Pakistan was alleged to have provided support for Osama bin Laden. These claims have been made both before and after Osama was found living in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and was killed by a team of United States Navy SEALs on 2 May 2011. The compound itself was located just half a mile from Pakistan's premier military training academy Kakul Military Academy (PMA) in Abbottabad.[1] In the aftermath of bin Laden's death, American president Barack Obama asked Pakistan to investigate the network that sustained bin Laden.[2] "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan", Obama said in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS News. He also added that the United States was not sure "who or what that support network was."[2][3] In addition to this, in an interview with Time magazine, CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that US-officials did not alert Pakistani counterparts to the raid because they feared the terrorist leader would be warned. However, the documents recovered from bin Laden's compound 'contained nothing to support the idea that bin Laden was protected or supported by the Pakistani officials'. Instead, the documents contained criticism of Pakistani military and future plans for attack against the Pakistani military installations.[4]
Based on an investigative report by the New York Times, Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, was aware of bin Laden's whereabouts and chose not to share this information with the United States.[5] According to Fred Burton, vice-president of the global intelligence firm Stratfor, officials of ISI, Pakistani military, along with one retired Pakistani military general, had knowledge of the arrangements made for bin Laden and the safe house. Bin Laden's compound was razed that day at his Abbottabad safe house.[6]
David Ignatius in The Washington Post referred to the claim of the former ISI chief General Ziauddin Butt that the Abbottabad compound was used by the Intelligence Bureau and noted that a report in the Pakistani press in December had quoted him as saying that Osama's stay at Abbottabad was arranged by Brigadier (retired) Ijaz Shah, senior ISI officer and the head of the Intelligence Bureau during 2004–2008, on Pervez Musharraf's orders.[7] Later Butt denied making any such statement.[8][9]
The allegations have led to tension between the two countries and raised questions about Pakistan's role in the war on terror.[5]
Allegations
It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets.
Critics cited the very close proximity (800 yards) of bin Laden's heavily fortified compound (a custom-built luxury complex) to the Pakistan's National Military Academy (PMA), Pakistan's "West Point",[6] and that the United States chose not to notify Pakistani authorities before the operation, and the alleged double standards of Pakistan regarding the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Alleged US-government files leaked by WikiLeaks disclosed that American diplomats were told that Pakistani security services were tipping off bin Laden every time US-forces approached. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) also helped smuggle al Qaeda militants into Afghanistan to fight NATO troops. According to the leaked files, in December 2009, the government of Tajikistan had told US-officials that many in Pakistan were aware of bin Laden's whereabouts.
Obviously the concern has always been how could a compound like this, how could bin Laden be in an area where there were military establishments, where we could see the military operating and not have them know.[11]
Regarding the US decision to withhold intelligence about the raid from Pakistan, he said,
The concern we had is that...we had provided intelligence to them with regards to other areas and unfortunately, for one way or another, it got leaked to the individuals we were trying to go after, so as a result of that we were concerned that if we were going to perform a sensitive mission like this, we had to do it on our own.[12]
Talking about the support network Panetta stated that some "lower rank" officers in the military knew where Bin Laden was hiding. The defense secretary said,
Well, you know, these situations sometimes, the leadership within Pakistan [sic] is obviously not aware of certain things and yet people lower down in the military establishment find it very well, they've been aware of it, ...But bottom line is that we have not had evidence that provides that direct link.[11]
It is inconceivable that bin Laden did not have support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for extended period of time,
Husain Haqqani the former-Pakistan Ambassador to the United States, who earlier said both countries "cooperated in making sure" that the operation leading to bin Laden's death was "successful",[14] has admitted that Osama bin laden indeed had a support system in Pakistan, albeit without the Pakistani government being privy to this fact.
Obviously, bin Laden did have a support system (in Pakistan). The issue was that support system within the government and the state of Pakistan or within the society of Pakistan, ...We all know that there are people in Pakistan who share the same belief system as bin Laden and other extremists... So that is a fact, that there are people who probably protected him... We did not know. We had no knowledge [about Bin Laden]. And if we had knowledge, we would have acted upon it long ago" —Mr. Haqqani said in an interview.[15]
A Pakistani official, speaking anonymously, said "We assisted only in terms of authorization of the helicopter flights in our airspace" and that "we did not want anything to do with such an operation in case something went wrong."[14][16]
US Senator Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said "This is going to be a time of real pressure on Pakistan to basically prove to us that they didn't know that bin Laden was there". John O. Brennan, Obama's chief counterterrorism advisor, said that it was inconceivable that bin Laden did not have support from within Pakistan. He further stated: "People have been referring to this as hiding in plain sight. We are looking at how he was able to hide out there for so long." Senator Dianne Feinstein said that "it's hard for me to understand how the Pakistanis ... would not know what was going on inside the compound", and that top Pakistan officials may be "walking both sides of the street." Senator Lindsey Graham questioned, "How could [bin Laden] be in such a compound without being noticed?", raising suspicions that Pakistan was either uncommitted in the fight against Islamist militants or was actively sheltering them while pledging to fight them. A Pakistani intelligence official said that they had passed on raw phone tap data to the United States that led to the operation, but had failed to analyze this data themselves. Carl Levin who is chairman United States Senate Committee on Armed Services stated that he believes Pakistani officials knew the location of bin Laden and had "no doubt" they also know the location of other senior al-Qaeda operatives.[17] He said Pakistan's intelligence and army have "got a lot of explaining to do," given that bin Laden was holed up in such a large house with surrounding buildings, the fact that its residents took the unusual step of burning their garbage and avoiding any trash collection.[18] He further stated, "It's hard to imagine that the military or police did not have any ideas what was going on inside of that."[18] After the raid, the US asked that Pakistan identify its top intelligence operatives as it tried to establish if any of them had contact with bin Laden in the last few years.[19]
Bin Laden was the "Golden Goose" that the army had kept under its watch but which, to its chagrin, has now been stolen from under its nose. Until then, the thinking had been to trade in the Goose at the right time for the right price, either in the form of dollars or political concessions
Mosharraf Zaidi, a leading Pakistani columnist, stated, "It seems deeply improbable that bin Laden could have been where he was killed without the knowledge of some parts of the Pakistani state."[21]
WikiLeaks had revealed that a US diplomatic dispatch told the Americans that "many" inside Pakistan knew where bin Laden was. The document stated that "In Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden wasn't an invisible man, and many knew his whereabouts in North Waziristan, but whenever security forces attempted a raid on his hideouts, the enemy received warning of their approach from sources in the security forces."[22]
Indian Minister for Home AffairsP. Chidambaram said that bin Laden hiding "deep inside" Pakistan was a matter of grave concern for India, and showed that "many of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and the handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan". He called on Pakistan to arrest them.[23]
The Globe and Mail reported local police saying that the compound belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant group supported by ISI which is fighting Indian forces in Kashmir.[24]
In October 2011, former Pakistani Army Chief, General Ziauddin Butt has asserted that Osama bin Laden was kept in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad by the then Director-General of the Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan (2004–2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah. According to him, this had occurred with the "full knowledge" of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly that of current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.[25] However the reporter who interviewed him, Riedel, noted that Butt had “a motive to speak harshly about Musharraf”. Ziauddin Butt would later deny making these claims about Musharraf and Shah.[26]
In December 2017, former USA President Barack Obama said: "We had no evidence that Pakistani government was aware of Osama bin Laden's presence there but that is something obviously we looked at."[27]
In a 2005 interview, the then-president Musharraf emphatically denied bin Laden was in Pakistan, stating "One thing is very sure, let me assure you, that we are not going to hide him for a rainy day and then release him to take advantage."[28]
Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari denied that his country's security forces may have sheltered Osama bin Laden,[29][30] and called any supposed support for bin Laden by the Pakistani government "baseless speculation." The Pakistani foreign office issued a statement that "categorically denies" media reports that Pakistan's leadership, "civil as well as military, had any prior knowledge of the US operation against Osama bin Laden."[31]
Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf denied that officials in his country were responsible, calling bin Laden's presence in Pakistan a "blunder". Musharraf said instead that there was a possibility that rogue lower-level members of Pakistan's intelligence and military may have had knowledge of bin Laden's location. He conceded they might have known during the last year of his presidency six years ago, and said there ought to be an investigation.
"It's really appalling that he was there and nobody knew. I'm certainly appalled that I didn't know and that intelligence people from that time onward didn't know for 6 years that he was inside. And there is no excuse for this great, massive slip-up. And an investigation is in order and people must be punished for this big lapse." "As a policy, the army and the ISI fighting terrorism and extremism, al Qaeda, Taliban. But rogue element within is a possibility," he said.[32]
Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan's powerful Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), conceded that Osama bin Laden's presence in Pakistan had been an "intelligence failure" but denied his ISI could have had any role in hiding Bin Laden. "If we had shielded Osama bin Laden, why would we have killed and arrested so many al-Qaeda leaders?" he stated "Would we have hidden such a large target in such an exposed area? Without any guards or escape route?"[33]
Follow-up by Pakistani authorities
According to a BBC observer, Regardless of Pakistan's claims about their previous conduct, many outside observers have raised ongoing concerns that most of the people jailed by them since Bin Laden's killing have been those who were trying to help capture him, rather than those who helped shield him.[34][35]
One such incident would be when doctor Shakil Afridi who assisted the CIA in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, was arrested several weeks after the killing of bin Laden. A Pakistani court imposed a 33-year sentence on the doctor. The doctor was eventually tried under a tribal judicial system that denies the accused the right to have an attorney or to present evidence. According to The Washington Post, the Doctor could have received the death penalty if he had been tried under normal Pakistani law.[34]Pakistan felt that the covert US operation was a violation of its sovereignty and Dr Afridi was accused of being treasonous for this reason.[36]
″It is now indisputable that militancy in Pakistan is supported by the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). Pakistan's fight against militancy is bogus. It's just to extract money from America,″ Dr Shakil Afridi stated in an interview with Fox News. He was interviewed from inside Peshawar Central Jail, where he is being held by Pakistani authorities. According to his statements, the Pakistani authorities said, 'The Americans are our worst enemies, worse than the Indians,' and he suffered ′crippling torture′ and ′psychological abuse′ during the 12 months he was held by Pakistani spy agency for helping the US.[37]
A judge-led inquiry set up by Pakistani government in 2011, based on interviews with 201 sources found there was evidence of incompetence at every level in the Pakistan's intelligence and security services and it did not rule out the involvement of rogue elements within the Pakistani intelligence service.[38] The 336-page Abbottabad Commission Report, obtained in July 2013 by Al Jazeera, blasted Pakistan's civilian and military leadership for "gross incompetence" over the bin Laden affair. It found that by 2005, Pakistani intelligence was no longer actively pursuing intelligence that could lead to his capture. The report called the handling of the bin Laden situation a "natural disaster" and even called on the leadership to apologize to the people of Pakistan for their "dereliction of duty." Al Jazeera reported that the government's intention in conducting the inquiry was likely aimed at "regime continuance, when the regime is desperate to distance itself from any responsibility for the national disaster that occurred on its watch" and was likely "a reluctant response to an overwhelming public and parliamentary demand." Lack of intelligence on bin Laden's nine-year residence in the country was blamed on "Government Implosion Syndrome." Lack of knowledge of a CIA support network without Pakistan being aware was "a case of collective and sustained dereliction of duty by the political, military, and intelligence leadership." Although the report focused on the night of the raid, it had other findings. One was that bin Laden had been living in Pakistan since 2002, after surviving the Battle of Tora Bora. Another was that he and some family members moved into the compound in Abbottabad in 2005, the same year Pakistani intelligence stopped independently looking for him.[39]
Statements from other countries
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan: Defense ministry spokesman said that ISI must have known that bin Laden was in Abbottabad prior to the US killing him.[40] The former chief of Afghan Intelligence, Amrullah Saleh, said he had told Pervez Musharraf in 2007 that bin Laden was hiding near Abbottabad, but Musharraf angrily shot down his claim.[41]
Australia: Prime Minister Julia Gillard on May 3, 2011 said bin Laden "absolutely" had a support network in Pakistan.[42]
India: Minister for Home Affairs, P. Chidambaram said that bin Laden hiding "deep inside" Pakistan was a matter of grave concern for India, and showed that "many of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and the handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan". He also called on Pakistan to arrest them.[43]
France: Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said "I find it a little difficult to imagine that the presence of someone like bin Laden in a big compound in a relatively small town, even if located at 80 km from the center of Islamabad, could go completely unnoticed. [...] Pakistan's position [...] lacks clarity in our view, I hope that we will have more clarity."[44]
Tajikistan: According to US documents leaked by WikiLeaks in December 2009, the Government of Tajikistan had warned the US that efforts to apprehend Osama Bin Laden were being thwarted by Pakistani intelligence.[45]
United Kingdom: Prime Minister David Cameron stated: "The fact that Bin Laden was living in a large house in a populated area suggests that he must have had a support network in Pakistan. We don't currently know the extent of that network, so it is right that we ask searching questions about it. And we will."[46] Pakistani-born BritishMPKhalid Mahmood stated that he was "flabbergasted and shocked" after he learned that bin Laden was living in a city with thousands of Pakistani troops, reviving questions about alleged links between al-Qaeda and elements in Pakistan's security forces.[47]
Impact on US–Pakistan relations
The United States suspended about a third of its $2.7 billion annual defense aid to Pakistan.[48]
In November 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump stated Pakistan helped Osama hide in the country, accusing Pakistan of not doing "a damn thing for us" and defending his administration's decision to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Islamabad. In an interview with Fox News aired on November 18, Trump accused Pakistan of helping to hide Osama bin Laden. He stated, "But living in Pakistan right next to the military academy, everybody in Pakistan knew he was there". [49]
Documents recovered from bin Laden's compound
During the raid on the compound, US navy SEALs were able to recover some 470,000 computer files from a trove of ten hard drives, five computers and around one hundred thumb drives and disks.[4] The documents recovered from the compound contained nothing to support the idea that bin Laden was protected by Pakistani officials or that he was in communication with them. Instead, the documents contained criticism of Pakistani military and future plans for attacks against Pakistani military targets.[4]Steve Coll confirms that as of 2019 no direct evidence showing Pakistani knowledge of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad has been found, and that captured documents from the Abbottabad compound suggest bin Laden was wary of contact with Pakistani intelligence and police, especially in light of Pakistan's role in the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.[50]
Osama bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian-born Islamist dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, he participated in the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union and supported the activities of the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. After issuing his declaration of war against the Americans in 1996, Bin Laden began advocating attacks targeting U.S. assets in several countries, and supervised al-Qaeda's execution of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001.
The Inter-Services Intelligence is the largest and best-known component of the Pakistani intelligence community. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government.
Osama bin Laden, the founder and former leader of al-Qaeda, went into hiding following the start of the War in Afghanistan in order to avoid capture by the United States for his role in the September 11 attacks, and having been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 1999. After evading capture at the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, his whereabouts became unclear, and various rumours about his health, continued role in al-Qaeda, and location were circulated. Bin Laden also released several video and audio recordings during this time.
Pakistan and the United States established relations on 15 August 1947, a day after the independence of Pakistan, when the United States became one of the first nations to recognize the country.
On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was shot and killed at his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad by United States Navy SEALs of SEAL Team Six. The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was carried out in a CIA-led mission, with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) coordinating the Special Mission Units involved in the raid. In addition to SEAL Team Six, participating units under JSOC included the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), also known as the "Night Stalkers", and the CIA's Special Activities Division, which heavily recruits from former JSOC Special Mission Units. The success of the operation ended a nearly decade-long manhunt for bin Laden, who was accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on the United States.
General Ashfaq Parvez KayaniNI(M) HI(C) HI(M) LoM LoH OMM, is a retired four-star general of the Pakistan Army who served as the eighth chief of army staff, being appointed on 29 November 2007 after his predecessor Pervez Musharraf retired from his military service and remained in the office until 29 November 2013.
Ijaz Ahmed Shah is a Pakistani politician, former officer of the Pakistan Army, and a former Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer. He was serving as the Federal Minister for Narcotics Control, was in office since 11 December 2020. Previously, he served as the Federal Minister for interior from April 2019 to 11 December 2020 and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs from March 2019 to April 2019. He was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from August 2018 till July 2022.
Bruce O. Riedel is an American expert on U.S. security, the Middle East, South Asia, and counter-terrorism. He is currently a nonresident senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and an instructor at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.
General Khawaja Ziauddin Abbasi, also known as Ziauddin Butt, is a retired four-star rank army general in the Pakistan Army, who served as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), for few hours, until Chairman joint chiefs General Pervez Musharraf reasserted the command and control of the military despite his termination on 12 October 1999.
Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism refers to the involvement of Pakistan in terrorism through the backing of various designated terrorist organizations. Pakistan has been frequently accused by various countries, including its neighbours Afghanistan, Iran, and India, as well as by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, of involvement in a variety of terrorist activities in both its local region of South Asia and beyond. Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border have been described as an effective safe haven for terrorists by Western media and the United States Secretary of Defense, while India has accused Pakistan of perpetuating the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir by providing financial support and armaments to militant groups, as well as by sending state-trained terrorists across the Line of Control and de facto India–Pakistan border to launch attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir and India proper, respectively. According to an analysis published by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in 2008, Pakistan was reportedly, with the possible exception of Iran, perhaps the world's most active sponsor of terrorist groups; aiding these groups that pose a direct threat to the United States. Pakistan's active participation has caused thousands of deaths in the region; all these years Pakistan has been supportive to several terrorist groups despite several stern warnings from the international community. Daniel Byman, a professor and senior analyst of terrorism and security at the Center For Middle East Policy, also wrote that Pakistan is probably 2008's most active sponsor of terrorism. In 2018, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, suggested that the Pakistani government played a role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist group. In July 2019, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, on an official visit to the United States, acknowledged the presence of some 30,000–40,000 armed terrorists operating on Pakistani soil. He further stated that previous administrations were hiding this truth, particularly from the United States, for the last 15 years during the War on Terror.
The death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, gave rise to various conspiracy theories, hoaxes and rumors. These include the ideas that he had died earlier, or that he lived beyond the reported date. Doubts about Bin Laden's death were fueled by the U.S. military's supposed disposal of his body at sea, the decision to not release any photographic or DNA evidence of Bin Laden's death to the public, the contradicting accounts of the incident, and the 25-minute blackout during the raid on Bin Laden's compound during which a live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the U.S. special forces was cut off.
Osama bin Laden's compound, known locally as the Waziristan Haveli, was a large, upper-class house within a walled compound used as a safe house for Saudi militant Islamist Osama bin Laden, who was shot and killed there by U.S. forces on 2 May 2011. The compound was located at the end of a dirt road 1,300 metres southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, a suburb housing many retired military officers. Bin Laden was reported to have evaded capture by living in a section of the house for at least five years, having no Internet or phone connection, and hiding away from the public, who were unaware of his presence.
Arshad Khan, commonly known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti was a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani courier for Osama bin Laden.
Shakil Afridi, or Shakeel Afridi, is a Pakistani physician who allegedly helped the CIA run a fake hepatitis vaccine program in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, in order to confirm Osama bin Laden's presence in the city by obtaining DNA samples. Details of his activities emerged during the Pakistani investigation of the deadly raid on bin Laden's residence. This account is disputed in a recent account of events which implies Afridi was implicated as a cover for the real CIA operative. Afridi was arrested at the Torkham while trying to flee the country days after the raid. On 23 May 2012, he was sentenced to 33 years' imprisonment for treason, initially believed to be in connection with the bin Laden raid, but later revealed to be due to alleged ties with a local Islamist warlord Mangal Bagh. Lawyers appealed against the verdict on 1 June 2012. On 29 August 2013, his sentence was overturned and a retrial ordered.
Zero Dark Thirty is a 2012 American political action thriller film directed and produced by Kathryn Bigelow, and written and produced by Mark Boal. The film dramatizes the nearly decade-long international manhunt for Osama bin Laden, leader of the terrorist network Al-Qaeda, after the September 11 attacks. This search leads to the discovery of his compound in Pakistan and the U.S. military raid where bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011.
Pakistan's principal intelligence and covert action agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has historically conducted a number of clandestine operations in its western neighbor, Afghanistan. ISI's covert support to militant jihadist insurgent groups in Afghanistan, the Pashtun-dominated former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Kashmir has earned it a wide reputation as the primary progenitor of many active South Asian jihadist groups.
Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, Inc. (OPSEC) is a 501(c)(4) organization formed in the United States in 2012 to conduct a media campaign critical of President Obama by accusing his administration of disclosing sensitive information about the killing of Osama bin Laden and taking too much credit for the operation. In response, the Obama Campaign compared the organization's efforts to the "Swift Boat" attacks against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.
The Abbottabad Commission was a judicial inquiry commissioned to provide reports on the circumstantial events leading up to the United States decision to take unilateral military actions in Abbottabad in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan, with the objective of neutralizing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. Constituted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the request of the Government of Pakistan on 21 June 2011, the commission was chaired by the Senior Justice Javaid Iqbal and other members selected by the Supreme Court.
The Abbottabad Commission Report is a judicial inquiry paper authored and submitted by the Abbottabad Commission, led by Justice Javaid Iqbal, to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on 4 January 2013. The report investigates the circumstances surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. Upon submission, the report was immediately classified by the Prime Minister and its findings were not made public.
The Inter–Services Intelligence has been alleged or previously documented by various authors of running an active military intelligence program in the United States, as well as operational activities related to America outside the country.
1 2 3 Bergen, Peter (30 July 2021). "The Last Days of Osama bin Laden". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021. Yet the thousands of pages of documents recovered from bin Laden's compound contain nothing to back up the idea that bin Laden was protected by Pakistani officials or that he was in communication with them.
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