Pakistan charges 5 with helping U.S. kill OBL
Pakistan arrested five men and charged them with leaking information relating to the 2 May killing of Osama bin Laden; no, they were not accused of being informants for al Qaeda or the Taliban; rather, they are charged with secretly providing information to the united States — information which led to the successful operation; among the detainees are the Pakistani who rented and maintained to safe house in Abbottabad , from which CIA operatives kept an eye on bin Laden’ compound, and a Pakistani Army major who is credited with photographing the license plate of the car of bin Laden trusted couriers; following the courier’s car was the key to locating bin Laden’s hideout; deputy CIA director, when asked to rate Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States in fighting terrorism, replied: “Three”
Pakistan has arrested five men and accused them of being informants in the bin Laden case. They were not arrested for providing information to al Qaeda or the Taliban. Rather, they were arrested for providing information to the United States which led to the 2 May killing of bin Laden. The New York Times first reported the arrest.
Xinua reports that Pakistan denied the report, and especially insisted that no military personnel were detained (the initial story said that one of the five men arrested was a Pakistani Army major). American officials, though, confirmed that the arrest occurred, and UPI notes that Leon Panetta, current CIA director and future secretary of defense, brought up the arrests during a recent visit to Pakistan and discussed the treatment of the detainees.
Fox news reports that in addition to the army major, the group of detained Pakistanis included the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad.
UPI reports that American officials see the arrest as further evidence of Pakistan’s ambivalence about fighting terrorists on its territory. The news agency quotes an American official who told Xinua that instead of going after the support network that permitted bin Laden to live comfortably for years in his compound, Pakistani authorities were arresting those who assisted in the elimination of the world’s most wanted terrorist.
The Times reports that Panetta’s deputy, Michael Morrel, last week gave a behind-closed-doors briefing to the Senate Intelligence Committee, in which he rated Pakistan’s cooperation as 3 on a 1-to-10-scale.
