While John Brennan, Assistant to President for Homeland Security said in a press conference Monday following Osama bin Laden’s death, that the operation prepared for all contingencies — acquiring Osama bin Laden dead or alive, and that there was preparation for the surrender option — then CIA Director Leon Panetta stated, “To be frank, I don’t think he (Osama bin Laden) had a lot of time to say anything,” CIA Director Leon Panetta said in an interview airing on PBS NewsHour.
Was bin Laden armed? Brennan’s answer on Monday implied that bin Laden was armed, but at Tuesday’s press briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney stated, “He was not armed.” Bin Laden did “resist” U.S. forces … and he added that “resistance does not require a firearm.” He was killed in a third floor bedroom.
View Larger Map Satellite image of apparent location of hideout compound of Osama bin Laden (aka Usama bin Laden) near Kakul Road showing incomplete construction of compound shown directly below.
Protesters in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, demonstrated on Saturday against U.S. drone attacks on their country. Former cricketer Imran Khan, head of a political party known as Pakistan Movement for Justice, led the protest.
Taliban extremists claimed responsibility for the murder of Pakistan’s Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti yesterday morning, the only Christian member of Pakistan’s cabinet. The assassination is the second political assassination linked to controversial blasphemy laws after the first assassination of Salman Taseer on January Tuesday, January 4, 2011.
President Asif Zardari condemned the “heinous act” and vowed that the government would continue to “stand firm” against extremists.
Video shows Pakastanis beating and burning a stuffed dummy — an effigy of an American CIA contractor.
Hundreds of people staged an anti-American protest in Lahore, Pakistan on Saturday. They burned a U.S. flag and set fire to an effigy of an American CIA contractor accused of murdering two Pakistanis in Lahore last month.
Raymond Davis, an American diplomat in Pakistan, shot and killed two offenders attempting to rob him Thursday when the offenders confronted him on a motorcycle along a busy roadway in Lahore.
Davis was reported to be in a car, stopped at a traffic light, when assailants on a motorcycle pulled up alongside and tried to rob him. At least one pulled out a pistol, and then was shot by Davis.
Also, a U.S. Consulate car rushing to the scene of the was involved in a car crash that killed a third motorcyclist.
A crowd of bystanders gathered at the scene, and set tires on fire, protesting the shootings.
The Pakistan ISI suggests the men were Mr Davis’s informants, who were disgruntled in a dispute over pay, causing Davis to fear that they would reveal his true identity.
Apparently ISI sent the men to follow Mr. Davis because ISI believed he had crossed “a red line”. Late last month, Davis was asked to leave an area of Lahore restricted to the military. His mobile phone was pinged and tracked and some of his calls were made to Waziristan. ISI suspected the calls were made to “ground informants” guiding US drone strikes against Taliban militants, where they have a safe have in Waziristan.
Unidentified gunmen in northwestern Pakistan attacked and torched about a dozen NATO oil tankers before dawn on Friday. The tankers were carrying fuel supplies for the NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan.
At least four people are reported dead after an attack in northwestern Pakistan. The dead are reported to have been drivers or assistants on the tanker missions.
Raymond Davis, an American diplomat in Pakistan, shot and killed two offenders attempting to rob him Thursday when the offenders confronted him on a motorcycle along a busy roadway in Lahore.
Davis was reported to be in a car, stopped at a traffic light, when assailants on a motorcycle pulled up alongside and tried to rob him. At least one pulled out a pistol, and then was shot by Davis.
Also, a U.S. Consulate car rushing to the scene of the was involved in a car crash that killed a third motorcyclist.
A crowd of bystanders gathered at the scene, and set tires on fire, protesting the shootings.
Gunmen attacked 14 tankers carrying fuel for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan as they sat parked at a roadside restaurant in southwest Pakistan on Saturday, officials said.
More than a dozen tankers were set on fire Saturday by eight Islamist militants as the tankers were parked at a restaurant in Dera Murad Jamali, Pakistan.
Police say Governor Salman Taseer was assassinated in a shopping market by one of his body guards.
Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s wealthiest and most populated province, was shot dead Tuesday by a zealot bodyguard who told interrogators he was angry over the politician’s opposition to blasphemy laws.
Taseer was a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and had also served as a minister in the caretaker cabinet of Prime Minister Muhammad Mian Soomro under Pervez Musharraf. Taseer was also the chairman and CEO of the First Capital and Worldcall Group.
Taseer was appointed to the post of governor on May 15, 2008, in place of outgoing governor, Lt Gen (R) Khalid Maqbool by then-President Musharraf at the request of the PPP establishment.
Blasphemy laws have come under increased public scrutiny in recent weeks after a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad — that is, speaking freely about Christianity to Muslim women working with her at a farm. Asia Bibi was pressured to renounce Christianity and accept Islam, but she allegedly responded by telling the Muslim women that Christ died on the cross for our sins. She added that Jesus is alive and “Our Christ is the true prophet of God.”
Taseer declared that Bibi should be pardoned, which resulted in death threats from Islamist groups across the country.
“I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I’m the last man standing.”
– Taseer tweet on Twitter on Dec. 31.
Dozens are sentenced to death each year under the blasphemy laws, which were implemented in the 1980s under military rule of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq. Most cases are thrown out by higher courts and no executions have occurred.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced a three-day period of national mourning, ordering flags lowered to half-mast.
At his residence in Lahore, hundred chanted words of support for Taseer.
Experts are worried about infiltration of the Pakistan’s security forces by Islamist extremists. So far it is unknown if the suspect, Mumtaz Qadri, 26, acted alone or had accomplices.
