Will India be able to deliver justice?

“Justice has been done”. As soon as US President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed, jubilant Americans flocked to Ground Zero to mark the death of world’s No. 1 terrorist. The killer of thousands of people was shot in the head in the 40-minute operation by US forces on the land of Pakistan.

The ‘Kill Osama’ operation has popped up a very significant debate in India. Can India conduct a similar operation against its enemies, who are hiding in Pakistan? Do Indian politicians have the resolve to bring to justice 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, LeT terrorist Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri and 1993 Mumbai serial blasts mastermind Dawood Ibrahim?

The whole operation makes clear one thing. Diplomacy with Pakistan without pressure does not work. Pakistan talks the talk but does not walk the talk. India has claimed it oft times that the US’ key ally in the war against terror – Pakistan – actually harbors terrorism. The claims made in leaked US government documents obtained by WikiLeaks prove it. The leaks say Pakistan’s security services used to tip off Osama bin Laden whenever US troops approached. Not surprisingly, the terror lord was found in a mansion in Abbottabad, home to many retired military and intelligence figures and just a mile away from the gate of the Pakistan Military Academy.

Whether the operation was carried out with or without Pakistan, the killing of Osama has exposed the two-faced Islamabad. Pakistan had used 9/11 as an opportunity to be an ally of the US in its war against terror. But this time, Pakistan has been left in a dubious state. If Pakistan says the US conducted this operation with its knowledge, it puts the South Asian country on terror radar. If Pakistan says it had no beforehand knowledge of the US’ operation, it proves the country is dumb enough to be fooled. US helicopters breached Pakistan’s defences and later Barack Obama informed Asif Ali Zardari about the triumphant operation.
But the point is: will New Delhi go beyond handing out dossiers to Islamabad? Will India be able to deliver justice to those who were shockingly terrorized and still painfully recall the horrific and deadly blasts in which their kin were killed? What will India do besides reiterating calls for Pakistan to arrest those behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks which killed 166 people? Indubitably, Indian agencies know the addresses of most of the wanted terrorists, who scoff at India in speeches and vicious acts. So, can India do the US in Pakistan?
China has come out in support of its all-weather ally, Pakistan. Beijing has also indicated it would not force Islamabad to hand over perpetrators of 26/11 to India. Already, China-Pakistan ties are a cause of concern for India. And it is also worrying that China will use this moment to increase its influence in Pakistan, where most of the population is angry about the fact that the US forces killed Osama on their country’s soil.
Why is it that at every opportunity, our ministers plead to the United States to tell Pakistan to bring 26/11 perpetrators to justice? Indian politicians seem to have no determination to act tough with Pakistan. Even after 26/11, what India could do was to call back its High Commissioner from Islamabad. Osama’s death brings with it a lesson for the Indian government. Move beyond just talks, Mr PM. If Pakistan were to be persuaded by talks, New Delhi would have gotten hold of most of its wanted man by now. But this certainly is not the case. India’s naïve approach to stop Pakistan from sponsoring terror has produced no results.
The US has killed its Osama, but India’s many Osamas are still hiding in the safe havens of Pakistan. Will India be able to deliver justice now? Hopes are slim, sadly.

dramatically minimised collateral damage

We won't trot out Osama photos as trophies: Obama

Washington: US President Barack Obama has decided not to release photos of killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's body saying, "We don't trot out this stuff as trophies".

Announcing Obama's decision "not to release any of the photographs of deceased Osama bin Laden", White House Press Secretary Jay Carney read a quote from Obama to CBS "60 Minutes" to be telecast Sunday.

"When they landed, we had very strong confirmation that it was him. Photographs had been taken. Facial analysis had indicated that in fact it was him. We hadn't yet done DNA testing, but at that point we were 95 percent sure."

Obama saw the pictures? "Yes."

Reaction? "It was him."

Why not release them? "We discussed this internally. Keep in mind that we are absolutely certain that this was him. We've done DNA sampling and testing. So there was no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden."

"It is very important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of someone shot in the head are not floating around ... as a propaganda tool. That's not who we are," Obama said.

"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies. ... I think Americans and people around the world are glad that he is gone. But we don't need to spike the football. ... would create some national security risk."

Carney said in reaching the decision about not releasing the photos, Obama talked about it with Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"He held his opinion very firmly," Carney said.

Asked about CIA Director Leon Panetta's claim that a photo would be released, Carney said there's a "compelling argument" for releasing information. He says Obama was "engaged" in the discussion.

Osama would have been taken alive if he had surrendered: White House

The American commando team that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would have taken him alive if he had surrendered, the White House said Wednesday.

"If he had surrendered ... then that would have been bringing him to justice as well," press secretary Jay Carney told reporters. "But he was brought to justice on Sunday."

The American team "had the authority to kill Osama bin Laden unless he offered to surrender," he said. Asked about Pakistan's claim that the raid was unlawful, Carney asserted, "The raid was entirely lawful".

"We have a complicated but vital and important relationship with Pakistan," he said. "We don't agree on everything. But their cooperation has been essential."

Asked about the "firefight" in the bin Laden raid Sunday, and who was firing back at American forces, Carney said the White House has been "as helpful as we can be to provide as much information as we can", but that the administration won't be releasing details yet.

On where bin Laden was shot, Carney said: "Above the neck." He said he would not go into "operational details" of the Osama bin Laden raid, but he said that the American team's efforts "dramatically minimised collateral damage".

Asked if bin Laden's location have been known without torture techniques, Carney said: "I can say with certainty that no single piece of information, with the exception of the address of the compound, was vital to this, was singularly vital to this, because we're talking about tiny bits of information that were compiled by unbelievably competent professionals ... over nine and a half years." There was no "thread" that "held the thought together", he said

BAD DEATH OF TERROR

12-year-old daughter saw captured Osama executed

Islamabad: Osama bin Laden was unarmed at the time of his killing and his 12-year-old daughter saw her father being shot dead, it was revealed on Wednesday, even as the exact circumstances of the al-Qaida chief's death remained unclear and the White House changed versions.

An Arabic TV station claimed the child had, in fact, said her father was taken prisoner and then shot, in an execution of sorts.

The girl is now in custody with a Yemeni wife of Osama's, an Inter-Services Intelligence ( ISI) official said. Up to 12 women and children who survived the US raid on their villa were now in custody, he said.

The child, reported to be 12 years old, "was the one who confirmed to us that Osama was dead and shot and taken away", said the official.

An Arabic television station went further, saying, "a source in Pakistani security quoted the daughter of Osama bin Laden that the leader of al-Qaida was not killed inside his house, but had been arrested and was killed later".

Four bodies were retrieved from the daring covert attack, including one of bin Laden's sons, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Up to three women and nine children, including the young Yemeni woman who was shot in the leg and a daughter of the Saudi-born mastermind, were in detention, he said. "There are a lot of questions we want to ask them," another intelligence official said.

Taliban create special unit to avenge Osama killing

The Taliban have created a special unit in Afghanistan to avenge the killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, an outfit commander in Afghanistan told Al Jazeera.

"We have created a special unit to avenge the martyr Sheikh Osama bin Laden," Dawran Safi told the satellite TV channel. "We will take forward his standard and wage war against foreigners and their agents," Safi said in an interview from the Afghan capital.

Wife shot in leg, screamed Osama's name

Osama bin Laden's youngest wife, Amal Al-Sadah, 27 was shot in the leg in Monday's raid on the Abbottabad complex where the terror kingpin was in hiding.

Reports say that Osama and those with him in the sprawling three-storey structure were taken by surprise when the Seals descended on them. The al-Qaida chief was sleeping in a baggy salwar suit, reports say.

As the Seals secured the compound and moved into the building, there was confusion and reports say, she shrieked out Osama's name which gave the terror mastermind away in the melee.

Early reports had said she was being used as a human shield to protect Osama but later the US establishment came up with a denial of the story. It was later said that one woman had indeed got caught in the crossfire and had died, but she was not Osama's youngest wife.

This unnamed woman could well be the wife of bin Laden's courier, Sheikh Abu Ahmed, who died in the raid. In the new version of the story that White House press secretary Jay Carney gave out, he said: "bin Laden's wife rushed the assaulters and was shot in the leg but not killed."

Al-Sadah was was married to Osama when she was just 17 and fiercely loyal to her husband. Their wedding took place in Afghanistan. Yemen born, the marriage was reportedly arranged to strengthen the al-Qaida chief's links with the Gulf.

Her father was supposed to have been "proud" when he gave her away to the global terror kingpin. But bin Laden sent her back to Yemen out of concern for her safety. Al-Sadah refused to stay home and managed to return despite being under surveillance. She told interrogators that she had been living in the mansion since 2005.

Bin Laden had €500 cash, was ready to flee

In indications that Osama bin Laden was prepared to flee at short notice, cash totalling 500 euros and two telephone numbers were found sewn into his clothing when he was killed by US commandos deep inside Pakistan on Sunday.

US media reported that this information was given by top intelligence officials to members of the Congress at a classified briefing at which CIA director Leon Panetta was present.

Another US media report said the American troops that swooped on bin Laden's compound at Abbottabad may have laid their hands on the "largest potential intelligence coup of the post-9/11 era".

The Navy Seals, which conducted the 40-minute operation, carried off five computers, 10 hard drives and more than 100 storage devices and removable flash drives, the Wall Street Journal said.

A CIA task force, which has already conducted a preliminary analysis of the material, is hunting for leads on the location of the slain al-Qaida leader's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is widely expected to ascend to the top of the outfit.

US publication 'Politico', quoting sources who attended Panetta's briefing, reported that the CIA chief told lawmakers about the items found in bin Laden's clothing in response to a question about why he wasn't guarded by more security personnel at his home in Abbottabad.

The answer, according to one source, bin Laden believed that "his network was strong enough to give him a heads-up" before any US strike.

The evidence of cash, which amounts to $740 and phone numbers was divulged to support the US administration's belief that bin Laden was prepared to escape the compound if alerted to an impending attack.

The most intense manhunt in history finally

The most intense manhunt in history finally caught up with Osama bin Laden, but his life's story will be told many different ways by different people. Reviled in the West as the personification of evil, bin Laden was admired and even revered by some fellow Muslims who embraced his vision of unending jihad against the United States and Arab governments he deemed as infidels.
Bin Laden's money and preaching inspired the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed some 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, and forever ripped a hole in America's feeling of security in the world.
His actions set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and a clandestine war against extreme Islamic adherents that touched scores of countries on every continent but Antarctica. America's entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home.
Bin Laden was killed in an operation led by the United States, President Barack Obama said Sunday. A small team of Americans carried out the attack and took custody of bin Laden's remains, Obama said.
Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization has also been blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled
Perhaps as significant was his ability -- even from hiding -- to inspire a new generation of terrorists to murder in his name. Most of al-Qaeda's top lieutenants have been killed or captured in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, and intelligence officials in Europe and Asia say they now see a greater threat from homegrown radical groups energized by bin Laden's cause.

Al-Qaeda is not thought to have provided logistical or financial support to the group of North African Muslims who pulled off the March 11, 2004, bombings in Madrid, Spain -- which killed 191 people -- but they were certainly inspired by its dream of worldwide jihad. Likewise, no link has been established between Al-Qaeda and the four British Muslim suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London on July 7, 2005, but few believe the attack would have taken place had bin Laden not aroused the passions of young Muslim radicals the world over.

The war in Iraq -- justified in part by erroneous intelligence that suggested Saddam Hussein had both weapons of mass destruction and a link to al-Qaeda -- has become the cauldron in which the world's next generation of terrorists are honing their skills.
While scant evidence has emerged of a link between Saddam and bin Laden's inner circle, there is no doubt that Al-Qaeda took advantage of the chaos of post-Saddam Iraq -- helping to drag the United States into a quagmire that led to the death of some 5,000 American troops, and many scores of thousands of Iraqis.
Indeed, bin Laden's legacy is a world still very much on edge.
Frightening terms like dirty bomb, anthrax and weapons of mass destruction have become staples of the global vocabulary; and others like Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and extraordinary rendition have fueled a burning anger in the Muslim world.
But long before bin Laden became the world's most hunted man, few believed fate would move him in that direction.
Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia in 1954. He became known as the most pious of the sons among his wealthy father's 54 children. Bin Laden's path to militant Islam began as a teenager in the 1970s when he got caught up in the fundamentalist movement then sweeping Saudi Arabia. He was a voracious reader of Islamic literature and listened to weekly sermons in the holy city of Mecca.
Thin, bearded and over 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall, bin Laden joined the Afghans' war against invading Soviet troops in the 1980s and gained a reputation as a courageous and resourceful commander. Access to his family's considerable construction fortune certainly helped raise his profile among the mujahedeen fighters.
At the time, bin Laden's interests converged with those of the United States, which backed the ``holy war'' against Soviet occupation with money and arms.
When bin Laden returned home to Saudi Arabia, he was showered with praise and donations and was in demand as a speaker in mosques and homes. It did not take long for his aims to diverge from those of his former Western supporters.
"When we buy American goods, we are accomplices in the murder of Palestinians", he said in one of the cassettes made of his speeches from those days.
A seminal moment in bin Laden's life came in 1990, when U.S. troops landed on Saudi soil to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
Bin Laden tried to dissuade the government from allowing non-Muslim armies into the land where the Prophet Muhammad gave birth to Islam, but the Saudi leadership turned to the United States to protect its vast oil reserves. When bin Laden continued criticizing Riyadh's close alliance with Washington, he was stripped of Saudi citizenship.
"I saw radical changes in his personality as he changed from a calm, peaceful and gentle man interested in helping Muslims into a person who believed that he would be able to amass and command an army to liberate Kuwait. It revealed his arrogance and his haughtiness", Prince Turki, the former Saudi intelligence chief, said in an interview with Arab News and MBC television in late 2001.
"His behavior at that time left no impression that he would become what he has become", the prince added.
The prince, who said he met bin Laden several times years ago in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, described him as "a gentle, enthusiastic young man of few words who didn't raise his voice while talking".
Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of Al-Quds al-Arabi, London-based newspaper, spent 10 days with bin Laden in an Afghan cave in 1996. He said bin Laden ``touched the root of the grievances of millions in the Arab world'' when he presented himself as the alternative to Arab regimes that have been incapable of liberating Arab land from Israeli occupation and restoring pride to their people.
He said bin Laden and his followers never feared death.
"Those guys spoke about death the way young men talk about going to the disco,'' Atwan said. ``They envied those who fell in battle because they died as martyrs in God's cause.''
Still, bin Laden had a knack for staying alive.
After being kicked out of Saudi Arabia, bin Laden sought refuge in Sudan. The African country acceded to a U.S. request and offered to turn bin Laden over to Saudi Arabia in 1996, but his native country declined, afraid a trial would destabilize the country.
Back on familiar terrain in Afghanistan -- allowed in by the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani -- bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network prepared for the holy war that turned him into Washington's No. 1 enemy.
When the Taliban -- who would eventually give him refuge -- first took control of Kabul in September 1996, bin Laden and his Arab followers kept a low profile, uncertain of their welcome under the new regime. The Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar called bin Laden to southern Kandahar from his headquarters in Tora Bora and eventually through large and continual financial contributions to the isolated Taliban, bin Laden became dependent on the religious militia for his survival.
In Afghanistan, he would wake before dawn for prayers, then eat a simple breakfast of cheese and bread. He closely monitored world affairs. Almost daily, he and his men -- Egyptians, Yemenis, Saudis, among others -- practiced attacks, hurling explosives at targets and shooting at imaginary enemies.
He also went horseback riding, his favorite hobby, and enjoyed playing traditional healer, often prescribing honey, his favorite food, and herbs to treat colds and other illnesses. In Afghanistan, bin Laden was often accompanied by his four wives -- the maximum Islam allows. Estimates on the number of his children range up to 23.
Al-Qaeda's first major strike after bin Laden returned to Afghanistan was on Aug. 7, 1998, when twin explosions rocked US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Most of the victims were African passers-by, but the bombings also killed 12 Americans.
Days later, bin Laden escaped a cruise missile strike on one of his training camps in Afghanistan launched by the United States in retaliation. Bin Laden is believed to have been at the Zhawar Kili Al-Badr camp for a meeting with several of his top men, but left shortly before some 70 Tomahawk cruise missiles slammed into the dusty complex.
Since Sept. 11, bin Laden stayed a step ahead of the dragnet -- perhaps the largest in history for a single individual.
As the Taliban quickly fell under pressure of the U.S. bombardment, bin Laden fled into the inhospitable mountains in the seam that separates Pakistan and Afghanistan, keeping up a spotty stream of chatter -- first in video tapes and then in scratchy audio recordings -- to warn his Western pursuers of more bloodshed.
Just hours after the U.S. assault on Afghanistan began on Oct. 7, 2001, bin Laden appeared in a video delivered to Al-Jazeera, an Arab satellite television station, to issue a threat to America. "I swear by God ... neither America nor the people who live in it will dream of security before we live it in Palestine, and not before all the infidel armies leave the land of Muhammad, peace be upon him,'' said bin Laden, dressed in fatigues.
He reappeared in a video appearance broadcast by Al-Jazeera on Dec. 27, 2001, shortly after U.S. forces apparently had him cornered in Tora Bora, a giant cave complex in eastern Afghanistan. Hundreds of al-Qaida suspects are believed to have escaped the massive U.S. bombing campaign there, and bin Laden is believed to have been among them.
During the past decade, bin Laden and deputy Ayman al-Zawahri have appeared regularly in audio and video tapes to issue threats, and comment on a wide range of current events, although the appearances trailed off in recent years.
In November 2002, bin Laden threatened Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia for their support for the United States, saying "It is time we get even. You will be killed just as you kill, and will be bombed just as you bomb.'' Later, he called on Muslims to rise up against leaders in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait he saw as Washington's stooges.
In 2004, he tried a new tack, offering a 'truce' to European countries that don't attack Muslims, then later saying that the United States could avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stopped threatening the security of Muslims.
After a long silence, bin Laden stepped up his messages in 2006, and the subjects he addressed became more political. In January 2006, he addressed his comments to the American people rather than U.S. President George W. Bush because, he said, polls showed ``an overwhelming majority'' of Americans wanted a withdrawal from Iraq. He even recommended Americans pick up a copy of the book ``The Rogue State,'' which he said offered a path to peace.
At several points in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, bin Laden's capture or death had appeared imminent. After the March 2003 arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, officials in Islamabad and Washington were paraded out to deny a consistent stream of rumors that bin Laden had been captured.
U.S. forces poured into the border region looking for him and former Taliban and Taliban in hiding said bin Laden had constantly been on the move, traveling through the mountains with a small entourage of security.
Through it all, bin Laden vowed repeatedly that he was willing to die in his fight to drive the Israelis from Jerusalem and Americans from Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
"America can't get me alive", bin Laden was quoted as saying in an interview with a Pakistani journalist conducted shortly after the US invasion of Afghanistan. "I can be eliminated, but not my mission."