A secret Pakistani report leaked online on Monday provides a series of stunning revelations about the life and death of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, the long-time Al-Qaeda leader responsible for the 9/11 attacks against the United States in 2001.
The report, placed online by the Al Jazeera news network, recounts the testimony of more than 200 witnesses including bin Laden's family members.
On one occasion during 2002 or 2003, bin Laden was almost caught while headed to a market with his security guard Ibrahim al-Kuwaiti and the guard's wife Maryam. The car he was riding in - it's unclear who was driving - was pulled over for speeding, but bin Laden 'quickly settled the matter,' according to Maryam's testimony, and the al-Qaeda leader was once again off and running.
One of bin Laden's relatives said 'The Shaikh,' as he was known, often 'wore a cowboy hat to avoid detection from above' by overhead U.S. drones, and that 'a complete collapse of local governance' allowed him to hide inside the country for six years before U.S. President Barack Obama gave the order to have him killed in a Navy SEAL raid.
That 'kill mission,' Pakistan's official inquiry declared, was 'a criminal act of murder which was condemned by a number of international lawyers and human rights organizations.'
'Due process was deliberately denied the victims,' the commissioners wrote - referring to bin Laden as a victim - 'and their killing was explicitly ordered by the President of the US.'
The US Navy SEALs raid that killed the al Qaida founder in the town of Abbottabad outraged Pakistani officials because they were not told about it beforehand.
US officials have said they kept Pakistan in the dark because they were worried that bin Laden would be tipped off.
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