Post by : Rameen Ariff

In a stunning disclosure, John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, has revealed that Osama bin Laden, the architect of the 9/11 tragedy, managed to escape from Afghanistan by disguising himself as a woman. This occurred during a critical moment when U.S. forces believed they had him cornered at Tora Bora. Kiriakou, who dedicated 15 years to the CIA and played a significant role in counterterrorism in Pakistan, pointed to a crucial intelligence failure that enabled bin Laden's getaway.

Kiriakou noted that U.S. forces were convinced they had trapped bin Laden and Al-Qaeda's leadership within the Tora Bora mountains. “We thought we had Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda’s leadership cornered,” he shared in an exclusive interview with ANI. Unbeknownst to them, the translator for the Central Command leader was actually an Al-Qaeda operative who misled U.S. forces into allowing a temporary pause to “evacuate women and children.”

As dawn broke, the caves were deserted, and bin Laden fled under the cover of night, disguised as a woman, successfully reaching Pakistan. He evaded capture for nearly ten years until U.S. Navy SEALs located and killed him in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011.

Kiriakou also indicated that the U.S. had a strong rapport with Pakistan's then-President Pervez Musharraf, describing it as a relationship where Washington “essentially just purchased Musharraf.” He explained that the U.S. provided considerable military and financial support to ensure Musharraf allowed operations on Pakistani soil, even though the local government had its own issues to navigate.

This revelation provides new insights into the intelligence failures that allowed bin Laden's escape post-9/11 and underscores the challenges the U.S. encountered during its counterterrorism efforts in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kiriakou’s insights emphasize the lapses in human intelligence and the complex geopolitical elements that defined the search for Osama bin Laden.

#Global