Stratfor Report Reveals How US Intelligence Killed Osama Bin Laden

Local Editor

U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed late Sunday that US forces killed Al Qaida Chief Osama Bin Laden in a raid targeting a compound, and recovered his body.

In a report published by the Stratfor Institute for Intelligence Studies, known for its close ties with the CIA, Senior U.S. sources revealed details of the intelligence operation that led to the identification of the Pakistan compound where the Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden was hiding.

According to two senior officials in the US administration and intelligence agencies, the residents of the compound where Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was hiding in for the last few months raised the suspicions of American intelligence officials.

US analysts checked the information piled up "from every possible angle" and came to the conclusion that there was no possible candidate that matched the profile of a potential VIP resident in that area as does Bin Laden.

"We were confident there was a high-value target hidden in the compound," a senior official said.
"We tried to establish whether the terrorist who lives there is Osama Bin Laden," a senior administration official told reporters after Obama's announcement. "We tracked his personal couriers. One courier in particular got our attention, the protégé of Khaled Sheikh Mohammad, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks."

"Four years ago we uncovered his identity. We identified the areas in Pakistan where they operated", he added.
The official said that the heavy security surrounding the compound raised the suspicions of intelligence officials ever since eight months ago.
"In August 2010, we found the residence. It is an extraordinary, unique compound, eight times larger than the other homes in the town," the senior U.S. official added. The Stratfor report added that the building no more than 5 years old, therefore it was built precisely to meet Bin Laden's hiding requirements.

"In the last six years some residential homes were built there. The security was extraordinary. Access to the compound was restricted by two security gates," the official further noted. He continued saying that there was no internet operators installed to the building and the source of the wealth of the compound's owners couldnt be determined.

In its brief report, the institute said that Bin Laden was killed in the operation conducted by US Special Forces in the city of Abottobad 56 Km away from the capital Islamabad. Eyewitnesses said that US helicopters took part in the operation, which according to US officials, lasted for forty minutes during which clashes took place between Bin Laden and his troops and the US troops that raided Bin Laden's compound.

The Stratfor report further revealed that the Pakistani intelligence firms were of great help for the US intelligence, but the Pakistani government was not aware of the operation's details previously, therefore the operation was unrevealed until it was implemented.