New Delhi: In yet another revelation that has exposed Pakistan's lies over 'being ignorant about Osama bin Laden's hideout', Seymour Myron "Sy" Hersh, noted American investigative journalist and political writer, has divulged that many in Pakistan government were aware of former al Qaeda chief's whereabouts.
Speaking to CNN IBN, Myron said a lot of people in the bureaucracy knew where Laden was hiding.
“Pakistani radar system was very sophisticated. It was built with American aid, enormous amount of American aid after the ISI and the Pak military started helping us in the proxy war against Russia that we were running in Afghanistan beginning in 1979-80 and if you remember that's how we got connected with Bin Laden and other jihadist groups which the Americans were using to fight the Russians.
I am saying it's worth investigating, worth asking about whether or not the system was actually turned off for a few hours so as to accommodate the United States. That would be worth asking. I am not saying I know anything empirically. It's of great interest to me. There's a lot more reporting to be done on this.” the TV news Channel quoted Myron as saying.
Backing former Pakistan defence minister Ahmed Mukhtar statement that people in government knew about all this, Myron said that the records say that there were significant job shifts. People were reassigned other jobs within a few months.
Earlier, Mukhtar in his interview to CNN IBN had agreed to the idea that Pakistan's top civilian and military leadership may have known about Osama's presence in the country much before the US Navy SEALs killed him in a raid in 2011.
Pakistan former president Asif Ali Zardari, then army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and joint chief of staff all knew that Osama was in Pakistan, Mukhtar had told the English TV channel.
However, later he termed the clips of his interview being shown as "utter nonsense" and "totally misquoted", the Dawn reported.
(With PTI inputs)
