Sada-e-Watan
Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
MARK COLVIN: Pakistan has been busy trying to deflect those accusations that it must have known about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.
As we've heard on this program this week, there have been reports for years about the number of Taliban and al Qaeda sympathizers inside Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI.
And as we've also heard bin Laden was living within a kilometer of the prestigious Pakistan Military Academy.
Anyone entering the area since about 2006 had to go through a security checkpoint.
But Pakistan says that as the Americans know, al-Qaeda has killed thousands of its citizens and it would make no sense for Pakistani officials to help bin Laden in any way.
Pakistan's Acting High Commissioner to Australia, Tasawar Khan, spoke to Latika Bourke.
TASAWAR KHAN: It is not a militarily secured zone in that way. There is a military academy there and let me tell you that the latest arrest of Umer Patek was also in Abbottabad.
The area has been under surveillance. The information had been shared with the United States. And I think if you look at the statements from the President and from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, they have acknowledged that it is the constant cooperation of Pakistan and the intelligence sharing by Pakistan which has led to the elimination of Osama bin Laden.
LATIKA BOURKE: So are you saying that your authorities were watching this house and may have suspected that bin Laden was there and told the United States that?
TASAWAR KHAN: We shared the information. We have been sharing this information with the United States all along, as a matter of fact.
If you look at 9/11, I can name at least four or five top al Qaeda leaders, who have been arrested by Pakistan - some in joint operations, some purely by Pakistani intelligence agencies. And Pakistan handed over these top leaders to the United States.
It is their scanning and interrogation which has led to the leads, which ultimately led to Osama bin Laden.
LATIKA BOURKE: Are you saying that Pakistan ever tipped off the United States about this particular house, though?
TASAWAR KHAN: I am not privy to that, but what I'm saying is that there is institutionalized intelligence sharing mechanism existing between Pakistan and the United States, and we have been not only been sharing information but the top leadership of Al-Qaeds has also been captured by Pakistan.
That is it. Had we known it, we would have done the same, which we did to the other Al-Qaeda leaders, which had so far been captured.
LATIKA BOURKE: And yet the United States didn't tell Pakistan about this raid because they feared that somebody would tip off bin Laden. Who in Pakistan would have tipped off bin Laden?
TASAWAR KHAN: I have absolutely no idea about that. It is their own assessment. I have seen that statement by Mr. Panetta, and he said there may be a support mechanism. He didn't say where that support mechanism exists.
We have to remember that Osama bin Laden, at one point of time in history, was supported by the West and by the United States when he was fighting against the Soviet Union. So he created his support infrastructure which remained in place because the International community left that infrastructure intact and got out of Afghanistan and we have to face the consequences.
LATIKA BOURKE: Was the house, as some are suggesting, that bin Laden was found in, was that a safe house belonging to any Pakistani authority?
TASAWAR KHAN: There's no question of that - absolutely no question of that. That is ridiculous, as a matter of fact. Even thinking about that would be ridiculous.
LATIKA BOURKE: Yet how did it go unnoticed for so long?
TASAWAR KHAN: There are so many other houses, you know.
LATIKA BOURKE: (asking question, inaudible)
TASAWAR KHAN: No, no, no, no. Let me tell you that having large houses, or having compound-like houses, or having high walls is part of security and Cultural practices in Pakistan.
The problem is that probably, I think, living in Australia I'm also not now used to living in a walled house. The houses here do not have walls but the security and culture traditions in Pakistan and particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The province, where he has been found, it is a normal culture to have 12 feet or 15 feet walls. That is not only because of the security but because of the cultural reasons that housed in Pakistan have high walls.
LATIKA BOURKE: No body noticed that they were duping their garbage in the house.
TASAWAR KHAN: It is only possible if you are keeping an eye on every house in Pakistan, which is a country of 180 million people. Unless we are keeping an eye on every house, of what every household is doing within its walls, well these are all kind of ifs and buts which can come up after something has happened. But having a high-walled house, a three story house is normal in Pakistan.
LATIKA BOURKE: Did anybody in the Pakistani government, military or spy agency help bin Laden live in plain sight?
TASAWAR KHAN: I would respond like that: Is it imaginable for any Australian to think that that ASIO, or the ADF, or the Government of Australia would hide and support somebody has killed 3,000 Australian soldiers or 10,000 Australian nationals?
If it is unimaginable for any Australian national, it is unimaginable for us also to consider. And mind it, Osama bin Laden is the person who has declared war against Pakistan - not only against the Government of Pakistan but the People of Pakistan - and because of his and his follower's actions, so far, 3,000 Pakistani soldiers, and 10,000 Pakistani civilians have lost their lives. That is what, we have suffered and continues to suffer in the hands of Osama bin Laden and his followers.
LATIKA BOURKE: How can the west, particularly the United States and Australia, how can we be confident that Pakistan is not sheltering the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar and al Qaeda's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.
TASAWAR KHAN: It is not a matter of harbouring or hiding them by us. It is their being at large and may be hiding somewhere in Pakistan or elsewhere.
If you ask this question that…
LATIKA BOURKE: (asking question, inaudible)
If you ask such a question, my counter question to you would be to give me one good reason Why Pakistan should be doing it. Give one logical answer to this question - why Pakistan should be doing it.
MARK COLVIN: Pakistan's High Commissioner to Australia, Tasawar Khan, speaking to Latika Bourke.
