Finally, something about the Bin Laden raid that wasn't written by a SEAL or leaked by our own government:
What went wrong? It's the Americans' fault, of course!
Hm, well, that's different...
Ah yes, there it is, the "intel failure." How the hell is this an intel failure? Pakistan's intel service, the ISI, was utterly complicit in shielding Bin Laden. The CIA knew and said publicly for over a decade that Bin Laden was in Pakistan. According to public reports, they knew for months that he was in Abbotabad before the SEALs went and got him. This isn't an intel failure, it is a failure of national policy on both the US and Pakistani sides.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The leak of a 336-page report investigating the security lapses that led to both Osama bin Laden’s extensive stay in Pakistan and the raid that killed him on May 1, 2011 shows that Pakistan has finally started asking itself some tough questions.
The Abbottabad Commission, whose report was first obtained by Al Jazeera, was launched two years ago. The report is the most comprehensive Pakistani account to date of what went wrong in the Islamic Republic’s hunt for the world’s most wanted man.
What went wrong? It's the Americans' fault, of course!
The frankness of the report is unprecedented for an official study commissioned by the nuclear powered Islamic republic that often blames foreign powers for all that ails its economy and its people.
Hm, well, that's different...
The report details bin Laden’s movements around Pakistan for almost a decade (from a major city, to a mountain resort, to small town, to a cantonment); the municipal permission to build an illegal structure that eventually became the mansion where he lived and fathered two children; the inability to follow up on intelligence shared by the United States; the lax attitude and negligence displayed by the Pakistanis that allowed the U.S. to conduct both the ground surveillance and the Navy SEAL raid that embarrassed the country; and even the inability of a policeman who once stopped bin Laden for speeding to recognize him.
The details paint the picture of one of the worst intelligence failures in history.
Ah yes, there it is, the "intel failure." How the hell is this an intel failure? Pakistan's intel service, the ISI, was utterly complicit in shielding Bin Laden. The CIA knew and said publicly for over a decade that Bin Laden was in Pakistan. According to public reports, they knew for months that he was in Abbotabad before the SEALs went and got him. This isn't an intel failure, it is a failure of national policy on both the US and Pakistani sides.
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