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Osama Bin Laden "was in routine contact with ISI"

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/9109457/Stratfor-Osama-bin-Laden-was-in-routine-contact-with-Pakistans-spy-agency.html

The disclosure was contained in e-mails from the private US security firm, Stratfor, which were published by WikiLeaks website on Monday after being obtained by the Anonymous hacking group.

Stratfor provides analysis of world affairs to major corporations, military officials and government agencies and was once likened by an American business magazine to a "shadow CIA".

According to one of the e-mails, the firm was shown the information papers collected from bin Laden's Abbotabad compound after the US special forces attack last May that resulted in his death.

The e-mail, from a Stratfor analyst, suggested that up to 12 officials in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency knew of the al-Qaeda leader's safe house.

The internal email did not name the Pakistani officials involved but said the US could use the information as a bargaining chip in post raid negotiations with Islamabad.

American officials have always believed it was impossible for the ISI not to have known that Bin Laden was sheltering in a garrison town so close to Islamabad. Pakistan has repeatedly dismissed the charge.

"Mid to senior level ISI and Pak Mil with one retired Pak Mil General that had knowledge of the OBL arrangements and safehouse," the email said of the officers involved. "I get a very clear sense we (US intel) know names and ranks."

WikiLeaks claimed to have 5 million Stratfor emails that it would published in collaboration with media outlets. However only 200 were released in the first lot.

Other e-mails included the suggestion that Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, may have less than a year to live after his cancer spread to the colon and bone marrow.

Russian doctors who had been brought in to "clean up the mess" resulting from Cuban treatments for the Venezuelan leader had given a grim prognosis for his recovery, the e-mails said.

Other revelations were statements that Israel had last year carried out a successful covert attack on Iran's secret nuclear facilities.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused Stratfor of involvement in wide range of legally or morally questionable research activities for private corporations.

"On the surface it presents as if it's a media organisation providing a private subscription intelligence newsletter," the activist, who is awaiting extradition to Sweden on rape charges said in London. "But underneath it is running paid informants networks."

Mr Assange also promised 5,000 emails would reveal private details of individuals who had worked or given information to the organisation.

Stratfor rejected claims that there was anything improper in the way it handled information gathered.

"Stratfor has worked to build good sources in many countries around the world, as any publisher of global geopolitical analysis would do," the company said. "We have done so in a straightforward manner and we are committed to meeting the highest standards of professional conduct.

"Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them," the statement said.

The Texas-based subscription-based publisher providing political, economic and military analysis to help customers reduce risk.

The emails were orginally hacked last year by the network Anonymous.

We promised you those mails and now they'll finally be delivered. Five million (that's 5,000,000) emails at your pleasure," said the Anonymous account.

"There's a treasure trove of nasty details in those emails. We think there's something for everyone."
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no surprise there. Pakistan officially is an ally, but many within the ranks there are working directly against the government
 
There is no way he could have lived there without direct help and assistance from the ISI. Nobody is surprised, and that is one of the reasons that the assasination operation broke sovereignty. Sovereignty was in fact the problem.

Best part about this thread's the defense force you just alerted. Ima sit back and enjoy the fireworks.
 
ISI is the most powerful organization in Pakistan, even more powerful than the executive branch of the government. I doubt that Zardari ever knew of UBL's existence inside his country. ISI answers to no one.
 
Obama should just be like "Pakistan, our economy's in the tank as is my approval rating. You know what Americans do when that happens?"
 
ronito said:
Obama should just be like "Pakistan, our economy's in the tank as is my approval rating. You know what Americans do when that happens?"
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Not against nuclear-armed nations.

In reality there's very little the US can do as long as it continues to want to be involved in the region. Pakistan worries about India above all else. Unless the US can magically get the two nations to kiss and make-up (almost impossible) then the US must simply accept the current duplicitous situation.
 
The Atlantic:
Stratfor Is a Joke and So Is Wikileaks for Taking It Seriously

http://www.theatlantic.com/internat...-is-wikileaks-for-taking-it-seriously/253681/

Maybe what these emails actually reveal is how a Texas-based corporate research firm can get a little carried away in marketing itself as a for-hire CIA and end up fooling some over-eager hackers into believing it's true.

The group's reputation among foreign policy writers, analysts, and practitioners is poor; they are considered a punchline more often than a source of valuable information or insight. As a former recipient of their "INTEL REPORTS" (I assume someone at Stratfor signed me up for a trial subscription, which appeared in my inbox unsolicited), what I found was typically some combination of publicly available information and bland "analysis" that had already appeared in the previous day's New York Times. A friend who works in intelligence once joked that Stratfor is just The Economist a week later and several hundred times more expensive. As of 2001, a Stratfor subscription could cost up to $40,000 per year.
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OuterWorldVoice said:
There is no way he could have lived there without direct help and assistance from the ISI. Nobody is surprised, and that is one of the reasons that the assasination operation broke sovereignty. Sovereignty was in fact the problem.

Best part about this thread's the defense force you just alerted. Ima sit back and enjoy the fireworks.
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yep, a popcorn thread if there ever was one.
 
SmokyDave said:
Didn't we already know this?
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I think everyone already suspected that the world's #1 most wanted terrorist wasn't sitting next door to Pakistan's military academy in total secrecy. I don't remember reading about any actual evidence showing Pakistan was in communication with him.
 
They already knew. The ISI has been supplying Afghan fighters since the Soviet era. OBL was there back then as a supplier. These people have had a working relationship going on thirty years. Yonge officers and mujahideen started out together and today are the generals and warlords who share a long alliance.

Of course ISI and Pak Mil knew. The US knew that they knew. That's why the they weren't let in on the raid. It was beautiful all ways around. OBL was killed and Pakistan made to look like a laughing stock in the international community. It was a long time coming.

EDIT for the above: Yeah I read the compound was being dismantled this weekend. It's an embarrasment at this point.
 
Well two things.

1. Stratfor private emails aren't exactly a smoking gun. It's complete hearsay and speculative to boot.

2. My Dad has the theory that Pakistan was keeping Bin Laden safe as everyone knows that the Taliban are going to be back in charge as soon as the Allies leave and this would keep the Taliban on friendly terms with Pakistan.
 
amar212 said:
Damage control, don't beleive a word of this shit.
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Why would The Atlantic be doing damage control? Stratfor's stuff has always been shit. You can look through the Wikileaks emails yourself--Coca-Cola paying them tons of money for "intelligence" that was just a bunch of interns Googling stuff.
 
numble said:
Why would The Atlantic be doing damage control? Stratfor's stuff has always been shit. You can look through the Wikileaks emails yourself--Coca-Cola paying them tons of money for "intelligence" that was just a bunch of interns Googling stuff.
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bullshit, we know coca cola has been in control by a clone of ronald reagan for centuries
 
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