Imebainika Kumbe Mtu Aliyefichua Maficho ya Osama Bin Laden Mpaka Akapatikana ni Kutoka Tanzania, Sasa Anawadai Marekani

Osama bin Laden in Pakistan

Did information that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011, originate from an informer in Dar es Salaam? This is the question begging an answer following new claims that a man who tipped off the US security agencies about the whereabouts of bin Laden in Dar es Salaam is now demanding his reward of $27 million.

Fresh details suggest that the informant revealed where bin Laden could be found via the US embassy in Dar in 2005. According to the International Reward Centre (IRC) website, originally the US claimed that bin Laden was located in 2011 using electronic intelligence. However, the website, www.internationalrewardcentre.com, disputes that, asserting that the work was accomplished thanks to an unnamed informant who walked into US embassy in Dar in 2005 to reveal that the then world’s most wanted terrorist was holed up somewhere in Abbottabad, in Pakistan.

But, The Citizen couldn’t independently verify these claims because efforts to get the US embassy officials yesterday proved futile. It is noted that until yesterday, the embassy had remained closed as all top officials had been on their year-end leave since December, last year.

 The IRC doesn’t clearly state how the alleged informant came to know about bin Laden’s whereabouts, but it insists that basing on evidence produced, the source was very valuable for indeed, he had connections with insiders within the al-Qaeda operations.

Fresh claims from IRC

 The IRC, a New Zealand-based company, which is acting on behalf of the informant, has electronic documents which show that an informant supplied the US embassy in Dar with information to the effect that bin Laden was in Pakistan in October 2005.

According to IRC, the informant also supplied the US State Department with the names of terrorist cell leaders in Tanzania, including their modus operandi, plus a brief on al Qaeda’s mission in Tanzania.

For the record, the US embassy in Dar was attacked by suicide bombers on August 7, in 1998, resulting in the killings of 11 people and injuries to 85 others.

“Given the magnitude of the information supplied to the US special agent, whose identity and those of his associates in Dar the website declined to disclose, one would expect the informant’s revelation to set off alarm bells from Tanzania all the way to the US…,” reads part of the report posted on the IRC website.

The website says the special agent never made any further contact with the informant and that’s also what IRC wants to know, and what the US State Department should want to know.

It further says it believes further information could have been readily provided if the US special agent in Dar had been more diligent in his communication with the informant.

 “Can anyone imagine the thoughts that would be going through an informant’s mind after passing on such highly sensitive information, in a land peppered with terrorists, then to receive no follow up communication? He was acting against his own physical safety; he put his life on the line for America, yet he has not received one cent of the $27 million reward offer, no acknowledgement, no call from the State Department, no thank you note, nothing,” the IRC says on its website