Osama bin Laden and the release of Guantanamo files by WikiLeaks

The unredacted Guantanamo files show clearly that the trail to Abbottabad Pakistan was known to the US intelligence services at least since 2005, when al-Libi, another Abbottabad dweller, was captured.

Timing is everything. The US President announced killing of Osama bin Laden just as Wikileaks completed its publication of Guantanamo files. Was it coincidence?

An answer to this question is directly connected with the cross and double cross accusations exchanged in the murky world where the intelligence services meet mainstream media. Publication of the US secret papers, the Guantanamo Files, was done almost simultaneously by two competing media groups.

The New York Times says the files were made available to it not by Wikileaks, but “by another source on the condition of anonymity”. Haaretz [from same media group] made more of it, that the documents were obtained “from an independent source without the help of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.”

[From these documents] we know that the US knew of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. Why didn’t they capture him or kill him earlier?

Read the full story at CounterPunch