Pakistan has agreed to allow a CIA forensic team to the country to
examine the compound in Abbottabad where Osama bin Laden was killed and
the US agency will use sophisticated equipment to search for possible
Al-Qaeda materials hidden inside walls at the site.
US officials said the CIA team may arrive in Pakistan within days
and head to the compound in Abbottabad, 120km from capital Islamabad,
with an objective to scrub the site for items that were not recovered
by American commandos, The Washington Post reported.
The arrangement with the Pakistan government would allow the CIA,
for the first time, to enter the complex which it had previously
scrutinized only from a distance, using satellites and stealth drones.
They said since the US assault team that killed bin Laden was at the
site only for 40 minutes, the CIA team will make use of the visit ‘to
do another, more thorough, look.’
"CIA Deputy Director Michael J Morell negotiated access to the
Abbottabad site during a trip to Islamabad last week, when he met with
the head of Pakistan’s main intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja
Pasha," the Post quoted US officials as saying.
Pakistan's agreement is seen as an encouraging sign that the two spy
services will continue cooperating despite anger in Islamabad over the
American operation to kill bin Laden, and a series of recent ruptures
between the CIA and its Pakistani counterpart, the Post said.
The Post quoted the officials as saying that Islamabad has also
agreed to allow the CIA to examine the materials recovered by Pakistani
security forces from the compound.
The CIA has also asked ISI for assistance in analysing some of the
records that were seized in the raid and brought to a CIA document
exploitation facility in Northern Virginia.
"In particular, US officials said that the CIA is seeking help in
deciphering references to names of individuals and places," the Post
said.
US intelligence officials have described the stash of material
recovered from the bin Laden compound as the largest intelligence haul
ever recovered.
"The materials include dozens of computer storage devices as well as
thousands of pages of paper. Even so, US officials said they want to be
sure that other material has not been overlooked. The CIA plans involve
the use of infrared cameras and other devices capable of identifying
materials embedded behind walls, inside safes or underground," the
report said.
The Post said Pakistan agreed in part because it does not have such
equipment and breaking through portions of the structure to conduct a
search might risk destroying any materials hidden inside. The CIA also
has equipment that could be used to recover information that has been
burned or otherwise damaged.
US officials said they have seen no evidence that there were tunnels
underneath the compound. The CIA has already been given access to three
of bin Laden's wives who were taken into custody by Pakistan, but
officials say none of them has been cooperative with US interrogators
or provided meaningful intelligence. PTI
