades. One former Army Black Hawk pilot, who asked not to be identified, said, "More blades and shorter blades means the helicopter would make less noise in flight."
It's not just the tail rotor blades that are different. "On the main rotor assembly that was actually destroyed by the SEAL team on the ground the blades themselves are threaded, which signify that these are carbon composite rotor blades as opposed to conventional metal rotor blades, which again signifies aspects of stealth technology that have been incorporated into this particular helicopter," Jennings said.

• Some photos show parts of the helicopter appear similar to non-secret stealth aircraft. "What's left of the tail section of that helicopter, the shape of the fuselage, it's canted. It's angled. It's a shape that's synonymous with fixed-wing stealth fighters such as the F-22, the F-35. Essentially, it's designed to defeat radar. If you eliminate right angles in an aircraft design, radar waves can't bounce back," Jennings said.

Sources give new details on bin Laden's death; photo won't be released



STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Pakistan ambassador vows inquiry
• Reuters photos show bodies, helicopter at compound
• News agency says they were taken by a Pakistani security official
• Bin Laden was near weapons when he was shot, Sen. Feinstein says

Washington (CNN) -- A Navy SEAL team that fought its way upstairs at Osama bin Laden's compound killed him with rapid-fire shots to his chest and forehead, according to a U.S. official who has seen military reports of the raid.
The unarmed bin Laden, who the White House said put up some form of resistance, was moving when he was first shot, the official on Wednesday told CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN that weapons were near bin Laden, who died on an upper floor of the compound toward the end of the nearly 40-minute raid. "He was right there and going to get those arms. You really can't take a chance."
The official who had seen the report -- and other sources -- provided new details on the nighttime operation and bin Laden's gruesome wounds, which were photographed.

 

 President Barack Obama, not wanting to inflame passions or appear to gloat, decided not to release a photo of bin Laden's corpse, the White House said Wednesday.

"There's a long history of images like that being used to rally opinion against people, to turn people into heroes," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
A senior Democratic official close to the White House told CNN that Obama was "never in favor" of releasing a photo.
The photo decision -- following intense debate within the administration and by the public -- came as the United States continued pressing the Pakistani government on how it could not have known the al Qaeda leader was living near a military academy in Abbottabad when he was killed by U.S. special forces early Monday.
The SEAL team is back on American soil, a senior U.S. official today CNN Wednesday night.
Investigators, meanwhile, continued poring over materials gathered at bin Laden's hideout.
The haul includes 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices, such as disks, DVDs and thumb drives, a senior U.S. official told CNN. The materials might provide clues on al Qaeda members and potential plots for future attacks.
The commandos also recovered five cell phones, audio and video equipment, "lots" of paper documents and some five guns, including AK-47s and pistols, a U.S. official told CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.
The objects were "hiding in plain sight," according to the official, who described the material as a treasure trove of information.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said of evidence taken from the residence, "As we glean information from that material, we will make appropriate decisions with regard to who might we add to the terrorist watch list, the no-fly list, all those things."
A U.S. official told CNN in the afternoon that no names have been added to the watch list.
It appeared bin Laden had contingency plans while he stayed at the fenced compound.
Bin Laden had 500 euros (about $745) in cash and two telephone numbers sewn into his clothing when he was killed, a congressional source present at a classified briefing on the operation Tuesday told CNN Wednesday.
Photos taken shortly after the raid show three men lying dead in pools of blood and the wreckage of a U.S. helicopter abandoned during the assault.

 

One of the dead men bears a family resemblance to bin Laden, but there was no confirmation of his identity. The al Qaeda leader's adult son was among those killed in Monday's attack by U.S. commandos, according to American officials.

The pictures were published Wednesday by Reuters. The news agency says they were taken by a Pakistani security official about an hour after U.S. forces left bin Laden's compound and that it is confident of the authenticity of the purchased images. The commandos took bin Laden's body with them, U.S. officials have said.
CIA Director Leon Panetta and Carney on Tuesday said the commandos fought their way up to the third floor of the compound, moving room to room. Bin Laden and his family lived on the second and third floors, Carney said.
The U.S. official who described bin Laden's last moments said the al Qaeda leader was "moving" at the time he was initially shot. The official declined to describe those movements.
Previously, another U.S. official said bin Laden was shot when he made a threatening move. When asked if bin Laden tried to grab a weapon or physically attack a commando, the official would only say, "He didn't hold up his hands and surrender."
The first shot hit bin Laden in the chest and the second struck him in the forehead just above the left eye, the official told CNN.
A photo shows a gunshot wound to the head above the left eye, with the skull partially blown away, according to two sources who have seen a photograph of bin Laden's body.
SEAL teams are trained, if at all possible, to take the first "hit to kill" shot by aiming dead center between the eyes, and then with a chest shot, according to a military officer familiar with their tactics and techniques.
If Bin Laden was moving, that first shot might not have been possible. The shots occurred so rapidly they were nearly simultaneous.
One of bin Laden's daughters has told Pakistani interrogators that she saw her father shot, a senior Pakistani intelligence source said Wednesday. The daughter, believed to be 12 or 13 years old, was among those left behind at the compound after Monday's U.S. raid, the source said.
U.S. officials said bin Laden's wife was in the room with him and rushed at U.S. special operations forces, who then shot her in the leg.
The Pakistani intelligence source told CNN Wednesday that four men at the compound were killed in addition to bin Laden: bin Laden's son, two men who were brothers, and an unknown man. That conflicts with information provided by the White House, which said Tuesday that three men and one woman were killed in the operation, in addition to bin Laden.
Because bin Laden was killed and buried at sea, the administration has been under some pressure to release a photo proving he was dead.
The president noted that few credible people have questioned the death and that conspiracy theorists would not be satisfied with a photo, the senior Democratic official said. That position was supported by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic official said.
"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," Carney quoted Obama as saying in an interview earlier Wednesday with the CBS News program "60 Minutes."
"This is somebody who was deserving of the justice he received," Obama said in the interview. "But we don't need to spike the football."
Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-South Carolina, called Obama's decision a "mistake."
"I know bin Laden is dead. But the best way to protect and defend our interests overseas is to prove that fact to the rest of the world," he said in a written statement.
Questions are mounting, meanwhile, about why Pakistan failed to locate or bring bin Laden to justice.
According to two sources at a briefing Tuesday, Panetta told lawmakers that Pakistani officials either "were involved or incompetent. Neither place is a good place to be."
The United States is asking Pakistan for information on who built and owned the compound where bin Laden lived, two senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Pakistani government officials have insisted that they did not know bin Laden's whereabouts.
"What worse statement can come than that we heard from Panetta?" a senior Pakistani intelligence official said. "I am afraid this statement is totally regrettable. (Panetta) of all people knows how much we have been doing."
The official, who did not want to be named, said his country had been generously sharing intelligence with its American counterparts.
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, said his government will conduct an inquiry to find out how bin Laden managed to maintain residency there.
The government was not complicit with bin Laden because having him there was harmful, Haqqani told PBS' Charlie Rose. Any official who was aware of the fugitive's presence and failed to act will be held accountable, he added.
Obama, meanwhile, planned a visit Thursday to New York's ground zero where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. The towers fell in September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda hijackers flew commercial planes into them.

Obama will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony and will meet with families of victims and first responders, but will not make remarks, White House spokesman Carney said. He characterized the event as "bittersweet."

My Take: Bin Laden died long ago

Editor's Note: The Rev. David Lewicki is co-pastor of North Decatur Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia. He is a graduate of Yale University and Union Theological Seminary and was ordained in 2005 by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

By the Rev. David Lewicki, Special to CNN
On Sunday night I watched the news as it crescendoed around the president’s speech declaring the death of Osama bin Laden. The talking heads worked capably with what few details they had. On the split screen, familiar spliced video footage replayed what little most of us know — or care to know — about bin Laden: wearing a turban, sitting drinking tea, a long salt and pepper beard, speaking to friends, crouching holding a machine gun, skyscrapers smoking.
Twitter gave a way to take the public temperature. Some passed information without editorial: “Bin Laden is dead!” Others tried to score political points: “took O 2 years to do what B couldn’t do in 7,” or “THAT’S a ‘mission accomplished.’” Reports said impromptu crowds gathered in front of the White House and at Ground Zero exuberantly chanting “USA! USA!,” singing our anthem. Others retorted that they would not celebrate any person’s death, no matter who it was. Still others retrieved unsettling data about what it has cost us to find and kill bin Laden, in dollars and human lives.
Finally, from those with an intimate connection to the innocents of 9/11, there were tweets about tears. Tears of relief? Tears because the news dragged them back to the still-tender memories of a decade ago? Yes and yes. I was a first-year theology student in New York City on that day in 2001; I know the tears.
All of these responses are authentic for a Christian who lives in America. Bin Laden has had more influence in the last decade over the way we live our lives than any other person. He was a wedge in our politics, he disrupted our ability to come and go freely; he triggered a vast global security and surveillance apparatus. He was directly or indirectly the focus of two wars that affected the material well-being and peace of mind of millions here and across the world.
He desecrated Islam and radicalized Christianity, making some Christians more enthusiastic about military action than they might have been otherwise, while making others more enthusiastic about trying to find peaceful solutions to global problems.
He robbed people of mothers and fathers, took away their children. He made a whole nation feel vulnerable and fearful of unpredictable catastrophic violence.
One thing we might do well today is give permission to each other to feel all of the things that we might be feeling. There is no one manner by which to respond to this man’s death, because his life impacted all of us, sometimes in radically divergent ways.
Beyond our feelings, Christians might also spend time considering our Lord’s call to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. This is not easy. If we call ourselves Americans as well as Christians, we may feel a strong civic sense that what our government did in our name was the embodiment of public justice.
But our political identity and our identity as followers of Jesus are rarely reconcilable. Jesus did not meet enemies with violence. He asserted that the way to loose ourselves of our enemies was, counter-intuitively, by loving them and forgiving them — by wanting God’s best for them and believing in the Holy Spirit’s power to convert any person to faithful obedience. Jesus implied that if the Spirit does not convert them to goodness in this life, any judgment of their deeds is to be left in the hands of their creator — God alone. Our job is to never cease praying that they receive God’s blessing.
I have been praying for Osama bin Laden for 10 years. I was not surprised by news of his death. As I asked myself why, I suspect it is because, in my eyes, bin Laden died long ago. He died to goodness; he died to mercy; he died to peace. He died to the things that God cares most about. He was alive until this week — but he died to life a long time ago.
I have wondered over the years what God tried to do to win him back to love. I wonder about the confounding ability of human beings to resist the love of God. I wonder about these things for Osama bin Laden and I wonder about same things with respect to my own life. Today, as I have many days before, I pray for my enemy — I pray him into the hands of the God of justice and of mercy.

Many questions, few answers on how much Pakistan knew about bin Laden

(CNN) -- What did Pakistan know?

That question is high on the minds of many, after a small team of American forces stealthily flew into the town of Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden -- all without telling Pakistani authorities, at least until U.S. forces had left the country with the al Qaeda leader's body.
According to U.S. officials, the United States decided not to trust Pakistan in advance with sensitive information on bin Laden's whereabouts. What remains unclear is what Pakistani authorities knew about his presence down the street from a major military installation and just 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital of Islamabad.
A Pakistani intelligence official said Monday that information on bin Laden and the people in the compound where he stayed "slipped from" its authorities' "radar" over the months. The official claimed, while in Abbottabad, bin Laden had an "invisible footprint" and wasn't in contact with other militant networks.
Yet some in the United States have suggested that Pakistan -- like Sudan and Afghanistan before -- may have harbored bin Laden, believing that someone in power there knew where he was and seemingly did nothing about it.
"I think it's inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time," White House counterterrorism adviser Tom Brennan said Monday. "But I am not going to speculate about what type of support he might have had on an official basis inside of Pakistan."

 

 Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services committee, told reporters it is "almost impossible to conceive" that Pakistani army and intelligence officials didn't have suspicions or inside knowledge about who was in the million-dollar, fortified compound.

Some in Congress argued that the United States should reconsider the billions of dollars in aid it sends to Pakistan until it gets answers from Islamabad.
"Before we send another dime, we need to know whether Pakistan truly stands with us in the fight against terrorism," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Homeland Security. "Until Congress and the American public are assured that the Pakistani government is not shielding terrorists, financial aid to Pakistan should be suspended."
What is known is that bin Laden was not found in a mountain cave in Afghanistan, or in one of the remote villages in Pakistan that are hotbeds for his supporters. Instead, he was found in a mansion in an affluent area not far from Pakistan's capital, but far from where many of his supporters have been fighting U.S. and allied forces.
Intelligence analysts concluded the compound was "custom-built to hide someone of significance." Barbed wire topped 12- to 18-foot walls that surrounded the complex, its residents burned their trash rather than having it collected, the three-story main structure had few outside facing windows, and there was no telephone or Internet service. Moreover, it had a known al Qaeda connection, having been the family home of one of bin Laden's couriers.
"Did nobody else notice this?," said Colin Powell, a former four-star general, U.S. Secretary of State and national security advisor, on CNN. "I don't know how it could go unnoticed."
Bob Baer, a former CIA operative, said the power, reach and nature of Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus makes Islamabad's official lack of knowledge or, at least, lack of action suspicious. He told CNN "it's impossible" Pakistani authorities didn't know bin Laden was there, considering the location and how they operate.

 

"If you're a foreigner, you get a knock on the door. And this is right next to a military garrison," said Baer, referring to the Pakistani military presence and a prestigious military academy in Abbottabad. "They had to check it out."
Officials in President Barack Obama's administration did not state explicitly that people high in Pakistan's government knew bin Laden was there all along.
A senior U.S. defense department official told reporters Monday afternoon, "We have no indications that the Pakistanis were aware that Osama bin Laden was at the compound in Abbottabad."
Brennan did not go that far. He credited Pakistani authorities for capturing and killing territories and sacrificing lives in this fight. But he acknowledged that it is very fair to challenge Islamabad about what it knew and did not know.

"Certainly his location outside of the capital raises the question," said Brennan. "We are talking to the Pakistanis about this. But they, at least in our discussions, seem as surprised as we were initially that bin Laden was holding out in that area."

Reflection

Class discussion was good but i think immigration is not going anywhere because i don't see anyone making a difference about it. It's just going to be another tomorrow. If someone takes action of this issue then the people, the society, and our country is going to be better and with less issues. If someone would step up without fear and have that strong bravery of saying "you know what we need an end of this now and take action of living a better life."Their is going to be that person soon and make a difference but what my question is, IS THAT PERSON EVER GOING TO EXIST? who knows maybe maybe not. Class discussion was good everyone was talking and where out spoken and we all brought out our points of view. I'm looking forward for the next class discussion.