Ret. Lieutenant General Asa Durrani, who is also former director general of Pakistan’s Inter-Service’s Intelligence (ISI), says Pakistan “likely” knew where Osama bin Laden was and turned him over to the United States in exchange for a bigger say/better role “in the future of Afghanistan.”
Durrani makes clear he does not know these things beyond a shadow of a doubt, but his “assessment” is that ISI knew and “determined beforehand that at the right time, [bin Laden’s] location would be revealed.”
According to Business Standard, Durrani “doubts” the claims that ISI did not know where bin Laden was until his death. Rather, he thinks they probably did know and were waiting for the right “quid pro quo” opportunity.
Durrani said: “The quid pro quo to my mind…(was) you get your Osama bin Laden, provided that, now let’s agree, let’s agree on how to bring the Afghan problem to an end.”
Durrani also weighed on whether the compound in Abbottabad was an ISI safe house, suggesting that if it were, then ISI was “really dong a good job” concealing it. And if it were, then they would have only given bin Laden up because they were “[doing] what was required to be done.”
Aljazeera summed up Durrani’s opinion on the discovery and death of bin Laden thus: “Ex-spy chief says Pakistan likely sheltered bin Laden.”
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