Osama Bin Laden Had A Pakistani ISI "Handling Officer"

I sent the following letter to the author of this report...

Hello. What does it mean to be Osama Bin Laden's "Handling Officer" for the Pakistani ISI? What is the responsibility of the person that has this particular job? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jon Gold

His response...

The handling officer of a source in Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies is the person who looks after the welfare of the source, keeps him motivated and uses him as needed. The source cannot meet anybody else other than his handling officer except the head of the agency. One source--one handling officer is the general rule. This is to prevent the exposure of the operation and maintain its deniability. I understand in the CIA they call him the Running Officer of a source.

Thanks.

Raman

Osama's handling officer was incharge of Benazir's security

Source: in.rediff.com

B Raman
October 19, 2007

According to latest reports, at least 132 persons -- 20 of them police officers deputed to protect former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto [Images] -- were killed in a suspected suicide attack on the convoy by which she was being taken from the Karachi airport to the mausoleum of Mohammad Ali Jinnah on the night of October 18. The suicide attack or attacks were clearly aimed to kill her on arrival in Karachi to a triumphant welcome by her supporters, but she managed to escape.

Reliable sources say one or two suicide bombers were involved. The bullet-proof vehicle by which she was being taken by her supporters was protected by two cordons of security guards. The inner cordon consisted of security guards engaged by her Pakistan People's Party parliamentarians to protect her. Many of them were former policemen and ex-servicemen enjoying her and her party's confidence. The outer cordon consisted of officers of the Sindh police and plainclothes security officers of Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau, which is now headed by Brig Ejaz Shah, a former officer of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, who is a close personal friend of Gen Pervez Musharraf [Images] and Gen (retd) Mohammad Aziz, a Kashmiri officer belonging to the Sudan tribe who orchestrated the overthrow of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister in October 1999.

Shah is also a close personal friend of many Punjabi leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid e Azam), which is opposed to Benazir's return.

According to these sources, the suicide bomber or bombers managed to penetrate the security cordon of the police and IB officers without being frisked, but could not penetrate the inner cordon of security guards of the PPP. When stopped, they blew themselves up at a distance from her vehicle. At the time of the explosion, she had gone inside the vehicle to rest for a while. This seems to have contributed to her miraculous escape. Had she been standing on top she might have been injured, if not killed.

There are many elements in Pakistan, and in Karachi itself, which are opposed to her and are determined to prevent her return to power. These include the various jihadi terrorist groups, Al Qaeda [Images] and its allies, those involved in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl and the supporters of Dawood Ibrahim [Images], the Indian mafia leader who has been given shelter in Karachi by the Pakistani intelligence agencies. The anger against her is due to various reasons -- the fact that she is a woman, her close proximity to the US and her open statements supporting the US on various issues. They see her as the US cat's paw. It is difficult to say at present who might have been responsible for the attack on her.

Brig Ejaz Shah has been strongly criticised by Benazir and her supporters for the security failure and they have demanded his removal and arrest. When he was in the ISI, he used to be the handling officer of Osama bin Laden and Mulla Omar, the amir of the Taliban. After Musharraf seized power in October 1999, he had Shah posted as the home secretary of Punjab. It was to him that Omar Sheikh, who orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, surrendered because Omar Sheikh knew him before and was confident that Ejaz Shah would see that he was not tortured.

After Pearl's murder, there were many allegations regarding Shah's role. Musharraf tried to protect him by sending him as the ambassador to Australia or Indonesia. Both the countries reportedly refused to accept him. Musharraf then made him the DG of IB and he saw to it that the death sentence against Omar Sheikh for his role in the Pearl case was not executed. The courts have been repeatedly postponing hearings on the appeal filed by Omar Sheikh against the death sentence.

Ejaz Shah played an active role in the campaign to discredit Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Caudhury of the Pakistan Supreme Court after he started calling for the files of a large number of missing persons who were taken into custody by the police and the intelligence agencies. Reliable sources in Pakistan reported that Gen Pervez Kiani, who was the DG of ISI at the time of the suspension of the Chief Justice, was against the suspension but Musharraf suspended him on the advice of Ejaz Shah and Maj Gen Nadim Taj, who was at that time head of the Directorate-General of Military Intelligence. Maj Gen Taj has since been promoted as Lt Gen and has succeeded Kiyani as the DG of ISI.

While the ISI under Kiyani refused to file any affidavit against the suspended Chief Justice before the court, the IB and the DGMI filed affidavits giving details of all the information which their organisations had indicating the alleged unsuitability of the Chief Justice to head the Supreme Court.

Despite the political embarrassment caused by the case, which ended in a fiasco, Ejaz Shah continues to enjoy Musharraf's total confidence.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)

Ejaz Shah

Is not mentioned in the 9/11 Report.


Who Is? Archives

Thanks, Jon

Another good find and I'm assuming you now have it locked up in your extensive archives.

Keep up the great work!

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

I...

Posted this, and added my own entry at the end covering this.


Who Is? Archives

verrry interesting

curiouser and curiouser........ Benazir - the US' cat's paw. And then the players, Ejaz Shah, Musharraf, OBL and Omar Sheikh.......all interconnected. All clearly working to prevent hidden truths from being revealed.

And then there is the CIA's long-standing interconnections with the ISI..... I wish we had more information.

Anybody know what might be good followup articles to help clarify these relationships...

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"There are none so hoplessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." (Goethe)

Good catch.

That must be the guy who got Osama his sweet hospital bed in Rawalpindi;

DAN RATHER, CBS ANCHOR: As the United states and its allies in the war on terrorism press the hunt for Osama bin Laden, CBS News has exclusive information tonight about where bin Laden was and what he was doing in the last hours before his followers struck the United States September 11.

This is the result of hard-nosed investigative reporting by a team of CBS news journalists, and by one of the best foreign correspondents in the business, CBS`s Barry Petersen. Here is his report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARRY PETERSEN, CBS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Everyone remembers what happened on September 11. Here`s the story of what may have happened the night before. It is a tale as twisted as the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

CBS News has been told that the night before the September 11 terrorist attack, Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan. He was getting medical treatment with the support of the very military that days later pledged its backing for the U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan.

Pakistan intelligence sources tell CBS News that bin Laden was spirited into this military hospital in Rawalpindi for kidney dialysis treatment. On that night, says this medical worker who wanted her identity protected, they moved out all the regular staff in the urology department and sent in a secret team to replace them. She says it was treatment for a very special person. The special team was obviously up to no good.

"The military had him surrounded," says this hospital employee who also wanted his identity masked, "and I saw the mysterious patient helped out of a car. Since that time," he says, "I have seen many pictures of the man. He is the man we know as Osama bin Laden. I also heard two army officers talking to each other. They were saying that Osama bin Laden had to be watched carefully and looked after." Those who know bin Laden say he suffers from numerous ailments, back and stomach problems. Ahmed Rashid, who has written extensively on the Taliban, says the military was often there to help before 9/11.

AHMED RASHID, TALIBAN EXPERT: There were reports that Pakistani intelligence had helped the Taliban buy dialysis machines. And the rumor was that these were wanted for Osama bin Laden.

PETERSEN (on camera): Doctors at the hospital told CBS News there was nothing special about that night, but they refused our request to see any records. Government officials tonight denied that bin Laden had any medical treatment on that night.

(voice-over): But it was Pakistan`s President Musharraf who said in public what many suspected, that bin Laden suffers from kidney disease, saying he thinks bin Laden may be near death. His evidence, watching this most recent video, showing a pale and haggard bin Laden, his left hand never moving. Bush administration officials admit they don`t know if bin Laden is sick or even dead.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: With respect to the issue of Osama bin Laden`s health, I just am -- don`t have any knowledge.

PETERSEN: The United States has no way of knowing who in Pakistan`s military or intelligence supported the Taliban or Osama bin Laden maybe up to the night before 9/11 by arranging dialysis to keep him alive. So the United States may not know if those same people might help him again perhaps to freedom.

Barry Petersen, CBS News, Islamabad.

(END VIDEOTAPE) END

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO311A.html

"The United States has no way of knowing..."

Except that the head of ISI was cavorting with all kinds of high-level U.S. government folks preceding and following 9/11;

"Pakistan's chief spy Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad "was in the US when the attacks occurred." 2. According to the New York Times, "he happened to be here on a regular visit of consultations." 3

Not a word was mentioned regarding the nature of his "business" in the US in the week prior to the terrorist attacks. According to Newsweek, he was "on a visit to Washington at the time of the attack, and, like most other visitors, is still stuck there," unable to return home because of the freeze on international airline travel 4

General Ahmad had in fact arrived in the US on the 4th of September, a full week before the attacks. 5 Bear in mind that the purpose of his meeting at the State Department on the 13th was only made public "after" the September 11 terrorist attacks, when the Bush Administration took the decision to formally seek the "cooperation" of Pakistan in its "campaign against international terrorism."

The press reports confirm that Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad had two meetings with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, respectively on the 12th and 13th. 6 After September 11, he also met Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the powerful Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.

Confirmed by several press reports, however, he also had "a regular visit of consultations" with US officials during the week prior to September 11, --i.e. meetings with his US counterparts at the CIA and the Pentagon. 7

What was the nature of these routine "consultations"? Were they in any way related to the subsequent "post-September 11 consultations" pertaining to Pakistan's decision to cooperate with Washington, held behind closed doors at the State Department on September 12 and 13? Was the planning of war being discussed between Pakistani and US officials?"

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html

Richard Armitage, wotta guy...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3342.htm

And; (researchers might want to save this one to your hard drive, it's hanging by a thread at the archive)

http://www.vicpeace.org/iraq/articles3/1070.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20030320175155/http://www.vicpeace.org/iraq/a...

"A Vietnam veteran and graduate of Annapolis, Armitage's roots have been thoroughly intertwined with the likes of CIA veteran Ted Shackley, Richard Secord, Heine Aderholt, Elliot Abrams, Dewey Clarridge, Edwin Wilson and Tom Clines. All of these men have been directly linked to CIA covert operations, the drug trade, the abandonment of U.S. prisoners of War after Vietnam and/or Iran-Contra. Armitage has also been routinely discussed in FTW as a Bush-era covert functionary who has been linked to covert operations, drug smuggling and the expansion of organized crime operations in Russia, Central Asia and the Far East.'

Richard Secord, and "Heinie" Aderholt

"In the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, Arab Afghans clearly assisted this effort of U.S. oil companies to penetrate the region. In 1991-92, Richard Secord, Heinie Aderholt, and Ed Dearborn, three veterans of U.S. operations in Laos and Iran-Contra, turned up in Baku under the cover of an oil company, MEGA Oil. MEGA never did find oil, but did contribute materially to the removal of Azerbaijan from the sphere of post-Soviet Russian influence.

As MEGA operatives in Azerbaijan, Secord, Aderholt, Dearborn, and their men engaged in military training, passed “brown bags filled with cash” to members of the government, and above all set up an airline on the model of Air America which soon was picking up hundreds of Mujahideen mercenaries in Afghanistan. (Secord and Aderholt claim to have left Baku before the Mujahideen arrived.) Meanwhile, Mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in Afghanistan, who at the time was still allied with bin Laden, was “observed recruiting Afghan mercenaries [i.e. Arab Afghans] to fight in Azerbaijan against Armenia and its Russian allies.” At this time, heroin flooded from Afghanistan through Baku into Chechnya, Russia, and even North America. It is difficult to believe that MEGA’s airline (so much like Air America) did not become involved."

http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/911Background.htm

Tight little circles, riddled with drugs, and covert ops. The same players keep coming up, again and again.

Tim Osman

I have read reports that UBL (Usama Bin Laden) had the alias Tim Osman when he toured American military facilities. My conclusion is that Dick Cheney has the same master as UBL. Its the same "fund both sides of the war cabal" that took control of our republic over a hundred years ago. It is a conspiracy and its no GD theory.

My two cents.

Take a look at his web page on NewsExplorer

Armitage is involved in the AIPAC spying case

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/02/america/NA-GEN-US-Spy-Probe.ph...

I don't think we'll see most of the relevant information in the public sphere, but note what it includes:

"The lobbyists are accused of receiving classified information from a now-convicted Pentagon official and relaying it to an Israeli official and the press. The information included details about the al-Qaida terror network, U.S. policy in Iran and the bombing of the Khobar Towers dormitory in Saudi Arabia, federal prosecutors said."

"Among those subpoenaed in the case were: former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz; former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; and Marc Grossman, former undersecretary of state for political affairs."

Make public the results of this spying case with what Sibel Edmonds knows, and this nightmare comes to an end.

The funny thing is...

All I was doing was searching for anything "new" about Omar Sheikh because "A Mighty Heart" DVD came out, and I had seen some reviews. I wanted to see if there was any "new" mention of his alleged role with 9/11. I stumbled across this.


Who Is? Archives

...

Do we have enough

to create citizen indictments of government officials and others?

And create wanted posters?

It would be nice to get the names of all these folks out there into the public consciousness.

just a wish.......

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"There are none so hoplessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." (Goethe)

Outstanding.

Thanks Jon. This is important information, and should get people thinking.