Islamabad, Feb 28 (IANS) Officials of the Pakistan Army and spy agency ISI knew about Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, according to a report by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks Monday published more than five million emails from US-based global security analysis firm Stratfor. The messages were reportedly stolen by hacker group Anonymous.
“Mid to senior level ISI and Pak military, with one retired Pak military General, had knowledge of the OBL (Osama bin laden) arrangements and safe house,” Online news agency quoted Fred Burton, Stratfor vice-president for intelligence, as writing in an email.
The email was reportedly written May 13 to one of the company’s regional directors for South Asia soon after the killing of the Al Qaeda chief.
Bin Laden was killed May 2 in a unilateral operation launched by US special forces at his mansion in Abbottabad near the Pakistani capital.
However, Burton — considered one of the world’s foremost experts on security, terrorism and terrorist organisations — did not reveal his source, saying only that the source was in Pakistan.
He also wrote that less than a dozen people within the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistani military had information on bin Laden.
In the May 13 email, he wrote that the source did not provide him with names.
At the same time, he asserted that the US intelligence knew about it.
According to Online news agency, Wikileaks has alleged that Stratfor gave a complimentary membership to former ISI chief Hamid Gul.
Hackers linked to the Anonymous group said they had stolen the emails of around 100 Stratfor employees in December last year. The group said it planned to publish the data so people would know the “truth” about Stratfor’s operations.
WikiLeaks in 2010 released secret video battle footage and thousands of US diplomatic cables about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
