Leaked report on bin Laden reveals Pakistan blunders

PanARMENIAN.Net - Incompetence and negligence allowed Osama Bin Laden to live in Pakistan undetected for almost a decade, a leaked government report suggests, according to BBC News.

A version of the report leaked to al-Jazeera says the killing of Bin Laden by US forces was a "criminal act of murder" ordered by the U.S. president.

It also reveals details of the al-Qaeda leader's whereabouts and day-to-day life after fleeing Afghanistan in 2001.

Bin Laden was killed by US forces in north-west Pakistan in May 2011.

U.S. suspicions about Bin Laden's location had previously been dismissed by Pakistan. However, his discovery in a compound in Abbottabad and subsequent killing in a US Navy Seal operation put a strain on U.S.-Pakistan relations.

Shortly after the raid, the Pakistan parliament called for an independent enquiry - the Abbottabad Commission - to establish whether the failures of the government were due to incompetency or colluding with al-Qaeda.

It was also commissioned to investigate the Pakistani intelligence services' failure to detect CIA activity on its soil in the run up to the raid "that culminated in the avoidable humiliation of the people of Pakistan". In its findings, the report described the lack of intelligence as "government implosion syndrome".

The leaked documents fiercely criticized the Pakistani government and military, describing "culpable negligence and incompetence at almost all levels of government".

While the commission said it found nothing to support allegations of complicity, it said it could not rule out "the possibility of some degree of connivance inside or outside the government".

The report also voiced harsh criticism of the Navy Seal raid on Abbottabad, describing it as an "American act of war" and Pakistan's "greatest humiliation" since East Pakistan seceded in 1971.

It quotes officials as saying that Pakistan air force jets were scrambled to shoot down the U.S. helicopters, but too late.

The 336-page document was the result of interviews with over 200 witnesses, including senior civilian and military officials, as well as with Bin Laden's three widows prior to their deportation to Saudi Arabia.

The report has been in the hands of the government for more than six months, the BBC says, but it had been kept under wraps.