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On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails

from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late

December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides

confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin,

Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the

US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off

structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

Fwd: Did a Pakistani official sell info to CIA to settle in the West?

Released on 2012-10-18 17:00 GMT

Email-ID 1688478

Date 2011-05-16 00:39:41

Accurate

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Did a Pakistani official sell info to CIA to settle in the West?

Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 21:59:19 -0400

From: Kamran Bokhari

Reply-To: Analyst List

To: Analyst List

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=46960&Cat=1&dt=5%2F14%2F2011

Did a Pakistani official sell info to CIA to settle in the West?

Wajid Ali SyedSaturday, May 14, 2011

WASHINGTON: Did a Pakistani intelligence official sell the information

about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden to the US last year to get

millions of dollars and relocate to a western country with a new

non-Pakistani passport? All those seeking to know the full facts of the

Osama episode are looking for an answer to this question.

President Barack Obama would not have agreed to go forward with the

mission to kill Osama bin Laden had it not been for intense pressure from

CIA Director Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and

Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, administration sources have revealed.

The advocates of the mission had "reached a boiling point", because

President Obama, hesitated for months and kept delaying the final

approval. This delay was because of a close aide who suggested that this

could damage him politically.

According to these sources, Administration officials were frustrated with

the president's indecisiveness and his orders not to carry out the mission

in February. President Obama was "dragged kicking and screaming" to give

the green light for the operation in the last week of April. By then, the

US military and other high-level officials were so determined to launch

the operation that they did not want to give the president the opportunity

to delay or to call it off. President Obama reluctantly approved to go

forward with the operation only if the CIA head agreed to take all the

blame in case the mission failed. The planning for the operation

underscores the deep divisions in the Obama administration, with President

Obama and a close aide, Valerie Jarrett, procrastinating on making a

decision and high-ranking officials and members of the cabinet pressing

him to go ahead on the other. The chief architect of the plan to "take bin

Laden out" was CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, USCommander in Afghanistan General David Petraeus and Director of National

Intelligence James Clapper were part of the group that supported Panetta.

When asked to comment, the White House referred the question to the

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National Security Council. The NSC said the Department of Defence was

fielding such inquiries. The Defence Department's press office contact

Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Robbins responded with this comment: "The

Department of Defense is not giving out any further operational details of

the mission."

However, according to an informed official, the story that a courier

helped track bin Laden is just a cover. The CIA actually learned of bin

Laden's whereabouts in August of 2010, when an informant associated withPakistani intelligence walked into a US Embassy and claimed that bin Laden

was living in a house in Abbottabad. The official, however, would not

disclose whether the Embassy was located in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

After confirming that the information was somewhat accurate, the CIA set

up a safe house in Abbottabad in September last year to monitor bin

Laden's compound.

As the intelligence collection proceeded, the CIA demanded that Pakistan

come clean with what they knew about bin Laden, claims the official. In

December of 2010, the CIA station chief's identity was made public in the

Pakistani press. The intelligence official says that the station chief's

cover was blown to retaliate against the CIA for pressing Pakistani

intelligence for information about bin Laden. At the time, the speculation

was that the move was in response to a civil suit accusing ISI officials

of being involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Once it was clear that the

information from the walk-in source was accurate, Panetta set up areporting chain from the CIA's Pakistan station direct to him, a highly

unusual move that involved bypassing the normal official channels.

Again the US president was not informed of this progress. Meanwhile, the

intelligence operatives learned that key people from an Islamic country

friendly to Pakistan were sending Pakistan money to keep Osama out of

sight and under virtual house arrest, claims the official.

By January of 2011 there was a high degree of certainty that bin Laden was

in the house. In early February, Panetta suggested that the US should move

on bin Laden. But Gates and Petraeus were determined to avoid the "boots

on the ground" strategy at all costs. CIA chief Panetta was in favour of

an invasion. But President Obama balked on the advice of Valerie Jarrett,

a close aide.

The source maintains that Jarrett's objection to the proposal was based on

the worry that the mission could fail, further eroding Obama's approvalratings and the strong likelihood that it would be interpreted as yet

another act of aggression against the Muslims. The source explained that

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played a crucial role to pressure

President Obama to take action. In the last week of April, she met with

White House Chief of Staff William Daley to request a meeting with the

president to secure approval for the mission. Within hours, Daley called

to say that Valerie Jarrett refused to allow the president to give that

approval.

However, Clinton made sure that the vice president was made aware of the

situation. The president was later approached by Hillary Clinton, Robert

Gates and Leon Panetta and pressurised to order the mission.

Panetta was directing the operation with both his CIA operatives and the

military. The plan was not to capture but to kill bin Laden on sight.

Contrary to the news reports, it was Panetta and not President Obama who

took the lead on coordinating the details of the mission.

According to the source, the White House staff has compromised the

identity of the unit that carried out the mission. The source said the

claim that the raid yielded a "treasure trove" of information about

al-Qaeda is also exaggerated. Obama meanwhile is "milking" the mission as

a tactic to better his chances of re-election in 2012. The concern in

intelligence circles is that in his zeal to boost his approval ratings,

the president is harming relations with Pakistan.

The writer is currently a freelance journalist based in Washington who has

worked for foreign and Pakistani newspapers and TV channels.

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