CIA agents lived in spy house near Bin Laden's compound for MONTHS
in most intricate operation in agency's historyBy Tim Shipman
6th May 2011
The CIA spied on Osama bin Laden for months from its own top-secret safehouse in Abbottabad, it has been revealed.
In one of the most intricate intelligence operations in CIA history, spies moved in to a property near Bin Laden's fortified compound to establish his 'pattern of life'.
The surveillance operation was so extensive that the CIA was forced to go cap in hand to Congress in December to ask for tens of millions of dollars more funding, which was met by creaming money from a variety of other agency budgets.
Top secret: A Pakistani man leans against a wall in Abbotabad bearing the graffiti 'Osama Bin Town' - but it has emerged the area was also home to a CIA spy-house
U.S officials refused to reveal how many agents were part of the close-quarters surveillance team but were at pains to stress the remarkable levels of care required because Bin Laden would flee the moment suspicions were aroused.
They used every possible means to gather information, including Pakistani informants, satellite images, telephoto lenses and listening devices in an attempt to record Bin Laden and his cohorts.
However, Bin Laden was so adept at hiding that the CIA admit to admiring his commitment, having rejected the suspicious-looking trappings of bodyguards and vehicles.
'You?ve got to give him credit for his tradecraft,' a former senior CIA official who played a leading role in the manhunt told The Washington Post.
The CIA safehouse played no part in the actual capture and kill operation and it has now closed down.While it would have been too dangerous for the team to remain on the ground in the aftermath of the operation, it has served the purpose for which it was created.
Discreet: The CIA moved into a house near Bin Laden's compound and were able to remain undetected by a mixture of extraordinary skill and the local conditions that helped the terrorist leader hide for so long
'The intelligence work was as complete as it was going to be, and it was the military?s turn to finish the target,' a U.S. official told The Washington Post, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The CIA were able to move into the Abbottabad spy-house for the same reasons that Bin Laden was able to remain in the city undetected.It was not considered a terrorist stronghold like Quetta or Peshawar, and because it has many holiday homes and refugees from the recent earthquakes it has a transient population.
All those conditions made it easier for the CIA to slip in unnoticed.
But the intelligence gathering work did not stop once the spy-house team had achieved its goals. And with the 'mother lode' of information seized by the Special Forces team during the capture and kill operation, plans for a major terrorist plot have been uncovered.
The swathes of evidence found on computers, DVDs and documents recovered by U.S. Navy SEALs in Sunday's shoot-out show that the terror mastermind was still keen on so-called 'soft targets' like trains and planes.
The only plot that looked nearly ready was one to derail a train on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, said the FBI.
As more information emerges about Bin Laden's life in the compound, one of his wives, Amal al-Sadah, who is in the custody of Pakistani intelligence - has claimed the couple hadn't left the room where he was killed for the past five years.
Al-Sadah, from Yemen, was interrogated by Pakistani authorities who are now threatening to cut their intelligence-sharing arrangement with the U.S. because of the country's anger and embarrassment over the whole operation.
'It will be particularly important to know if the planning of the mission allowed an effort to capture Bin Laden,' said Heyns.
'It has always been likely that he is in Pakistan.'
Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that allocates foreign aid, said he was certain that some Pakistani military and intelligence officials knew that Bin Laden was hiding 30 miles from Islamabad.
'It's impossible for them not to have some idea he was there.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384137/Bin-Ladens-wife-claims-couple-hadnt-left-mansion-room-died-5-years.html
