Osama Bin Laden Courier’s Cellphone Provides New Leads To Pakistani Links

A cellphone of Osama bin Laden’s trusted courier recovered in the
U.S. raid last month that killed both men in Pakistan contained contacts
to a militant group that is a longtime asset of Pakistan’s intelligence
agency, The New York Times reported late Thursday.

In a story posted on the Times website, senior American officials and
others briefed on the findings said the discovery indicates bin Laden
used the group, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, as part of his support network
inside Pakistan.

It raises questions about whether the group and others
helped shelter and support the al-Qaida leader on behalf of Pakistan’s
spy agency.

The officials and analysts told the Times that Pakistan’s
intelligence agency had mentored Harakat and allowed it to operate in
Pakistan for at least 20 years.

In tracing the calls on the cellphone, U.S. analysts have determined
that Harakat commanders had called Pakistani intelligence officials, the
senior American officials said. One said they had met. The officials
added that the contacts were not necessarily about bin Laden and that
there was no “smoking gun” showing that Pakistan’s spy agency had
protected bin Laden.

Beyond providing leads about why bin Laden was able to live
comfortably for years in Abbottabad, a town dominated by the Pakistani
military just 35 miles from the capital city of Islamabad, the discovery
also may help shed light on bin Laden’s secret odyssey after he slipped
away from U.S. forces in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan nearly 10
years ago.

Harakat has especially deep roots in the area around Abbottabad,
analysts familiar with the group told the Times. Its leaders have strong
ties with both al-Qaida and Pakistani intelligence, known as
Inter-Services Intelligence.

The senior American officials did not identify the commanders whose
numbers were in the courier’s cellphone but said the militants were in
South Waziristan, where al-Qaida and other groups had been based for
years. Harakat’s network would have allowed bin Laden to pass on
messages and money to Qaida members there and in other parts of
Pakistan’s tribal areas, analysts and officials said.

Bin Laden and his courier, Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed, was discovered by
U.S. intelligence through a chance interception of an Ahmed phone call.
That set in motion the secret CIA search of the Abbottabad region,
culminating with the May 2 raid by Navy SEALs that killed bin Laden,
Ahmed’s brother Abrar and two other people.