Leaked report reveals Bin Laden's daily life

Leaked report reveals Bin Laden's daily life
Tue Jul 9, 2013 18:37:54

A leaked report reveals details of Osama Bin Laden day-to-day life describing his killing by US forces as a "criminal act of murder" ordered by the US president.

A version of the report leaked to media says Incompetence and negligence allowed Osama Bin Laden to live in Pakistan undetected for almost a decade.

The 336-page document was the result of interviews with more than 200 witnesses, including senior civilian and military officials, as well as with Bin Laden's three widows prior to their deportation to Saudi Arabia.

Bin Laden was reported to have arrived in Pakistan in the spring or summer of 2002, staying in parts of South Waziristan, Bajaur, Peshawar, Swat and Haripur before settling in Abbottabad in 2005.

The wife of one of Bin Laden's aides, Maryam, was quoted saying police in Swat even stopped the al-Qaeda leader's vehicle for speeding in 2002 or 2003 - but failed to recognize him.

Referring to Bin Laden and his entourage, the report said: "They kept a very low profile and lived extremely frugally. They never exposed themselves to public view."

Testimony from his widows said he wore a cowboy hat whilst moving around the compound to avoid detection.

However, over a period of six years the unusual nature of the compound failed to draw the attention of the intelligence services, the report goes on.

"How the entire neighbourhood, local officials, police and security and intelligence officials all missed the size, the strange shape, the barbed wire, the lack of cars and visitors etc over a period of nearly six years beggars belief."

Bin Laden was killed by US forces in north-west Pakistan in May 2011. His discovery in a compound in Abbottabad and subsequent killing in a US Navy Seal operation put a strain on US-Pakistan relations.

Shortly after the raid, the Pakistan parliament called for an independent enquiry - the Abbottabad Commission - to establish whether the failures of the government were due to incompetence or colluding with al-Qaeda.

It was also commissioned to investigate the Pakistani intelligence services' failure to detect CIA activity on its soil in the run-up to the raid "that culminated in the avoidable humiliation of the people of Pakistan".

In its findings, the report described the lack of intelligence as "government implosion syndrome".

The leaked documents fiercely criticized the Pakistani government and military, describing "culpable negligence and incompetence at almost all levels of government".

While the commission said it found nothing to support allegations of complicity, it said it could not rule out "the possibility of some degree of connivance inside or outside the government".

The report also voiced harsh criticism of the Navy Seal raid on Abbottabad, describing it as an "American act of war" and Pakistan's "greatest humiliation" since East Pakistan seceded in 1971.

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization that has committed numerous mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets.

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