Pakistan helped Bin Laden, Bush-era intel may have lead to hit

I think there is now no question that the Pakistani ISI helped Osama Bin Laden hide from U.S. forces. It has always been suspected Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISID) supported terrorist elements, but now the proof is in. Bin Laden was eventually tracked down and killed in a compound located just a few hundred yards from Pakistan’s prestigious military academy in Abbotabad and I don’t think that was by accident. In December 2009, the government of Tajikistanwarned the United States that efforts to catch bin Laden were being thwarted by corrupt Pakistani spies. According to a United States diplomatic dispatch, General Abdullo Sadulloevich Nazarov, a senior Tajik counterterrorism official, told the Americans that “many” inside Pakistan knew where bin Laden was. The document revealed: “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.” It's time Congress takes a look at our relationship with Pakistan and withdraws all economic aid that goes to this country.

Information is now being released showing the Bush administrations use of enhanced interrogation techniques on GITMO detainees may have been the genesis behind the intel that resulted in the Bin Laden hit. U.S. officials say some of the initial strands of intelligence that eventually led to Sunday’s military operation came from terror detainees captured after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. We have heard over the years that water-boarding provided useful intel that saved lives and prevented future terrorist attacks. We know that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was water-boarded many times and now it’s being revealed he may have provided the name of the Bin Laden courier, the same courier that was tracked to Osama’s compound in Pakistan. President Obama is taking credit for the killing of Bin Laden and to some degree it’s deserved, but credit needs to be extended to the Bush administration as well. There will be those that will deny water-boarding had anything to do with the death of Osama Bin Laden, but I think history will show a different story. Ultimately, most of the credit goes to the men and women of our military and intelligence services. They are the true heroes!

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