ISLAMABAD: The Abbottabad Commission Report, which is yet to be made public, contains a treasure trove of information on the hunt

for the worlds most wanted man Osama Bin Laden. Its findings reveal that the arrest of Khalid Bin Attash (an Al Qaeda member who was involved in the pre-9/11 attacks such as on USS Cole and the embassies in Africa) in 2002 from Karachi led to the first major breakthrough he is the one who identified Abu Ahmed Ali Kuwaiti (the Kuwaiti born Pakistani who was OBLs right hand man and courier and the man who led the Americans to Bin Laden. After this information came to light, the Kuwaiti intelligence service was contacted but it could not provide any details about the man. During the search for this man, CIA provided four phone numbers between 2009 to Nov 2010 to Pakistan but without any details as to who they were searching for, a source privy to the reports details has told Dawn. Dawn has learnt that these numbers most of the time remained off but while the ISI kept the CIA in the loop it did so without knowing the context and to whom these numbers belonged. Now in retrospect, the commission report confirms Attashs disclosure Kuwaiti was OBLs right hand man. According to what the commission has discovered, he was with OBLs family in Karachi when it moved to the port city in Oct/Nov 2001. In 2002, when the family (including OBLs wives) moved to Peshawar, Kuwaiti was with them and this is where OBL joined them in mid-2002. From here they moved to Swat where OBL was visited by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. A month later, KSM was arrested in Rawalpindi, prompting the scared OBL family to move to Haripur. Kuwaiti and his brother Ibrar (who had joined the fugitives in Swat) were with OBL and they all stayed in Haripur till 2005. And it is here that the move to Abbottabad was planned and executed by Kuwaiti. He is the one who purchased a plot in Abbottabad by using a fake identity card and also supervised the construction of the house, which says a source was custom built. It contained three complexes. One open compound, an annexe where Kuwaiti and his family lived and the main three storey house, said the source, adding that the two top storeys were used by OBL and his family. The youngest wife stayed on the second floor while the older wives Sharifa and Khaira stayed on the lower floor. Ibrar and his wife lived on the ground floor. The source explained that the house was built so that the children of Ibrar could not see OBL. The commission has been told that OBL never had a phone line, an internet or cable connection either in Swat, Haripur or Abbottabad though a dish was used to watch Al Jazeera in more than one city that the families stayed in. Dawn has learnt that the commission has pointed out the violations committed by the residents of the Abbottabad House which remained unchecked by the authorities at the local level.

For instance, it has noted that a manual ID card was used to purchase land even though a computerised CNIC had been made mandatory in 2004 by Nadra the manual NIC was accepted by the Revenue Department, Cantonment Board and others, said the source, adding that the identities and the addresses were never verified. He also said that the third floor was built in violation of the building plan and once again no authority intervened. In addition, the commission has noted that the fort type construction remained unnoticed by cantonment board, police, intelligence agencies and the locals. The occupants also remained unchecked for non-payment of property tax since 2005. When the compound in Abbottabad was stormed by the Navy Seals in the middle of the night, OBLs first reaction was to tell his family to stay calm and recite the kalima. When the Seals reached Ladens room, he is said to have a weapon in his hand and was searching for a grenade on a shelf he was shot as he turned around, the source has told Dawn. It was at this point that Amal and OBLs daughter Summaya rushed at the men to stop them, leading to Amals bullet injury. Summaya and Kuwaitis wife were asked to identify OBL after which the rest of the inhabitants of the house were told by the Seals that Laden had been killed. Last but not least, Dawn has learnt that the commission has given recommendations to the government that are aimed at averting another May 2 like operation. It was not possible to find out whether or not the report has investigated and/or made any recommendations to prevent fugitives such as OBL from hiding in Pakistan. Neither is it clear whether or not the commission has held anyone responsible for the presence of OBL in the country or the May raid by the Americans. The recommendations that Dawn has learnt about are focused on checking American activity in the country and averting operations by outside forces by suggesting that the role of the post of chairman joint chiefs of staff committee be enhanced for more effective coordination between the armed forces. It has also recommended strengthening the National Security Council so that it can take immediate steps as the commission has noted that certain high government functionary could not be contacted during operation. The commission has also recommended a probe over the issuance of visas to a large number of US

Abbottabad Commission Report Reveals Details On Osama Bin Ladens Death

The 2011 raid that left Osama bin Laden and four other people dead inside a Pakistani compound inspired book chronicles, glossy magazine features and an Academy Award-winning movie yet, some of the most salient details of the operation have remained shrouded in mystery. It was ostensibly for those reasons that the Pakistani government set up a commission in June 2011 to shed light on the key unanswered questions regarding the fateful early May evening and the time period leading up to it. On Monday, Al Jazeera published an exclusively obtained copyof the findings from the Abbottabad Commission. According to Al Jazeera, the report was buried by the government and never made public after it was finished in May 2012.

Here are eight of the most fascinating details from the Commissions report. Bin Laden Immediately Recognized The Incoming Helicopters As American. The report set the scene of the dramatic night. Bin Laden had been spending the evening with Amal Ahmad Abdul Fattah al-Sadah, a 29-year-old Yemeni woman who was the youngest of the international fugitives three wives. The two originally thought the commotion outside was an incoming storm and went on the balcony to investigate, but the moonless sky made the outdoor surroundings pitch black. When Sadah reached to turn on a light, bin Laden said, No! After reciting the Kalma the Muslim declaration of faith and verses from the Quran with some of his children, bin Laden told his family that American helicopters had arrived and urged them to leave his room. Search Of Bodyguards Wife Turned Violent. Ibrahim al-Kuwaiti, a Pakistani man who served as one of bin Ladens bodyguards at t he compound, was shot and killed by U.S. forces after hearing a knock on his door that he thought was from his brother, Abrar, the terrorists courier. Abrar was also fatally shot during the raid. Kuwaitis wife, Maryam, was shot and wounded during the rai d. Later, when Maryam resisted efforts to comply with an American body search, things turned aggressive. According to the report, Maryam cursed at the Navy SEALs conducting the raid, prompting them to slap her. Americans Left With Bin Ladens Will, Leaving Its Contents Unknown. The Americans gathered a number of items before leaving the compound, including a purse that evidently contained the will of the Al-Qaeda leader. Since then, there have been disputed reports on what the will did or did not say. Bin Ladens eldest wife, Khairiyyah Sabar, is quoted in the report as saying that the will was apolitical and dealt only with familial matters. But she did not wish to divulge the details, according to the report. Other accounts have suggested that bin Laden used the will to assert that his children should not assume leadership positions with AlQaeda, the report noted. Osama In A Cowboy Hat. Bin Laden kept very few articles of clothing in the compound, despite having spent six years hiding in Abbottabad. His wardrobe included three pairs of pants for the summer, three for the winter, a black jacket and two sweaters. Bin Ladens wives told the Commission that he was not fond of possessions. But his wardrobe evidently also included a cowboy hat, which bin Laden wore when he moved about the compound in order to avoid detection from above. A Compound Divided. According to the Commission, there was in fact a wall separating bin Ladens family from the families of Ibrahim and Abrar. Their children never played with each other and the families did not mix or socialize. The report detailed one account in which Ibrahims daughter saw a picture of bin Laden on Al Jazeera, leading her to recognize him as the Miskeen Kaka (poor uncle) who lived upstairs. Panic -stricken, Ibrahim attempted to bar the women from watching television, but his wife demanded an explanation. He eventually relented and admitted that the man living upstairs was in fact bin Laden.

The Skinny On OBL, KSM. Bin Laden is said to have lived in Haripur, Pakistan, before re-locating to Abbottabad. While in Haripur, the report indicated that bin Laden did not host any guests an apparent result of his decision to terminate all contact with Al Qaeda fellow Mujahideen in the wake of the 2003 arres t of suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. But bin Laden maintained electronic communication with Qaeda operatives, which ultimately enabled U.S. intelligence to track him. Mohammed introduced Ibrahim to bin Laden, the report notes. Mohammed, currently held at the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, grew up with Ibrahim in Kuwait. They were described in the report as being close as brothers. Close Call. Details in the report on bin Ladens life in hiding painted a pictur e of a largely confined, solitary existence with little to no outside activity. But the report provided a glimpse at one episode from his time living in Swat, Pakistan, that occurred sometime in the two years after 9/11. According to testimony from Maryam, the group was traveling to a nearby bazaar when the car, which was carrying bin Laden, was stopped for speeding. Ibrahim quickly settled the matter, the report indicated. Failures Abound. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the report was the across-the-board indictment laid at the feet of Pakistani government and law enforcement incompetence that was labeled Government Implosion Syndrome by the Commission. The Commission blasted the government for failing to recognize bin Ladens nearly decade -long stay in Pakistan. It also criticized the government and law enforcement for their inability to recognize the U.S.-led effort to track down the terrorist, leading to what the panel described as an American act of war. In calling on the countrys leaders to apologize to the Pakistani people for dereliction of duty, the report concluded that political, military intelligence and bureaucratic leadership cannot be absolved of their responsibility for the state of governance, policy planning and policy implementation that eventually rendered this national failure almost inevitable. On the night of May 1, 2011, US special forces launched a raid deep into Pakistani territory to capture or kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. On President Barack Obamas orders, US soldiers flew via helicopter to the Pakistani army garrison town of Abbottabad, where their intelligence indicated he was hiding out. In the process of raiding the compound, Bin Laden and four others were killed. Several people were wounded. Pakistans military and political leaders were furious at the unilateral action by the United States, and set up a Commission to examine both how the US was able to execute a hostile military mission which lasted around three hours deep inside Pakistan, and how Pakistans intelligence establishment apparently had no idea that an international fugitive of the renown or notoriety of [Osama bin Laden] was residing in [Abbottabad]. In an Al Jazeera exclusive, the results of the Abbottabad Commission are now being made public. It was charged with establishing whether the failures of the Pakistani government and military were due to incompetence, or complicity. It was given overarching investigative powers, and, in the course of its inquiry, it interviewed more than 201 witnesses including members of Bin Ladens own family, the chief of Pakistans spy agency, and other senior provincial, federal and military officials.

The Commissions 336-page report is scathing, holding both politicians and the military responsible for gross incompetence, leading to collective failures that allowed Bin Laden to escape detection, and the United States to perpetrate an act of war. Details of the hunt for Osama revealed!