Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Source: Bin Laden's daughter says she watched the killing



Abbottabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- One of Osama bin Laden's daughters has told Pakistani interrogators that she saw her father be shot and killed by U.S. forces, a senior Pakistani intelligence source said Wednesday.
The daughter, believed to be 12- or 13-years-old, was among those left behind at the compound after Monday's U.S. raid, the source said.
Pakistani officials are interrogating a number of people left behind, the source said.
Among them were two or three women, including one believed to be bin Laden's wife -- a 29-year-old Yemeni citizen, the source said.

U.S. officials have said bin Laden's wife was in the room with him and rushed at U.S. special forces, who then shot her in the leg. U.S. officials have not publicly identified the wife nor anyone else at the compound aside from bin Laden.
Eight or nine children were also left behind, the Pakistani intelligence source said.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that members of bin Laden's family were "in safe hands and being looked after in accordance with law. Some of them needing medical care are under treatment in the best possible facilities. As per policy, they will be handed over to their countries of origin."
The Pakistani intelligence source told CNN Wednesday that four men at the compound were killed in addition to bin Laden: bin Laden's son, two men who were brothers, and an unknown man. That conflicts with information provided by the White House, which said Tuesday that three men and one woman were killed in the operation, in addition to bin Laden.
The senior Pakistani intelligence official, meanwhile, rejected CIA Director Leon Panetta's assertion that Pakistani officials had not done enough to bring bin Laden to justice.
According to two sources in a closed door briefing Tuesday, Panetta told lawmakers, "either they were involved or incompetent. Neither place is a good place to be."
The senior Pakistani intelligence official said there is now "total mistrust" between the United States and Pakistan, and that if Panetta made such a statement, it is "totally regrettable. (Panetta) of all people knows how much we have been doing."
In an interview with TIME magazine, Panetta said "it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets."
Sen. Richard Lugar, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he thinks many Pakistanis might have known where bin Laden was, including people in the government.
"This is one reason we did not inform the Pakistanis of our actions," he said Tuesday, noting "there were probably many who were very uncomfortable about the presence likewise."
Sardar Latif Khosa, governor of Pakistan's populous Punjab province, said Wednesday that bin Laden was not only responsible for deaths in the United States but also for the deaths of thousands of Pakistanis.
"Osama's hands were colored with the blood of innocent people. How could we give shelter to him?" he said.
Still, some people around the world mourned bin Laden's death. In Indonesia, the hardline Islamic Defenders Front planned a prayer service for bin Laden Wednesday, two days after the world's most wanted terrorist was killed in attack at his compound in Pakistan.
In a text message to the media, the Islamic Defenders Front announced its service will take place in Jakarta. The radical Indonesian Muslim group is known for attacking Jakarta nightclubs and threatening Westerners, according to Jane's Terrorism & Security Monitor.
Meanwhile, Americans -- and the rest of the world -- await the possible release of a post-mortem photo of bin Laden, which could both silence skeptics of and inflame passions against the United States.
Panetta said Tuesday he thinks a photograph of bin Laden's body will be released at some point, but that it is up to the White House to make the final call.

"I just think it's important, they know we have it, to release it," Panetta said.

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