Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence knew Osama bin Laden's hideout

The officials of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence were aware of Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, not only this, they also provided protection and safe houses to his then deputy and now the top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to a new book.

The ISI officials periodically checked on Laden also, this sensational disclosure has been by Chuck Pfarrer, a former SEALs, in his latest book Seal Target Geronimo that hit the stands here Tuesday.

Pfarrer says his account in the book, that gives a blow by blow account of the killing of bin Laden in a surprise US raid in Abbottabad on May 2, is based on his interviews and interaction with members of the SEALs team that killed Bin Laden and the US military and Obama Administration officials.

All the sources have been kept anonymous.

Notably officials of the Obama Administration, department of defense and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have so far maintained that they haven't obtained any evidence which indicates about the ISI knowledge of the whereabouts of bin Laden or providing support infrastructure to him.

"The ISI knew exactly where he was, but did not inform the US. They continued to let Osama pace back and forth in his compound," Pfarrer wrote in his 225-page book published by New York-based St Martin's Press.

Giving an insight into the last few months of bin Laden's life, Pfarrer wrote that he became increasingly reclusive and seldom left the main building, unless it was to put on a set of golden-threaded robes and have one of his aides film him as he tried to read pronouncements to be aired on Al Jazeera or released on al Qaeda's web sites.

'Drone attacks against Pakistan unacceptable’: Pakistan Foreign Officer said

Pakistan Foreign Office has again said that drone attacks are against the sovereignty of the country, and will not be acceptable at any cost.

The Dawn quoted Foreign Office spokes person Tehmina Janjua as saying that there is no change in Pakistan’s stance on drone attacks.

Without directly pointing a finger at the United States, she said that Islamabad will never retreat to its principally adopted stand on drone attacks and that the attacks are unacceptable to Pakistan.

The United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones.

These attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism campaign, seeking to defeat Taliban and al Qaeda militants in Pakistan.

Haqqani was once a White House guest!

Even as the administration of President Barack Obama is engaged in a war of words with Pakistan over acting against the deadly Haqqani network, reports, today, claimed that its founder Jalaluddin Haqqani was once a key ally of the US government.

Reports quoted Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Mallik saying, “The network’s aging leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was a respected commander and key US and Pakistani ally in resisting the Soviet Union after its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. Haqqani even visited President Ronal Reagan at the White House.”

Mallik even claimed that in 1992, three years after the Soviet withdrawal, Haqqani and others seized power in Afghanistan with US approval. In the 1980s and 1990s, Haqqani also hosted Saudi fighters including Osama bin Laden. That hospitality is believed to have been extended to al Qaida and other foreign fighters on both sides of the border today.

After the Taliban seized power in the mid-1990s, it made Haqqani a government minister. Following the Islamist regime’s ouster he was again offered Cabinet posts – this time by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. But he decided to focus on ridding Afghanistan of Western troops.

Malik also refuted claims that Pakistan’s spy agency ISI was backing the Haqqani network and training its members. Talking to media-persons at a ceremony held to laud the Islamabad police over the recovery of a huge cache of weapons, Mallik said, “CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) of the United States actually created the Haqqani network and those claiming otherwise should give the evidence of its presence in Pakistan.”

“We will fight the terrorists as our forces are capable of handling them and countering any challenge,” the minister was quoted as saying.

Mallik also stated Pakistan’s seriousness in combating terrorism is evident from its action against militants in SWAT and other troubled areas, which shows that the law enforcement agencies were making sincere efforts to root out the menace of terrorism.

He said that the nation was confident of the capabilities of Pakistan Army, government leadership and its strength as Pakistanis.

The alliance between Pakistan and the United States in the 10-year war in Afghanistan and against al Qaeda hit rock bottom this year in the wake of the unilateral American raid that killed Osama bin Laden near Islamabad on May 2.

The US administration then asked the Pakistani government to clamp down on the Haqqani network, which is responsible for attacks on the US embassy in Kabul and on ISAF as well as some others.