WASHINGTON, May 2: US President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden, America’s public enemy number one, in a televised address to his nation close to Sunday midnight.
“Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children,” he said.
It was followed by a briefing by senior administration officials at the White House who gave details of the raid and confirmed media speculations that Pakistan was kept in the dark about the operation, although the US intelligence had been working on it for more than a year.
“We shared our intelli gence on this Bin Laden compound with no other country, including Pakistan,” said one of the officials. “That was for one reason and one reason alone: We believed it was essential to the security of the operation and our personnel. In fact, only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance.” Both President Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who spoke on Monday afternoon, praised Pakistan’s help in the war against terror in general but did not say if Islamabad also helped in the operation.
“Over the years, I’ve repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where Bin Laden was. That is what we’ve done,” sad Mr Obama, also indicating that the Americans acted before informing Pakistan.
However, almost as an afterthought, the US president also praised Pakistan’s cooperation in the war. “It’s important to note that our counter-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to Bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding,” he said. “Indeed, Bin Laden had declared war against Pakistan as well, and ordered attacks against the Pakistani people.” President Obama had personally written the speech, instead of asking a speech writer to do so. “Tonight, I called President Zardari, and my team has also spoken with their Pakistani counterparts,” he said of the effort to explain the US action to Islamabad.
“They agree that this is a good and historic day for both of our nations. And going forward, it is essential that Pakistan continue to join us in the fight against Al Qaeda and its affiliates,” said Mr Obama after US Navy SEAL commandos completed their operation in the heart of Pakistan without informing Pakistani authorities.
“Our close cooperation with Pakistan has helped put unprecedented pressure on Al Qaeda and its leadership,” said Secretary Clinton who made her remarks several hours after the action.
“Continued cooperation will be just as important in the days ahead, because even as we mark this milestone, we should not forget that the battle to stop Al Qaeda and its syndicate of terror will not end with the death of Bin Laden,” she said.
While the Americans appeared reluctant to badger Pakistan so soon after conducting a military operation deep inside the country, the Indians, obviously, were not willing to let this opportunity pass.
“Does the fact that Bin Laden was found so close to Islamabad, signify any cooperation or link that he had with establishments in Pakistan?” an Indian journalist asked at the White House briefing.
“As the president said, Pakistani cooperation had assisted in this lead, as we pursued it,” a senior US official responded.
The official then highlighted a point, which has since been stressed by all major US media outlets: Why Bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad and why Pakistan failed to act against him.
“So we’re continuing to work this issue right now. We are very concerned about — that he was inside of Pakistan, but this is something that we’re going to continue to work with the Pakistani government on,” the official said.
“Did you have any suspicion that if you informed the Pakistanis, the information might lead somewhere?” the journalist asked.
“An operation like this that is conducted has the utmost operational security attached to it. I said that we had shared this information with no other country, and that a very, very small group of individuals within the United States government was aware of this. That is for operational security purposes,” the official said.
Taking lead from the information provided by US officials, American think-tank experts emphasised that the fortified compound where Bin Laden was hiding was close to the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul.
“It stretches credulity to think that a mansion of that scale could have been built and occupied by Bin Laden for six years without it coming to the attention of anyone in Pakistan’s Army,” said Steve Coll, head of a think-tank, New America Foundation.
“I fear that things are going to get very, very nasty. The Pakistanis are being very quiet. It stretches credulity that this could happen without GHQ/ISI oversight,” wrote C. Christine Fair, another US scholar on Pakistan.
In his speech, President Obama also gave some details of the operation, noting that shortly after taking office, he directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of Bin Laden the top priority of the US war against Al Qaeda.
“Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to Bin Laden,” he said. “I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located Bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan.
“And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorised an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a fire-fight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”