UnNews:Osama bin Laden living in Karachi Hilton?
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| Osama bin Laden living in Karachi Hilton? | 
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18 October 2010
KARACHI, Pakistan -- The Pentagon refused to confirm or deny the claim that Osama bin Laden is living in luxury at a Five Star Hotel in Karachi.
According to normally unreliable sources Osama bin Laden is living comfortably in suite 113 at the Shahan Hilton, right in the heart of Karachi's Zamzama Shopping Area, according to a Nato official who has absolutely no responsibility for the war in Afghanistan and therefore no reason to lie.
The official, who has no possible access to sensitive intelligence information which could confuse or mislead him, told CNN that Bin Laden was not holed up in a cave, but is living in Karachi ever since 2001. The source also said that bin Laden has around the clock protection from Pakistan’s ISI.
Recent intelligence reports had placed him much further south, in North Waziristan, the base for many Taliban insurgents moving back and forth across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Most of the US drone attacks on suspected al-Qaida and Pakistan targets have taken place in North Waziristan due to false information provided by the Pakistan government.
The Pentagon, acknowledging that a senior official had not been given a background briefing on the issue, refused to confirm or deny the report.
The NATO official, who stays in room 117 of the same Karachi hotel, the room two doors down from bin Laden’s suite, said Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are both in the same hotel in Karachi, in adjoining rooms. Both are living in 5 Star comfort. "Nobody in al-Qaida is living in a cave," the official said.
The Pakistan government has repeatedly denied there is any evidence that Bin Laden or his deputies are in the country. Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, said today that similar reports in the past about the whereabouts of al-Qaida's leadership had proved impossible to verify because of non-cooperation by government agencies in Pakistan. If anyone has any information about the whereabouts of Bin Laden, he said, they should inform the Pakistan government so "immediate action" can be taken to relocate him.
Richard Holbrooke, the special US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, said there was nothing new in what the source was saying. "We hardly have a day that goes by where somebody doesn't say that they know exactly where Osama bin Laden is," said Holbrooke. “We’re not going to waste time checking it out, I assure you.”
The US administration has privately expressed concern that the Pakistan government and intelligence services are not doing enough to combat the Taliban and al-Qaida. US and Pakistani officials are to hold talks in Washington this week to bolster further non-co-operation.
Sources[edit]
- Staff "Osama bin Laden living in comfort in Pakistan, says Nato official". The Guardian, October 18, 2010