‘CIA ran espionage post in Pakistan’
The secret post run by the CIA was used for the supremely delicate task of gathering information about the occupants and daily activities at the fortified compound where al-Qaeda chief was reportedly found and killed by the US Navy SEAL commandos this week, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing unnamed US officials.
The secret CIA facility was just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital Islamabad and since August last year saw a small team of spies involved in gathering intelligence through satellite imagery and eavesdropping.
The reports went on to say, however, that the CIA post did not play a role in the attack that killed bin Laden and has since been closed down, because of concerns about the safety of CIA assets in the wake of the raid.
According to the report, the on-the-ground surveillance work was so extensive and costly that the CIA went to Congress in December to secure authority to reallocate tens of millions of dollars within assorted agency budgets to fund it.
On late Sunday, US President Barack Obama claimed that Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces on May 1 in a hiding compound in Pakistan, resisting while unarmed. He added that the military mission was conducted without the knowledge of Pakistani authorities due to US mistrust of their purported South Asia ally.
Former officials with Pakistan’s military and intelligence service say the US wrongfully claims it has killed bin Laden in Pakistan as part of a scheme to invade the country for harboring the terrorist leader.
Furthermore, Obama announced in a televised interview that he decided not to publish “disturbing imaged” of bin Laden’s dead body to avert “a national security risk” and due to concerns that it might be used as a “propaganda tool.”
The US has also rejected growing arguments that the US military effort against bin Laden in Pakistan was illegal, describing the operation as “an act of national self-defense.”
HA/MGH