Contradicting CIA’s assertion that it has no intelligence on the world’s most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden since 2003, leaked secret U.S. military documents say the al-Qaeda chief personally attended a recruitment drive for suicide bombers in Pakistan in 2006.
CIA chief Leon Panetta said in June that the last time the U.S. had precise information on bin Laden’s location was in the “early 2000s“.
But the U.S. military intelligence reports leaked by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks show repeated instances in which U.S. forces saw signs of the al-Qaeda chief in Pakistan.
The evidence appears to contradict Mr. Penetta’s claim last month that there has been no intelligence on al-Qaeda leader since 2003, the Daily Telegraph reported, quoting the leaked documents published by the Guardian.
For example, he was reported as attending meetings with recruited suicide bombers in 2006 in Pakistan, it said.
A “threat report” generated by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said: “Reportedly a high-level meeting was held in Quetta, Pakistan, where six suicide bombers were given orders for an operation in northern Afghanistan.
“Two persons have been given targets in Kunduz, two in Mazar-e-Sharif and the last two are said to come to Faryab,” the report stated.
“These meetings take place once every month, and there are usually about 20 people present. The place for the meeting alternates between Quetta and villages (NFDG) [no further details given] on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The top four people in these meetings are [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden, Mullah Dadullah and Mullah [Baradar],” according to the leaked documents.
The documents also contain numerous unverifiable reports on bin Laden’s death, the report said.
