US heard Kayani-Pasha talk US believed Pakistan had no clue about Osama ISLAMABAD: The US intelligence had recorded the telephonic conversation between the then army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and ISI chief Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha soon after the May 2, 2011 Abbottabad assault, which actually led Washington to believe that the Pakistani establishment did not know of Osama bin Laden’s presence. A leading security official of the country in an informal talk with this correspondent had recently claimed that Washington would have had never trusted Islamabad and its military establishment here if they themselves had not heard what was discussed between the army chief and the ISI chief soon after they were informed of the Abbottabad attack. It is said that both Kayani and Pasha expressed their shock over the presence of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. The recording of their conversation exposed the vulnerability of our secrets to the US surveillance system, though in this particular case it helped Washington to understand that the Pakistan Army and the ISI were really not aware of Laden’s presence in Abbottabad. It is believed here that before executing the Abbottabad operation, the US authorities had ensured that the post-attack telephonic conversations of all relevant authorities in Pakistan would be recorded, so as to ascertain if the ISI and army had anything to do with Osama’s presence in Abbottabad. According to a report published by the Washington Post, the National Security Agency (NSA) of the US has developed a surveillance system that can record 100 percent of a foreign country’s telephone calls. The system, it is said, allows the agency to review conversations up to a month after they take place, The Post quoted people with direct knowledge of the effort and documents supplied by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.The newspaper said that at the request of US officials, it would not reveal details where the system is currently being used or other countries where its use is envisioned. The report added that the voice interception programme, called MYS-TIC, began in 2009. It added its retrospective retrieval tool and related projects reached full capacity against the first target in 2011. The report added that in the initial deployment, the collection system is recording “every single” conversation nationwide, storing billions in a 30-day rolling buffer that clears the oldest calls as new ones arrive. Recent media reports have suggested that the NSA is recording billions of telephone calls all around the world, including the rulers of some of Washington’s allies in Europe. As against the claim of Pakistan’s key security official, The News York Times on Wednesday stated that the then ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding. The report also suggested that General Pervez Musharraf was also in the knowledge of Osama’s presence. The Pakistani establishment has categorically rejected the report while Pervez Musharraf’s spokesman and former ISPR chief General Rashid Qureshi also refuted the report and pointed out that during Musharraf’s rule, General Pasha was not the ISI chief. Hafiz Saeed of the Jamaat ud Da’wa also completely denied the US media report about the alleged contact between Osama and him during the former’s stay in Abbottabad. The news #usman The Pakistan News
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 03:57:30 +0000
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