Translated material
Prisoner of Abbottabad
Pulitzer Prize laureate exposes the myth of the murder of Osama bin Laden
Four years after the special operation in the Pakistani Abbottabad about the murder of the leader of Al-Keda Osama Bin Laden, it seems, in general, everything. According to the official version, Bin Laden calmly lived in Pakistan in his mansion, from where he led the main terrorist network of the world. In May 2011, without the knowledge of the Pakistani authorities, a group of “sea cats” invaded the territory of the Asian state and eliminated the “number one terrorist”. The famous American journalist Seymour Hersh conducted his own investigation of the murder of Bin Laden and claims that the released data is far from the truth: the leader of Al-Keda lived in Abbottabad as a prisoner or even a hostage, and Pakistan authorities were well aware of the upcoming operation of American marines. The detailed investigation of Hersh, who has already managed to refute Washington, publishes the publication of London Review of Books.
As follows from the investigation of Hersh, Bin Laden was discovered by Pakistani special services back in 2006. Since then, he lived in Abbottabad with money coming from the authorities of Saudi Arabia, and played the role of a “hostage”, which allowed to control the Taliban and Al-Kada in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. If the activities of Islamic militants were contrary to the interests of the Pakistani special services, Islamabad could have threatened the issuance of bin Laden to the United States, where the “terrorist number one” did not expect anything good.
Pakistani special services kept the whereabouts of the al-Keda leader in strict secret. The United States learned about him from a former senior employee of Pakistan intelligence. In August 2010, the retired veteran of special services met with the Director of the CIA mission in Islamabad Jonathan Bank and told him that he knew about the whereabouts of Bin Laden, and also provided all the data. The CIA carefully checked both the information of the informant and his personality - and came to the conclusion that there was reason to trust him. Now the Pakistani, according to Hersh, lives with his family in Washington and works as a CIA consultant.
In October 2010, the possible location of Bin Laden was received by US President Barack Obama. He reacted skeptical to him - it was difficult to believe that the leader of the terrorist network could, practically without hiding, live in such a large city as Abbottabad. Various options for eliminating bin Laden were discussed, but one hundred percent evidence was needed that it was about him - for example, DNA samples. Washington decided to hint at the Pakistani authorities that he knows about Bin Laden - and achieve cooperation in the operation to eliminate it. The negotiations lasted quite a long time: in Pakistan, until the last, they did not admit that Bin Laden was hiding, and the United States did not want to disclose where they got such information. But ultimately the plan worked.
In Islamabad, they were afraid to be left without American assistance, especially since the United States simultaneously with negotiations began to reduce military cooperation, and agreed to close their eyes to the operation of American marines. About how a deal with the United States was perceived in Pakistan, Seymur Hershe was told by a Pakistan, closely related to the leadership of local special services.
“It was a deal with your top. We doubted very much, but we had to decide - not from personal benefit, but not to be left without all American assistance. Your guys said that we would die of hunger if we do not go for it, and [Director of Interdepartmental Intelligence of Pakistan Ahmed Shuja] Pasha gave his consent during a trip to Washington. The deal was not only to maintain the current situation - Pasha was said that we would get more “buns”. ”
It was final to agree by January 2011. Pakistan insisted: Bin Laden should kill, there can be no talk of the capture of the terrorist alive. A large -scale operation was also excluded, the Americans had to act with small forces. The operation to eliminate Bin Laden was carried out with the assistance of interdepartmental intelligence-it was by decree of the special services in the area where the leader of Al-Kaeda lived, electricity was disconnected during the raid of the "sea cats".
According to Seymour Hershe, which is based on the words of his anonymous sources, the operation did not look dangerous. The marines blew the door to the bin Laden mansion and, not meeting resistance, climbed the third floor of the house; They were convinced that in front of them the leader of Al-Keda and shot him. There was no question of self-defense and any danger emanating from Bin Laden, says Hersh. There was no warehouse of documents on the activities of Al-Keda, which the media repeatedly reported. Hersh in his investigation analyzes in detail the publications about the documents of the terrorist network found in the Bin Laden house and believes that they are unreliable.
At the same time, Pakistan wanted Bin Laden to die as a result of a raid of a drone - more precisely, so that this version is in the media, and a few weeks after the operation itself. The United States was not opposed, but plans were violated by the collapse of one of the marine infantry helicopters - the locals saw the explosion, and it is quite difficult to hide the fragments of the aircraft. As a result, the now famous speech of Obama was prepared in a hurry, in which he spoke about the elimination of the main enemy of modern America a few hours after the murder of Bin Laden.
Not everything in the official reports of the death of Bin Laden was true, says Seymour Hersh. For example, Bin Laden was not buried in the sea - they were not going to bury him at all. As the journalist managed to find out, the “sea cats”, in accordance with the initial plan, divided the Bin Laden’s body into several parts with automatic bursts and threw them off the helicopter in the mountains. When it became clear that the death of a terrorist could not be issued for an attack by a drone, a version of burial in the sea was invented in accordance with Muslim customs.
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Soon after the publication of the article by Seymour Hershe, the White House made an official refutation. Washington said that there are so many “inaccuracies and unreasonable conclusions” in the publication that it is impossible to check each of them. According to the representative of the White House on National Security of Ned Price, only the narrow circle of American officials knew about the operation, which was not included in Pakistan's leadership.
78-year-old Seymour Hersh is one of the most famous American journalists specializing in investigations in the field of national security and defense departments. In 1970, Hersh received the Pulitzer Prize for investigating the massacre of civilians in Songmi during the Vietnam War, which was committed by the American troops. In 2004, he published an investigation into the torture of prisoners in the Iraqi prison Abu Graib, which was controlled by the United States. The journalist was repeatedly criticized for the use of anonymous sources in the articles, the reliability of which cannot be verified. In recent years, Hersh has been writing mainly for The New Yorker, known for high standards for checking his publications.
Several "sea cats" told friends and colleagues that they dismembered the body of Bin Laden with automatic fire. His remains, including his head, in which only a few bullets fell, was collected in a bag and during a helicopter in Jalalabad was thrown away, including over the mountains of the Gindukush system - at least so the “cats” said (English).