Pakistan accepts intelligence failure on Osama
May 9th, 2011 - 8:36 pm ICT by IANS
Islamabad, May 9 (IANS) Pakistan Monday accepted “intelligence failure” over the presence of Osama bin Laden in its territory and said it also had “serious differences” with the US on the war on terror.
In an address to parliament, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also sought to pin the blame on Washington for the making of Osama.
“Yes, there has been an intelligence failure,” Gilani said, reading out a prepared statement in English. But he quickly added: “It is not only us but all the intelligence agencies of the world.”
He said the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and other intelligence agencies in the world were tracking Osama, who was killed by US commandos May 2 during a raid on a mansion in Pakistan’s Abbottabad town.
He insisted that it was the ISI that passed leads to the American CIA that helped the US to use superior technology to kill Osama.
Gilani said allegations of Pakistani complicity with Osama or incompetence in tracking him down were both “absurd”.
After speaking about the anger among Pakistanis over the unilateral American operation that killed Osama, he said that Islamabad and Washington had “serious differences”.
“We have strong differences with the United States,” he said, clarifying that this related to technical issues on the way to fight terror.
He added that Pakistan “attached high importance to its relations with the US. We have a strategic partnership which serves mutual interests. It is based on mutual respect. Pakistan and the US have strategic convergence.
“It is not unusual to have different points of view on technical matters.”
But Gilani sought to remind the MPs — and a nation listening to his speech — that it was the US that propped Islamic warriors in the 1980s in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets.
“Who was responsible for the birth of Al Qaeda? Who was responsible for the making of Al Qaeda?
“Pakistan alone cannot be held responsible… Pakistan is not the birthplace of Al Qaeda. We did not invite Osama to Pakistan or even to Afghanistan.”
He pointed out that it was Al Qaeda and its affiliates that have carried out hundreds of attacks in Pakistan, leaving thousands dead.
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