ISI had special desk to handle Osama bin Laden: NYT

NEW YORK: US newspaper ‘The New York Times’ alleges that the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had established a special desk to handle late Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The New York Times report by Carlotta Gall is composed of excerpts of her upcoming book and states that the desk “was operated independently, led by an officer who made his own decisions and did not report to a superior. He handled only one person: Bin Laden.”

The report cites a Pakistani official claiming the US had direct evidence of the then ISI chief Lt. General Ahmed Shuja Pasha being aware of Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad. The Pakistani official told Carlotta Gall that he was “surprised to learn this and the Americans were even more so.” According to the official, Pasha had been an opponent of the Taliban and “an open and cooperative counterpart for the Americans at the ISI.”

Further allegations in the report state that there were cells in the ISI working against and fighting the Taliban while some cells were supporting them.

A Pakistani intelligence official speaking on the condition of anonymity rejected The New York Times report, terming the allegations baseless. According to official no one in Pakistan was aware of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.

The New York Times report also alleges that evidence recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad residence revealed regular correspondence with Lashkar-e-Taiba's Hafiz Saeed and Mullah Omar of the Taliban who must have known he was living in Pakistan.

Commenting on the allegations, Hafiz Saeed said if there is evidence of his contact with Osama bin Laden it should be presented. Saeed added the US had always spread such propaganda and the Americans were not happy with peace efforts being carried out in Pakistan.

Gall who served as The New York Times correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan also wrote of Afghan President Hamid Karzai warning former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of his intelligence learning of threats against her life. Following the attack on Benazir Bhutto’s convoy in Karachi on October 18, 2007 the former prime minister claimed she had been directly threatened by Musharraf and was urged by President Karazai to take precautions.

According to the report, two teenage boys were among a group of militants who trained at the Haqqania madrassa in Akora Khattak and carried out the attack in which Benazir Bhutto was killed.

Gall claims the state prosecutor in the murder trial of Benazir Bhutto, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali told her “there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence that he (Musharraf) did not provide her with adequate security because he wanted to ensure her death in an inevitable assassination attempt.”