New Delhi:
A report leaked to the media on Monday says Pakistani authorities may have come the closest to capturing the world's most wanted man in 2002-2003, because his car was speeding. They missed even that.
The leaked report of Pakistan's Abbottabad Commission, which has revealed that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan for nine years before the US killed him, says that in 2002 or 2003, when the al Qaida chief was in the SWAT Valley, the car he was traveling in was stopped for speeding on a trip to the market.
The incident was allegedly narrated by Maryam, the wife of Osama's most trusted bodyguard Ibrahim al-Kuwaiti, when she testified to the Commission. Ibrahim, also known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, was the courier who led the US to bin Laden and who was also killed in the American raid on May 2, 2011.
The 336-page report publicised by Al Jazeera says on page 45 that, "Maryam, of course had no occasion to speak to the tall Arab. Once, when they were all (including the tall Arab) on a visit to the bazaar they were stopped for speeding by a policeman. But, her husband very quickly settled the matter with the policeman and they drove on."
On Page 48, the report outlines how much Osama bin Laden trusted Maryam's husband and why. "According to Maryam, OBL reposed complete faith in her husband Ibrahim who had been with him ever since he was introduced to him by Khalid Shaikh Muhammad. Ibrahim and Khalid had practically grown up together in Kuwait and were as close as brothers."
Khalid, a key member of the al Qaida was captured in Rawalpindi in 2003 and is in US custody. He is allegedly the "principal architect" of the 9/11 attacks on the US and faces the death penalty for that and for other major terror strikes around the world that he has allegedly admitted to having played a role in.
The four-member Abbottabad Commission investigated the events around the US raid which killed Osama and had completed its report six months ago, but the report was not made public by the Pakistan government. Yesterday, Al-Jazeera published a leaked copy on its website.
The report says Osama lived untouched in Pakistan for so long because of "collective incompetence and negligence."
The leaked report of Pakistan's Abbottabad Commission, which has revealed that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan for nine years before the US killed him, says that in 2002 or 2003, when the al Qaida chief was in the SWAT Valley, the car he was traveling in was stopped for speeding on a trip to the market.
The incident was allegedly narrated by Maryam, the wife of Osama's most trusted bodyguard Ibrahim al-Kuwaiti, when she testified to the Commission. Ibrahim, also known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, was the courier who led the US to bin Laden and who was also killed in the American raid on May 2, 2011.
The 336-page report publicised by Al Jazeera says on page 45 that, "Maryam, of course had no occasion to speak to the tall Arab. Once, when they were all (including the tall Arab) on a visit to the bazaar they were stopped for speeding by a policeman. But, her husband very quickly settled the matter with the policeman and they drove on."
On Page 48, the report outlines how much Osama bin Laden trusted Maryam's husband and why. "According to Maryam, OBL reposed complete faith in her husband Ibrahim who had been with him ever since he was introduced to him by Khalid Shaikh Muhammad. Ibrahim and Khalid had practically grown up together in Kuwait and were as close as brothers."
Khalid, a key member of the al Qaida was captured in Rawalpindi in 2003 and is in US custody. He is allegedly the "principal architect" of the 9/11 attacks on the US and faces the death penalty for that and for other major terror strikes around the world that he has allegedly admitted to having played a role in.
The four-member Abbottabad Commission investigated the events around the US raid which killed Osama and had completed its report six months ago, but the report was not made public by the Pakistan government. Yesterday, Al-Jazeera published a leaked copy on its website.
The report says Osama lived untouched in Pakistan for so long because of "collective incompetence and negligence."
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