... who has left the building...
whereabouts and challenged American intelligence officials to name one time when cooperating led to a botched operation.
Pakistain is facing ongoing pressure from inside the country and abroad to explain why Pak intelligence didn't know that bin Laden was hiding in their country and whether some Pak officials knew and protected him.
Speaking at a think tank in Gay Paree, Ret. Gen. Ehsan ul Haq, who headed the Pak intelligence agency from late 2001 to 2004, said Pakistain has handed over senior al-Qaeda operatives, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Abu Zubayda and Ramzi Binalshib.
Information obtained from the three helped develop a wealth of data about al-Qaeda, which ultimately led the US to find bin Laden, Haq said.
"The first time that we came across a possible link was somewhere in 2004," Haq said.
"We were chasing a person called Abu-Faraj al-Libi, who was wanted for being the criminal mastermind on attempts against President Musharraf himself."
Just as Pakistain intelligence officials were about to arrest him, the US asked if they could wait.
The US officials said, "Could you please hold on. Don't take him," Haq said, recounting how Pak intelligence cooperated with the US "'Maybe this guy can lead us to Osama bin Laden."'
Haq said Pakistain tried during the next six to eight months to find ties between al-Libi and bin Laden; when they found no links, they tossed in the calaboose al-Libi.
Haq was pointedly asked how Pak officials couldn't have known bin Laden was in the country."How is it possible that he was sitting there and nobody knew? Well, it is possible," Haq said. "For those who do intelligence work, they will tell you that it's possible."
Then he chided the US for not sharing intelligence about bin Laden's whereabouts.
"It should have been a joint operation, it would have been a success story," Haq said, adding that it would have strengthened cooperation between US and Pak intelligence officials instead of dampening relations.
In Abbottabad, a garrison town in northwest Pakistain where the May 2 raid by US Navy SEALs killed the leader of the al-Qaeda terror network, about 300 members of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
's party rallied Thursday in the main bazaar, denouncing both the American government for approving the raid and Pak leaders.