INTERNATIONAL - THE NEWS
Updated at 20:19 PST Wednesday, May 04, 2011
ISLAMABAD: An officer of Pakistan’s intelligence agency has said that the presence of Osama bin Laden (OBL) in a compound in Abbottabad and ISI’s lack of knowledge on this is embarrassing, Geo News reported.
Talking to media men here, an ISI official said a 12-year daughter of OBL is under custody of Pakistani government. She saw US troops shoot her father to death, he said.
He said there were 17 or 18 people present in compound at the time of US raid.
He said, “But that a US chopper crashed amid operation, so US marine commandos would have taken all people back to America.”
Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, has said it is embarrassed by its failures on al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
An ISI official told the BBC the compound in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed by US forces on Sunday had been raided several years ago.
But the compound "was not on our radar" since then, the official said.
The government of Pakistan has categorically denied any knowledge of the raid before it took place.
No base within Pakistan was used by US forces, the ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.
It went on: "US helicopters entered Pakistani airspace making use of blind spots in the radar coverage due to hilly terrain."
However, the ministry defended the ISI, saying: "As far as the target compound is concerned, ISI had been sharing information with CIA and other friendly intelligence agencies since 2009."
The ISI official gave new details of the raid, saying Bin Laden's young daughter had said she saw her father shot.
He told the BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones in Islamabad that the compound in Abbottabad, just 100km (62 miles) from the capital, was raided when under construction in 2003.
It was believed an al-Qaeda operative, Abu Faraj al-Libi, was there.
But since then, "the compound was not on our radar, it is an embarrassment for the ISI", the official said. "We're good, but we're not God."
He added: "This one failure should not make us look totally incompetent. Look at our track record. For the last 10 years, we have captured Taliban and al-Qaeda in their hundreds - more than any other countries put together."
The ISI official also gave new or differing accounts of some of the events of Sunday's raid. They included:
There were 17-18 people in the compound at the time of the attack.
The Americans took away one person still alive, possibly a Bin Laden son.
Those who survived the attack included a wife, a daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently Bin Laden's; all had their hands tied by the Americans.
The surviving Yemeni wife said they had moved to the compound a few months ago Bin Laden's daughter, aged 12 or 13, saw her father shot.
The official said it was thought the Americans wanted to take away the surviving women and children but had to abandon the plan when one of the helicopters malfunctioned.
The helicopter was destroyed by the Special Forces unit.
The US has not commented on anyone it captured or had planned to capture, other than saying it had taken Bin Laden's body.
The ISI official said the organisation had recovered some documents from the compound.
The CIA is already said to be going through a large number of hard drives and storage devices seized in the raid. (AGENCIES)
Talking to media men here, an ISI official said a 12-year daughter of OBL is under custody of Pakistani government. She saw US troops shoot her father to death, he said.
He said there were 17 or 18 people present in compound at the time of US raid.
He said, “But that a US chopper crashed amid operation, so US marine commandos would have taken all people back to America.”
Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, has said it is embarrassed by its failures on al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
An ISI official told the BBC the compound in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed by US forces on Sunday had been raided several years ago.
But the compound "was not on our radar" since then, the official said.
The government of Pakistan has categorically denied any knowledge of the raid before it took place.
No base within Pakistan was used by US forces, the ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.
It went on: "US helicopters entered Pakistani airspace making use of blind spots in the radar coverage due to hilly terrain."
However, the ministry defended the ISI, saying: "As far as the target compound is concerned, ISI had been sharing information with CIA and other friendly intelligence agencies since 2009."
The ISI official gave new details of the raid, saying Bin Laden's young daughter had said she saw her father shot.
He told the BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones in Islamabad that the compound in Abbottabad, just 100km (62 miles) from the capital, was raided when under construction in 2003.
It was believed an al-Qaeda operative, Abu Faraj al-Libi, was there.
But since then, "the compound was not on our radar, it is an embarrassment for the ISI", the official said. "We're good, but we're not God."
He added: "This one failure should not make us look totally incompetent. Look at our track record. For the last 10 years, we have captured Taliban and al-Qaeda in their hundreds - more than any other countries put together."
The ISI official also gave new or differing accounts of some of the events of Sunday's raid. They included:
There were 17-18 people in the compound at the time of the attack.
The Americans took away one person still alive, possibly a Bin Laden son.
Those who survived the attack included a wife, a daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently Bin Laden's; all had their hands tied by the Americans.
The surviving Yemeni wife said they had moved to the compound a few months ago Bin Laden's daughter, aged 12 or 13, saw her father shot.
The official said it was thought the Americans wanted to take away the surviving women and children but had to abandon the plan when one of the helicopters malfunctioned.
The helicopter was destroyed by the Special Forces unit.
The US has not commented on anyone it captured or had planned to capture, other than saying it had taken Bin Laden's body.
The ISI official said the organisation had recovered some documents from the compound.
The CIA is already said to be going through a large number of hard drives and storage devices seized in the raid. (AGENCIES)
