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.

US met Haqqani representative at ISI insistence'

The US held a meeting with a Haqqani network representative at the insistence of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, but this was not a negotiation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told lawmakers.

"The ISI asked us to meet with a representative of the Haqqani Network. There was such a meeting. It was not a negotiation... There was no follow-up meeting," Hillary said in response to a question at a Congressional hearing on Afghanistan and Pakistan convened by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday.

"This was done in part because I think the Pakistanis hope to be able to move the Haqqani Network towards some kind of peace negotiation... And the answer was an attack on our embassy," Hillary said in response to a question from Congressman Steve Chabot.

Hillary emphasised the negotiations that would be part of any Afghan-led peace process would have to include the Quetta Shura which is still led by Mullah Omar.

"I think everyone agrees that the Haqqani Network has safe havens inside Pakistan, that those safe havens give them a place to plan and direct operations that kill Afghans and Americans," she said.

Hillary said there was a major military operation that was held in Afghanistan just in the past week that rounded up and eliminated more than a hundred Haqqani Network operatives.

“We are taking action to target the Haqqani leadership on both sides of the border. We're increasing our international efforts to squeeze them operationally and financially.”

"We are already working with the Pakistanis to target those who are behind a lot of the attacks against Afghans and Americans," she said.

"I made it very clear to the Pakistanis that the attack on our embassy was an outrage, and the attack on our forward operating base that injured 77 of our soldiers was a similar outrage.”

"And it was in both instances terrible, but the fact is we avoided having dozens and dozens of wounded or killed," she said.

In her remarks, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, questioned the Obama Administration's decision to both hold talks and go for crackdown on the Haqqani network.

"On the one hand, the US is negotiating with the Haqqani network, and yet on the other, we're attempting to destroy the network.”

"There have been some unwelcome developments since the President's announcement four months ago such as the multiple, high profile assassination of major leaders in Afghanistan," she said.

Obama blasts Pakistan over terror links

US President Barack Obama on Thursday voiced concern over Pakistan's military and intelligence links with extremists, observing the US finds this "troubling."

Obama also said that Pakistan should realize that a peaceful approach towards India would be in "everybody's interests."

Without naming the Haqqani network with whom Pakistan's spy agency ISI is suspected to be having links, Obama described the extremists as "unsavoury characters".

"And there is no doubt that there's some connections the Pakistani military and intelligence services have with certain individuals that we find troubling," he told a White House news conference.

Obama said Pakistan saw its "security interest threatened by an independent Afghanistan, in part because they think it will ally itself to India and Pakistan still considers India their mortal enemy."

"Part of what we want to do is actually get Pakistan to realize that a peaceful.

About the connections that the Pakistani military and intelligence services have with "certain individuals", Obama said he had mentioned this publicly and said it privately to Pakistani officials as well."

"I think they have hedged their bets in terms of what Afghanistan would look like and part of hedging their bets is having interactions with some of the unsavory characters who they think might end up regaining power in Afghanistan after coalition forces have left," he said.

Obama remained non-committal on the question of consequences that Pakistan might face with regard to ISI having links with Haqqani network.

"We will constantly evaluate our relationship with Pakistan based on is overall this helping to protect Americans and our interests," he said.

The President said the US has tried to persuade Islamabad that it is in their interest to have a stable Pakistan.

"What we've tried to persuade Pakistan of is that it is in their interest to have a stable Afghanistan, that they should not be feeling threatened by a stable, independent Afghanistan," he added.

Obama's remarks on Pakistan's links with extremists came in response to a question about the recent statement by Admiral Mike Mullen as the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, in which he said the Haqqani network is a veritable arm of the ISI.

Elaborating on his remarks that it was in Pakistan's interest to have a stable Afghanistan, Obama said," We've tried to get conversations between Afghans and Pakistanis going more effectively than they have been in the past."

He highlighted some of the pressing problems that Pakistan is facing such as poverty, illiteracy, a lack of development and weak civil institutions.

"...one of the biggest problems we have in Pakistan right now is poverty, illiteracy, a lack of development, you know, civil institutions that aren't strong enough to deliver for the Pakistani people," he said.

"And in that environment you've seen extremism grow, you've seen militancy grow, that doesn't just threaten our efforts in Afghanistan but also threatens the Pakistani government and the Pakistan people, as well. So trying to get that reorientation is something that we're continuing to work on. It's not easy," he added.

"We have a great desire to help the Pakistani people strengthen their own society and their own government. And so, you know, I'd be hesitate to punish, you know, aid for flood victims in Pakistan because of poor decisions by their intelligence services," Obama said.

"But there's no doubt that, you know, we're not going to feel comfortable with a long-term strategic relationship with Pakistan if we don't think that they're mindful of our interests as well," he said.

The US president said the his number one goal is to make sure that terror outfit Al Qaida cannot attack the US homeland and cannot affect US interests around the world.

"We have done an outstanding job, I think, in going after, directly, Al Qaida in this border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

We could not have been as successful as we have been without the cooperation of the Pakistan government. And so on a whole range of issues they have been an effective partner with us," he said.

Obama further said, "What is also true is that our goal of being able to transition out of Afghanistan and leave a stable government behind, one that is independent, one that is respectful of human rights, one that is democratic.

Pakistan, I think, has been more ambivalent about some of our goals there."

'US discovery of ISI-terror links not surprising’

India Friday said it was not surprised that the US has now discovered Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI's links with terror outfits including the Haqqani group, saying this was always known.

"We are not surprised that US lately discovered ISI's link with a number of other terrorist groups. We always know that ISI has links with terrorist groups," Chidambaram said on the latest US assessment that the ISI had links with Haqqani network in Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

The relations between US and Pakistan has come under strain recently after the US military and the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) said that Haqqani network is closely linked to and sometimes acts as an agent for Pakistan's ISI.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly accused the ISI of colluding with the Haqqani network in the September 13 attack on the American Embassy in Kabul.

On underworld don Dawood Ibrahim wanted in India, Chidambaram said there was very little that this country can do to counter Pakistan's denial about presence of the global terrorist there.

Chidambaram was replying to a question from a reporter who said that Anees Ibrahim, brother of Dawood, mastermind of 1993 Mumbai serial blast, had called some television channels claiming that his nephew was married recently.

"This is not new either. I think we know more than what Dawood Ibrahim's brother told you. We know where he is but surely no one is allowing, no one will allow me to go to the place and point out his house," Chidambaram said after his monthly briefing about performance of his ministry for the month of September.

He said the matter had been raised with Pakistan many a time. "We have raised it with Pakistan. I have raised it with my counterparts. They are in a flat denial. They deny that Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan.

"What is there we can do from India except some day or the other that it will be exposed as a lie," he said.

55-year-old Dawood escaped from India immediately after the 1993 blasts. India has secured an Interpol Red Corner warrant against him. According to the US, Dawood maintained close links with al-Qaeda and as a consequence, he was declared a "global terrorist" in 2003.

'Pakistan reporter was not supposed to be killed'

Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad was probably killed by his country's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, but the initial order was to rough him up and give him a scare, says an article in The New Yorker magazine.

But sometime before Shahzad disappeared on May 29, the order changed from kidnap and hurt to kill, wrote Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Dexter Filkins, citing an unnamed American official.

Shahzad disappeared in Islamabad May 29. His body was recovered two days later in the remote rural area of Mandi Bahauddin, 150 km southwest of the capital. The body bore signs of torture.

The ISI has denied any involvement in Shahzad's abduction and murder.

The incident occurred just days after Shahzad published an article in Asia Times Online alleging links between al Qaeda and officials in the Pakistani Navy.

One article said al Qaeda, not the Taliban, attacked the Mehran base in Karachi as punishment for the military's crackdown on al Qaeda affiliates within the Navy.

The New Yorker article said Shahzad seemed to have contact with al Qaeda's chief of global military operations Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, who he said was responsible for the Mehran attack.

Previously Shahzad got a major scoop by reporting that Kashmiri was actually not killed in a 2009 drone attack, as reported by US intelligence sources.

When Kashmiri actually was killed by a drone days after Shahzad's murder, it raised suspicion that Shahzad caved in under torture and revealed the militant's location to his interrogators, the article said.

Shahzad's trouble with the ISI started in March after he published an article that said Osama bin Laden was on the move.

The article said Shahzad got a phone call from an ISI officer, "summoning him to the agency's headquarters in Aabpara, a neighbourhood in eastern Islamabad. When Shahzad showed up, he was met by three ISI officers. The lead man, he said, was a naval officer, Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir, who serves as the head of the ISI's media division".

The ISI officials asked him to retract the story and Shahzad refused.

According to Shahzad's account, Nazir said: "We want the world to believe that Osama is dead."

The reporter told Filkins the ISI was "obviously trying to protect bin Laden".

A book written by Shahzad was to be published that explored the links between al Qaeda, the Taliban and the ISI. The journalist thought this would further anger the intelligence agency.

Filkins wrote there were probably other reasons the ISI may have wanted Shahzad dead. He may have been a suspected foreign agent.

Shahzad had met Filkins nine days before he disappeared, at an Islamabad coffee shop near the reporter's home.

India conveyed to the US, Have to 'fight the scourge together for Terrorism'

India has conveyed to the US that countries with a "determined position to fight terror" cannot be selective in their approach in dealing with the menace and have to fight the scourge together "across the board".

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna discussed the issue of terror with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a bilateral meeting that lasted here for over 40 minutes.

Terming the meeting as "very good and constructive," Krishna later told reporters that the two sides spent time on discussing the issue of terrorism and condemned the recent attacks on the American mission in Kabul and at the High Court in New Delhi.

"I made out the point that it is necessary for all those countries which have taken the determined position to fight terror will have to act together and fight it across the board without being selective in our approach," he said adding that "Secretary Clinton agreed with us."

The talks also featured concerns over the Haqqani network with the External Affairs Minister pointing out that "whenever terror comes up for discussion, the Haqqani group is certainly a factor which is woven into terrorism."

On whether America's recent accusation against ISI for supporting the deadly Haqqani network has brought a sense of unity between India and the US on Pakistan, Krishna said "it is not a question of America agreeing with India and India agreeing with Pakistan."

He said the countries have to see what is "our approach, reaction, response to terror.

"If the position US takes on terror is exactly similar to the position India takes that does not mean to say that they have been converted to our position or we have taken position similar to them."

The two sides also followed up on the civil nuclear treaty and discussed what needs to be done further.

Clinton urged Krishna to ensure that India's nuclear liability regime conforms with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear damage, an American official said requesting anonymity.

Krishna and Clinton discussed a host of multilateral issues including the situation in Palestine, Sudan and Syria.

When asked to comment on the divergent views that India and the US have on Syria and Palestine, Krishna said as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said in his address to the UN General Assembly, "We cannot order how nations set their house in order."

On concerns that momentum of the India-US relations appear to be slowing down, with certain defence contracts not being awarded to US companies, Krishna said this is not an issue by which US would be offended.

He said defence contracts are awarded on basis of merit and are a comparative tabulated evaluation done by a committee of experts. "I do not think anybody can take offence if we chose something else. US has been into this long enough not to misjudge the relationship based only on a particular issue. We will have to take the generality," he added.

Krishna said he was "quite satisfied" with the outcome of his talks.

Clinton complimented India on its active participation in the New Silk Road initiative to strengthen transit and trade in South and Central Asia.

"The ministers compared notes on the upcoming New Silk Road conference in Istanbul in early November," the official said.