Bin Laden was in on 2005 and 2006 London plots (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Osama bin Laden was aware of the plot in which al Qaeda militants bombed London transport facilities on July 7, 2005, but it was the last successful operation he played a role in, U.S. government experts have concluded.

Circumstantial evidence, including information gathered from the Abbotabad, Pakistan, hide-out where U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden on May 2, also suggests that bin Laden had advance knowledge of an unsuccessful London-based 2006 plot to simultaneously bomb U.S.-bound transatlantic flights, several U.S. national security officials said.

"Bin Laden was absolutely a detail guy. We have every reason to believe that he was aware of al Qaeda's major plots during the planning phase, including the airline plot in 2006 and the London '7-7' attacks," one of the U.S. officials told Reuters. This official and others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss counter-terrorism matters.

Some of the confidence U.S. officials expressed about bin Laden's involvement in the London attacks is based on analytical judgment rather than ironclad proof. Two of the officials said that there was no "smoking gun" evidence proving that he orchestrated the plots.

However, they and other U.S. officials said there is strong evidence, including material collected from bin Laden's lair, indicating that, as the London-based plots unfolded, bin Laden was in close contact with other al Qaeda militants. One official said bin Laden was "immersed in operational details" of the group's activities.

"We believe he was aware of these plots ahead of time," one of the officials said.

Fifty-two civilians, and four suicide bombers, died in the July 7, 2005, attacks on three London underground trains and a double-decker bus. Hundreds were injured. It was "the last successful operation Osama bin Laden oversaw," a second official said.

The latest assessments from U.S. and other Western officials support assertions by the Obama administration that, despite years of apparent isolation in Abbotabad, bin Laden still managed to keep in touch with activities -- sometimes in considerable detail -- of his followers around the world.

NO EVIDENCE OF NEW PLOTS

By the same token, the cache of evidence found in bin Laden's lair does not offer new indications about any specific current plots he was involved in directed at U.S. or other Western targets.

Investigations by British authorities, with support from the United States and other allies, established some time ago that elements of al Qaeda's core leadership had played a role in the 2005 London transport attacks.

Investigators found evidence that Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the four-man militant cell who carried out the bombings, and another cell member had traveled to Pakistan for paramilitary training before the attacks.

Until recently, however, investigators had not linked bin Laden personally to the July 7, 2005, attacks. Two weeks after those bombings, a cell of militants attempted a second round of attacks on London transport facilities but their bombs failed to go off.

A Western official said there was also reason to believe that al Qaeda's core leadership was involved in orchestrating subsequent failed plots against European and U.S. targets.

One of the plots that U.S. officials believe bin Laden was at least aware of was a 2006 plot to bomb multiple U.S.-bound transatlantic airline flights using home-made liquid explosives.

The plot was disrupted when British authorities launched a major roundup of suspects. Flights to and from Britain were severely disrupted and tight new restrictions were placed on passenger carry-on items such as liquids and gels.

U.S. and European officials also believe that al Qaeda "senior leadership" supervised a 2009 plot, led by an Afghan immigrant, to bomb New York's subway system. That plot was disrupted when U.S. authorities arrested the alleged mastermind, Najibullah Zazi, and a handful of associates.

Since bin Laden was killed, evidence has emerged that he was personally involved in plots against European targets last year, one U.S. official said. Intelligence about these plots led to the issuing of public travel warnings by European and U.S. government agencies beginning late September.

Counter-terrorism officials warned at the time that militants might be targeting cities in European countries, including Germany, France and Britain, for strikes similar to the commando attacks in Mumbai, India, which a group of Pakistan-based militants carried out in November 2008.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Mohammad Zargham)

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Bin Laden charges formally dropped

A thorough analysis confirmed that bin Laden did indeed die after Navy SEALs raided his compound, officials said.NEW: Facial recognition and DNA tests confirmed bin Laden's death, affidavit saysNEW: Chance of mistaken ID is about 1 in 11.8 quadrillion, official says in affidavitThe U.S. accused bin Laden in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East AfricaA U.S. military raid killed bin Laden on May 2

(CNN) -- The United States has formally dropped criminal charges against former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. military raid in Pakistan last month.

In federal court in Manhattan on Friday, prosecutors disposed of a 1998 indictment that charged bin Laden with murder and conspiracy to kill Americans for his role in attacking U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998. The indictment also alleged that bin Laden tried to attack U.S. defense assets.

The bombing of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people.

A raid by U.S. special operations forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2.

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, asked for the change, a request that Judge Lewis Kaplan granted in a brief order.

The action came after a thorough analysis confirmed that bin Laden did indeed die after Navy SEALs raided his compound, according to an affidavit from a top U.S. government official that was included in the filing.

The officials noted that facial recognition and photograph analysis confirmed the identity, along with DNA testing of the body.

"The possibility of a mistaken identification is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion," the official said. Much of the details regarding proof of his death have been previously reported.

The original indictment, filed in secret June 8, 1998, accused bin Laden of murder and conspiracy to kill Americans, among other charges, after the cab bombings that year at the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He was the only one originally charged, but other terror leaders were added to that indictment.

Typically, court indictments are dismissed when the defendant dies or is convicted on other unrelated cases. Such requests to drop charges are procedural and routine. Pending federal criminal indictments remain against other top al Qaeda officials and their associates.

Those include open charges against Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was reported this week to have succeeded bin Laden as leader of al Qaeda.

Other pending criminal indictments will probably be amended in coming weeks or months to remove bin Laden's name, including his self-admitted role as mastermind of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York on September 11, 2001.

A number of other civil lawsuits have been filed by surviving victims and family members of the 9/11 attacks, seeking to hold bin Laden and his terror network financially responsible for causing the worst terror attacks ever on U.S. soil. The disposition of those cases remains unclear.

CNN's Bill Mears contributed to this report.

CNN

Bin Laden charges formally dropped

A thorough analysis confirmed that bin Laden did indeed die after Navy SEALs raided his compound, officials said.NEW: Facial recognition and DNA tests confirmed bin Laden's death, affidavit saysNEW: Chance of mistaken ID is about 1 in 11.8 quadrillion, official says in affidavitThe U.S. accused bin Laden in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East AfricaA U.S. military raid killed bin Laden on May 2

(CNN) -- The United States has formally dropped criminal charges against former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. military raid in Pakistan last month.

In federal court in Manhattan on Friday, prosecutors disposed of a 1998 indictment that charged bin Laden with murder and conspiracy to kill Americans for his role in attacking U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998. The indictment also alleged that bin Laden tried to attack U.S. defense assets.

The bombing of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people.

A raid by U.S. special operations forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2.

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, asked for the change, a request that Judge Lewis Kaplan granted in a brief order.

The action came after a thorough analysis confirmed that bin Laden did indeed die after Navy SEALs raided his compound, according to an affidavit from a top U.S. government official that was included in the filing.

The officials noted that facial recognition and photograph analysis confirmed the identity, along with DNA testing of the body.

"The possibility of a mistaken identification is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion," the official said. Much of the details regarding proof of his death have been previously reported.

The original indictment, filed in secret June 8, 1998, accused bin Laden of murder and conspiracy to kill Americans, among other charges, after the cab bombings that year at the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He was the only one originally charged, but other terror leaders were added to that indictment.

Typically, court indictments are dismissed when the defendant dies or is convicted on other unrelated cases. Such requests to drop charges are procedural and routine. Pending federal criminal indictments remain against other top al Qaeda officials and their associates.

Those include open charges against Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was reported this week to have succeeded bin Laden as leader of al Qaeda.

Other pending criminal indictments will probably be amended in coming weeks or months to remove bin Laden's name, including his self-admitted role as mastermind of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York on September 11, 2001.

A number of other civil lawsuits have been filed by surviving victims and family members of the 9/11 attacks, seeking to hold bin Laden and his terror network financially responsible for causing the worst terror attacks ever on U.S. soil. The disposition of those cases remains unclear.

CNN's Bill Mears contributed to this report.

CNN

Al-Zawahri succeeds bin Laden as al-Qaida leader (AP)

CAIRO – Osama bin Laden's longtime second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, has taken control of al-Qaida, the group declared Thursday, marking the ascendancy of a man driven by hatred of the United States who helped plan the 9/11 attacks.

Al-Zawahri is considered the organizational brain of the terror group, highly skilled at planning and logistics. Analysts said he could set his sights on a spectacular attack and on building up al-Qaida's already robust presence in Yemen to establish his leadership credentials.

His fanaticism and the depth of his hatred for the United States and Israel are likely to define al-Qaida's actions under al-Zawahri's tutelage. In a 2001 treatise that offered a glimpse of his violent thoughts, al-Zawahri set down al-Qaida's strategy: to inflict "as many casualties as possible" on the Americans.

"Pursuing the Americans and Jews is not an impossible task," he wrote. "Killing them is not impossible, whether by a bullet, a knife stab, a bomb or a strike with an iron bar."

Al-Zawahri's hatred of America was also deeply personal: His wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a U.S. airstrike following the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks.

The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri had been expected to inherit al-Qaida's leadership, although the delay in announcing his succession led some counterterrorism analysts to speculate about a power struggle following the May 2 killing of bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

"The general command of al-Qaida, after completing consultations, declares Abu Mohammed, Ayman al-Zawahri, God help him, the one leading the group," said a statement attributed to al-Qaida and posted on militant websites, including several known to be affiliated with the group.

It gave no details about the selection process but said the choice of al-Zawahri was the best tribute to the memory of the group's "martyrs."

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. will pursue the new al-Qaida leader just as it did bin Laden.

"As we did both seek to capture and succeed in killing bin Laden, we certainly will do the same thing with Zawahri," he said at a news conference in Washington.

Al-Zawahri, who turns 60 on Sunday and has a $25 million bounty on his head, takes control of al-Qaida at a time when it is struggling to stay relevant in the face of popular uprisings across the Arab world that are demanding Western-style democracy instead of the pan-Islamic nation sought by Islamists.

Still, the lawlessness gripping Yemen, a poor Arabian Peninsula nation, offers al-Qaida a rare opportunity to gain a strategic foothold in the Arab world, bringing it a step closer to the ability to export its extremist brand of Islam to the region.

"He will send his best fighters and organizers there," said Abdel-Rehim Ali, an Egyptian expert on terrorism and extremist Islamic groups. "Yemen is the closest target and a great start for al-Zawahri to realize his dream of an Islamic emirate."

Al-Qaida militants and their allies in Yemen already have taken advantage of the turmoil there to seize control of towns in the south and strike deals with local garrisons to train with weaponry and live openly.

Al-Zawahri, a trained surgeon who hails from an upper-middle-class Cairo family, lacks the populist appeal of his late boss, throwing into doubt whether he would be able to lure young Muslims, particularly in the West, to join al-Qaida's cause.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said al-Zawahri lacks the "peculiar charisma" of bin Laden and said there is suspicion about him among militants because he is Egyptian.

Still, what he lacks in personal magnetism al-Zawahri makes up for with rock solid ideological conviction and organizational and logistical skills, qualities that may have spared al-Qaida a swift demise following its expulsion from Afghanistan in 2001.

It's not clear how much consensus there was over al-Zawahri's succession, but two U.S. officials said he was not a popular choice. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Al-Zawahri and his backers seemed to understand that, so instead of declaring himself bin Laden's successor in his first public video eulogizing the slain al-Qaida leader, al-Zawahri waited for a call by fellow jihadis, said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and al-Qaida expert at the Brookings Institution. The idea was to create the impression of popular support, he said.

U.S. officials said they'll be watching for signs that al-Zawahri is a leader in name only, with affiliates branching out even more on their own.

They noted that communications captured in the attack on bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, showed al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, argued against bin Laden's idea of spectacular attacks in the U.S. and in favor of smaller operations.

But al-Zawahri's lack of universal acceptance within the organization, analysts said, could give him added incentive to stage a spectacular attack against a prestige target, most likely American, to boost his leadership credentials.

"He must already be planning a big attack to convince the skeptics that he is qualified as a leader," said Khalil al-Anani, an expert on Islamic groups from Durham University in Britain. "He will be under pressure to do that, and quickly."

Al-Zawahri pledged earlier this month to avenge the slaying of bin Laden and to continue the terror network's campaign against the U.S. and other Western interests.

"He was a given leader from the outset. But he doesn't have the same iconic status or personality as bin Laden," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terror analyst at the Royal Swedish Defense College. "He will focus on attacking the West in a big way. To avenge (bin Laden's death), but also to make himself ... even more effective and relevant."

The son of an Egyptian family of doctors and scholars, al-Zawahri's father was a pharmacology professor at Cairo University's medical school and his grandfather was the grand imam of al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's supreme seat of learning.

He has a long history of radicalism, beginning at age 15 when he founded an underground cell of high school students to oppose the Egyptian government. He later merged his cell with other militants to form Egypt's Islamic Jihad.

Al-Zawahri was arrested in connection with the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and served three years in prison. Many Egyptians remember him as the young man who stuck his head against the bars of the defendants' cage in a Cairo courtroom to answer Western reporters' questions in fluent English.

Upon his release, he headed to Afghanistan in 1984 to fight the Soviets, where he linked up with bin Laden. He later followed the al-Qaida leader to Sudan and then back to Afghanistan, where they found a safe haven under the radical Taliban regime.

Soon after came the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, followed by the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, an attack al-Zawahri is believed to have helped mastermind.

Al-Zawahri has worked in the years since to rebuild al-Qaida's leadership on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Al-Qaida has inspired or had a direct hand in attacks in North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 transit bombings in London.

The CIA came close to capturing him in 2003 and killing him in 2004 — both times in Pakistan. In December 2009, they thought they were again close, only to be tricked by a double agent who blew himself up, killing seven CIA employees and wounding six more in Khost, Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban welcomed the appointment of al-Zawahri and vowed to fight alongside the terror group against the U.S. and "other infidel forces" around the world.

"We share the same path with al-Qaida. We are allies," Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Al-Zawahri has been in hiding for nearly 10 years and is widely believed to be near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He has appeared in dozens of videos and audiotapes in recent years, increasingly becoming the face of al-Qaida as bin Laden kept a lower profile.

___

AP writers Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.

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Al-Zawahri succeeds bin Laden as al-Qaida leader (AP)

CAIRO – Osama bin Laden's longtime second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, has taken control of al-Qaida, the group declared Thursday, marking the ascendancy of a man driven by hatred of the United States who helped plan the 9/11 attacks.

Al-Zawahri is considered the organizational brain of the terror group, highly skilled at planning and logistics. Analysts said he could set his sights on a spectacular attack and on building up al-Qaida's already robust presence in Yemen to establish his leadership credentials.

His fanaticism and the depth of his hatred for the United States and Israel are likely to define al-Qaida's actions under al-Zawahri's tutelage. In a 2001 treatise that offered a glimpse of his violent thoughts, al-Zawahri set down al-Qaida's strategy: to inflict "as many casualties as possible" on the Americans.

"Pursuing the Americans and Jews is not an impossible task," he wrote. "Killing them is not impossible, whether by a bullet, a knife stab, a bomb or a strike with an iron bar."

Al-Zawahri's hatred of America was also deeply personal: His wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a U.S. airstrike following the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks.

The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri had been expected to inherit al-Qaida's leadership, although the delay in announcing his succession led some counterterrorism analysts to speculate about a power struggle following the May 2 killing of bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

"The general command of al-Qaida, after completing consultations, declares Abu Mohammed, Ayman al-Zawahri, God help him, the one leading the group," said a statement attributed to al-Qaida and posted on militant websites, including several known to be affiliated with the group.

It gave no details about the selection process but said the choice of al-Zawahri was the best tribute to the memory of the group's "martyrs."

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. will pursue the new al-Qaida leader just as it did bin Laden.

"As we did both seek to capture and succeed in killing bin Laden, we certainly will do the same thing with Zawahri," he said at a news conference in Washington.

Al-Zawahri, who turns 60 on Sunday and has a $25 million bounty on his head, takes control of al-Qaida at a time when it is struggling to stay relevant in the face of popular uprisings across the Arab world that are demanding Western-style democracy instead of the pan-Islamic nation sought by Islamists.

Still, the lawlessness gripping Yemen, a poor Arabian Peninsula nation, offers al-Qaida a rare opportunity to gain a strategic foothold in the Arab world, bringing it a step closer to the ability to export its extremist brand of Islam to the region.

"He will send his best fighters and organizers there," said Abdel-Rehim Ali, an Egyptian expert on terrorism and extremist Islamic groups. "Yemen is the closest target and a great start for al-Zawahri to realize his dream of an Islamic emirate."

Al-Qaida militants and their allies in Yemen already have taken advantage of the turmoil there to seize control of towns in the south and strike deals with local garrisons to train with weaponry and live openly.

Al-Zawahri, a trained surgeon who hails from an upper-middle-class Cairo family, lacks the populist appeal of his late boss, throwing into doubt whether he would be able to lure young Muslims, particularly in the West, to join al-Qaida's cause.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said al-Zawahri lacks the "peculiar charisma" of bin Laden and said there is suspicion about him among militants because he is Egyptian.

Still, what he lacks in personal magnetism al-Zawahri makes up for with rock solid ideological conviction and organizational and logistical skills, qualities that may have spared al-Qaida a swift demise following its expulsion from Afghanistan in 2001.

It's not clear how much consensus there was over al-Zawahri's succession, but two U.S. officials said he was not a popular choice. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Al-Zawahri and his backers seemed to understand that, so instead of declaring himself bin Laden's successor in his first public video eulogizing the slain al-Qaida leader, al-Zawahri waited for a call by fellow jihadis, said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and al-Qaida expert at the Brookings Institution. The idea was to create the impression of popular support, he said.

U.S. officials said they'll be watching for signs that al-Zawahri is a leader in name only, with affiliates branching out even more on their own.

They noted that communications captured in the attack on bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, showed al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, argued against bin Laden's idea of spectacular attacks in the U.S. and in favor of smaller operations.

But al-Zawahri's lack of universal acceptance within the organization, analysts said, could give him added incentive to stage a spectacular attack against a prestige target, most likely American, to boost his leadership credentials.

"He must already be planning a big attack to convince the skeptics that he is qualified as a leader," said Khalil al-Anani, an expert on Islamic groups from Durham University in Britain. "He will be under pressure to do that, and quickly."

Al-Zawahri pledged earlier this month to avenge the slaying of bin Laden and to continue the terror network's campaign against the U.S. and other Western interests.

"He was a given leader from the outset. But he doesn't have the same iconic status or personality as bin Laden," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terror analyst at the Royal Swedish Defense College. "He will focus on attacking the West in a big way. To avenge (bin Laden's death), but also to make himself ... even more effective and relevant."

The son of an Egyptian family of doctors and scholars, al-Zawahri's father was a pharmacology professor at Cairo University's medical school and his grandfather was the grand imam of al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's supreme seat of learning.

He has a long history of radicalism, beginning at age 15 when he founded an underground cell of high school students to oppose the Egyptian government. He later merged his cell with other militants to form Egypt's Islamic Jihad.

Al-Zawahri was arrested in connection with the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and served three years in prison. Many Egyptians remember him as the young man who stuck his head against the bars of the defendants' cage in a Cairo courtroom to answer Western reporters' questions in fluent English.

Upon his release, he headed to Afghanistan in 1984 to fight the Soviets, where he linked up with bin Laden. He later followed the al-Qaida leader to Sudan and then back to Afghanistan, where they found a safe haven under the radical Taliban regime.

Soon after came the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, followed by the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, an attack al-Zawahri is believed to have helped mastermind.

Al-Zawahri has worked in the years since to rebuild al-Qaida's leadership on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Al-Qaida has inspired or had a direct hand in attacks in North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 transit bombings in London.

The CIA came close to capturing him in 2003 and killing him in 2004 — both times in Pakistan. In December 2009, they thought they were again close, only to be tricked by a double agent who blew himself up, killing seven CIA employees and wounding six more in Khost, Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban welcomed the appointment of al-Zawahri and vowed to fight alongside the terror group against the U.S. and "other infidel forces" around the world.

"We share the same path with al-Qaida. We are allies," Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Al-Zawahri has been in hiding for nearly 10 years and is widely believed to be near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He has appeared in dozens of videos and audiotapes in recent years, increasingly becoming the face of al-Qaida as bin Laden kept a lower profile.

___

AP writers Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.

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Why Has Pakistan Targeted Informants Who Helped Track Bin Laden? (Time.com)

In the days following the raid that discovered and killed Osama bin Laden, Pakistan's top spymaster recalled that he had long made his feelings plain to his American allies. Where the two countries' interests meet, Lieut. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha told a select group of journalists, there would be co-operation. But where the U.S.'s interests were deemed to be acting against Pakistan's own, it would be a very different matter. "We'll not help you," the head of Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) quoted himself as telling his American counterparts. "We'll resist you."

Now, Pasha seems to be making good on that promise. Stung by the embarrassment of bin Laden's discovery in a garrison town just two hours away from the Pakistani capital, and the humiliation of the U.S. carrying out a unilateral raid, the ISI has apparently gone after the Pakistanis who helped them pull it off. Five Pakistani informants, including an Army major, who furnished the CIA with crucial leads about bin Laden's compound have been taken into custody by the ISI, the New York Times reported. (See photos of the Taliban's war in Pakistan.)

The Pakistani military angrily denies that a major - reported to have tracked the license plates of cars visiting bin Laden's compound - has been taken into custody. But a Pakistan army officer says that some 30-to-40 civilians in total were being interrogated, some of whom were released on Tuesday. And there is speculation that the detained major, thought to be an army medic, may have been the occupant of a house near bin Laden's compound, where a nameplate said that the property belonged to a Major Amir Aziz. The nameplate was later taken down.

The move against the informants appears to be an attempt to stand up to what the ISI sees as American unilateralism and, in particular, an unauthorized expansion of the CIA's footprint in Pakistan. The ISI, says a senior Pakistani official, is "trying to lay down the rule that the CIA does not operate independently in Pakistan." Beyond the humiliation of bin Laden being discovered a mere kilometer away from Pakistan's equivalent of West Point Academy, the Pakistani security establishment has been angered by widely-voiced but unproven suspicions of complicity. But what appears to have angered the powerful generals most is the lack of trust displayed by the unilateral raid - and the strategic vulnerability that it exposed.

At the time of the raid, senior Western diplomats in Islamabad predicted that the Pakistani security establishment would react in two ways. To efface the shame of the bin Laden raid, it would try and demonstrate its commitment to fighting al-Qaeda and other Islamist militants on its soil. Yet, aggrieved for the same reasons, the generals were seen just as likely to react aggressively in less helpful ways. The roundup of the informants and others suggests that more emphasis is being laid on being seen to stand up to the U.S. (See photos of the aftermath of twin suicide bombers in Pakistan.)

Since the Raymond Davis affair, when a CIA contractor unknown to the ISI killed two Pakistani men in the city of Lahore in January, Pasha and his boss, Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani have been keen to minimize the CIA and US military's presence in Pakistan. Last week, they expelled a group of U.S. military trainers who had been invited to the country to help enhance the counterinsurgency capabilities of Pakistani troops fighting militants in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.

Pasha has long been angered by what he sees as an uncontrollably expanding and independent CIA footprint in Pakistan. At the same May briefing with journalists, the embattled spy chief complained indignantly that his spies were on the verge of being "outnumbered" by foreign agents. It's a scenario that spookily echoes the theme of David Ignatius' latest spy thriller, Bloodmoney. In the novel, the fictionalized ISI chief learns of a new capability being run by the CIA beyond his knowledge. "It was an insult," Ignatius writes. "The ISI chief had considered whether he should do something to hurt the Americans back."

Reality is now rivaling fiction as relations between the two spy agencies plunge to fresh depths. The informants' arrests come on the heels of the CIA's allegation that the ISI may have tipped-off militants based at bomb factories in Waziristan. As first reported on TIME.com, CIA chief Leon Panetta (and the likely successor to Defense Secretary Robert Gates) traveled to Pakistan last Friday to confront Pasha with satellite images showing the militants flee the two sites within 24 hours of the CIA passing on their location to the Pakistanis. When Pakistani troops later arrived at the facilities used for the manufacture of improvised explosive devices, the pro-Afghan Taliban militants were long gone. The Times reported that it was at the same meeting with Pasha that Panetta raised the arrests of the informants. See if the U.S. can trust Pakistan.

Such alleged failures at intelligence sharing and action against militants who attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan are what led President Barack Obama to clear the intensification of CIA operations in Pakistan. Shedding the reliance on the ISI, Obama charged the CIA to proceed independently. One manifestation of that change of policy was an intensification of drone strikes, which almost daily continue to target suspected militants in the tribal areas along the Afghan border. Despite the Pakistan Army and government's loud denunciations of the covert program, they have not tried to put a halt to them.

By striking a defiant nationalist pose, Pasha may be hoping to stanch the wave of pressure that has been piling on his institution, and his own position, over the past month. The ISI chief had offered to resign on three occasions. The Pakistani military as a whole has been made the focus of unprecedented criticism from civil society campaigners, journalists and opposition politicians. There is also tremendous pressure from below, with the military's lower ranks registering anger at the U.S. in the wake of the bin Laden raid.

And yet, for others, there was always an element of inevitability about the ISI's relations with the CIA. "They have been deteriorating for a long time," says retired Lieut. Gen. Asad Durrani, a former ISI chief. "With every such event, they take a nosedive. It's not surprising. We did not have the same objectives, and we didn't have the same strategies."

(See photos of Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hideout.)

See if the U.S. is stuck with Pakistan.

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Why Has Pakistan Targeted Informants Who Helped Track Bin Laden? (Time.com)

In the days following the raid that discovered and killed Osama bin Laden, Pakistan's top spymaster recalled that he had long made his feelings plain to his American allies. Where the two countries' interests meet, Lieut. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha told a select group of journalists, there would be co-operation. But where the U.S.'s interests were deemed to be acting against Pakistan's own, it would be a very different matter. "We'll not help you," the head of Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) quoted himself as telling his American counterparts. "We'll resist you."

Now, Pasha seems to be making good on that promise. Stung by the embarrassment of bin Laden's discovery in a garrison town just two hours away from the Pakistani capital, and the humiliation of the U.S. carrying out a unilateral raid, the ISI has apparently gone after the Pakistanis who helped them pull it off. Five Pakistani informants, including an Army major, who furnished the CIA with crucial leads about bin Laden's compound have been taken into custody by the ISI, the New York Times reported. (See photos of the Taliban's war in Pakistan.)

The Pakistani military angrily denies that a major - reported to have tracked the license plates of cars visiting bin Laden's compound - has been taken into custody. But a Pakistan army officer says that some 30-to-40 civilians in total were being interrogated, some of whom were released on Tuesday. And there is speculation that the detained major, thought to be an army medic, may have been the occupant of a house near bin Laden's compound, where a nameplate said that the property belonged to a Major Amir Aziz. The nameplate was later taken down.

The move against the informants appears to be an attempt to stand up to what the ISI sees as American unilateralism and, in particular, an unauthorized expansion of the CIA's footprint in Pakistan. The ISI, says a senior Pakistani official, is "trying to lay down the rule that the CIA does not operate independently in Pakistan." Beyond the humiliation of bin Laden being discovered a mere kilometer away from Pakistan's equivalent of West Point Academy, the Pakistani security establishment has been angered by widely-voiced but unproven suspicions of complicity. But what appears to have angered the powerful generals most is the lack of trust displayed by the unilateral raid - and the strategic vulnerability that it exposed.

At the time of the raid, senior Western diplomats in Islamabad predicted that the Pakistani security establishment would react in two ways. To efface the shame of the bin Laden raid, it would try and demonstrate its commitment to fighting al-Qaeda and other Islamist militants on its soil. Yet, aggrieved for the same reasons, the generals were seen just as likely to react aggressively in less helpful ways. The roundup of the informants and others suggests that more emphasis is being laid on being seen to stand up to the U.S. (See photos of the aftermath of twin suicide bombers in Pakistan.)

Since the Raymond Davis affair, when a CIA contractor unknown to the ISI killed two Pakistani men in the city of Lahore in January, Pasha and his boss, Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani have been keen to minimize the CIA and US military's presence in Pakistan. Last week, they expelled a group of U.S. military trainers who had been invited to the country to help enhance the counterinsurgency capabilities of Pakistani troops fighting militants in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.

Pasha has long been angered by what he sees as an uncontrollably expanding and independent CIA footprint in Pakistan. At the same May briefing with journalists, the embattled spy chief complained indignantly that his spies were on the verge of being "outnumbered" by foreign agents. It's a scenario that spookily echoes the theme of David Ignatius' latest spy thriller, Bloodmoney. In the novel, the fictionalized ISI chief learns of a new capability being run by the CIA beyond his knowledge. "It was an insult," Ignatius writes. "The ISI chief had considered whether he should do something to hurt the Americans back."

Reality is now rivaling fiction as relations between the two spy agencies plunge to fresh depths. The informants' arrests come on the heels of the CIA's allegation that the ISI may have tipped-off militants based at bomb factories in Waziristan. As first reported on TIME.com, CIA chief Leon Panetta (and the likely successor to Defense Secretary Robert Gates) traveled to Pakistan last Friday to confront Pasha with satellite images showing the militants flee the two sites within 24 hours of the CIA passing on their location to the Pakistanis. When Pakistani troops later arrived at the facilities used for the manufacture of improvised explosive devices, the pro-Afghan Taliban militants were long gone. The Times reported that it was at the same meeting with Pasha that Panetta raised the arrests of the informants. See if the U.S. can trust Pakistan.

Such alleged failures at intelligence sharing and action against militants who attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan are what led President Barack Obama to clear the intensification of CIA operations in Pakistan. Shedding the reliance on the ISI, Obama charged the CIA to proceed independently. One manifestation of that change of policy was an intensification of drone strikes, which almost daily continue to target suspected militants in the tribal areas along the Afghan border. Despite the Pakistan Army and government's loud denunciations of the covert program, they have not tried to put a halt to them.

By striking a defiant nationalist pose, Pasha may be hoping to stanch the wave of pressure that has been piling on his institution, and his own position, over the past month. The ISI chief had offered to resign on three occasions. The Pakistani military as a whole has been made the focus of unprecedented criticism from civil society campaigners, journalists and opposition politicians. There is also tremendous pressure from below, with the military's lower ranks registering anger at the U.S. in the wake of the bin Laden raid.

And yet, for others, there was always an element of inevitability about the ISI's relations with the CIA. "They have been deteriorating for a long time," says retired Lieut. Gen. Asad Durrani, a former ISI chief. "With every such event, they take a nosedive. It's not surprising. We did not have the same objectives, and we didn't have the same strategies."

(See photos of Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hideout.)

See if the U.S. is stuck with Pakistan.

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Official: bin Laden informants arrested

The five CIA informants were reported to have copied license plates of cars visiting bin Laden's compound before the May raid.NEW: A U.S. official confirms that the CIA director discussed the arrests with Pakistani top brassSuspected CIA informants were arrested after the bin Laden raid, an official saysThe official does not know the exact number of people heldThe arrests could be another blow to the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's intelligence agency has arrested a person who rented a safe house to the CIA before American special forces killed Osama bin Laden, as well as suspected CIA informants, a source familiar with the arrests told CNN Wednesday

A second official confirmed that Pakistan had detained informants who gave information to the CIA before the raid but said he did not know the exact number of people arrested or when it happened.

The revelations, first reported by The New York Times, are likely to further strain what has become a rocky relationship between the two countries.

CIA Director Leon Panetta discussed the arrests Friday with Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, Pakistan's head of military intelligence, the official said. A United States official confirmed that the discussion had taken place but would not give details about the arrests.

The first Pakistani official did not say whether the owner of the safe house was suspected of being a CIA informant. He asked not to be named discussing sensitive internal matters.

The second Pakistani official asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Panetta visited Pakistan last week, just over a month after Navy SEALs entered Pakistan secretly and killed bin Laden, further heightening tensions between Washington and Islamabad.

A Pakistani military spokesman confirmed that there were "a number of people arrested in Abbottabad after the raid on the Osama bin Laden compound," but said he could not say if the people were CIA officers.

Some were seized at "a house in Abbottabad that was used to monitor the bin Laden compound activities," said Syed Azmat Ali, the military spokesman. "They could have been Pakistanis who were informants to the CIA."

Ali said those arrests were made by Pakistan's powerful military intelligence agency, the ISI, "immediately after the raid, so this is not a new piece of information."

He and the intelligence official who asked not to be named were responding to reports in the New York Times that Pakistan had arrested five CIA informants who gave information to the United States before the raid on bin Laden's hideout.

The newspaper attributed the report to "American officials" without naming them.

It said one of those arrested was a Pakistani army major who kept records of license plate numbers on cars that visited the bin Laden hideout. Ali, the Pakistani military spokesman said that was "categorically" not true.

It also cited a damning assessment of Pakistan's cooperation with American counter-terror efforts by a top CIA official.

Deputy CIA director Michael J. Morell rated Pakistan's help at a three on a scale of one to 10, the Times said, quoting "officials familiar with the exchange."

Asked Wednesday by CNN to rate the Pakistani spy agency's relationship with the CIA from a scale of one to 10, military spokesman Ali said four.

Panetta, who has been nominated to be secretary of defense, told Congress in confirmation hearings last week that, "The relationship with Pakistan is at the same time one of the most critical and yet one of the most complicated and frustrating relationships that we have."

The relationship between the two countries has been in a downward spiral over disputes about how to pursue counterterrorism efforts.

The United States believes Pakistan is not doing enough to go after al Qaeda and other extremists, while the Pakistanis are upset with what they consider to be unilateral steps taken by the United States within their borders.

The United States is suspected of carrying out regular strikes by unmanned aircraft targeting suspected terrorists in Pakistan -- a suspected strike on Wednesday, killing 10 suspected militants, two Pakistani officials said.

Pakistani officials believe there were more than 100 American drone strikes in their country in 2010, a record, according to CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen. They think most of the casualties were foot soldiers or civilians, not high-value terror targets, he said.

The New America Foundation in Washington, which maintains an independent count of reported drone strikes, says there were 118 in 2010, killing between 600 and 1,000 people.

Public opinion polling shows that nine out of 10 Pakistanis have an unfavorable view of the drone strikes.

Pakistanis were also angered by the case of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who was charged with killing two Pakistani men, then released after compensation was paid to their families.

Davis described the two men as attackers and said he shot them in self-defense. Lahore Police Chief Aslam Tareen, however, said the case was "clear-cut murder."

According to Davis, the shooting occurred January 27 after two men attacked him as he drove through a busy Lahore neighborhood, the U.S. Embassy has said.

U.S. officials originally said Davis was a diplomat and tried to claim diplomatic immunity, then later revealed that he was a CIA contractor.

CIA chief Panetta's unannounced visit last week was the latest in a series by U.S. officials -- including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and Sen. John Kerry -- in efforts to smooth things over after bin Laden was killed in the SEALs raid.

CNN's Nasir Habib, Aliza Kassim and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

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CIA chief on first trip to Pakistan post-bin Laden (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – CIA Director Leon Panetta arrived in Pakistan on Friday on an unannounced visit, a U.S. official said, in his first trip to Islamabad since last month's secret raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Panetta, nominated to take over as defense secretary next month, planned to "reiterate the message of the U.S. intention to continue to cooperate with Pakistan," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The outgoing CIA chief was blunt with Congress in testimony on Thursday about the difficulties between two uneasy allies, whose relationship was further strained by the May 2 raid that killed the al Qaeda leader at his compound in Abbottabad, 30 miles northwest of Islamabad.

The United States kept Islamabad in the dark about the raid by Navy SEALs until after it was over, humiliating Pakistan's armed forces and putting U.S. military and intelligence ties under serious strain.

"There are some areas where, frankly, we have good discussions. ... But there are a number of areas where, frankly, we don't have that level of trust or communication capability," Panetta told lawmakers.

In another sign of the deep tensions, Pakistan's army said on Thursday it had drastically cut down on the number of U.S. troops allowed in the country and set clear limits on intelligence sharing with the United States.

Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani also called for the billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to be diverted into helping the economy.

DOUBLE GAME?

The United States believes the nearly decade-old war effort in neighboring Afghanistan cannot succeed unless Pakistan tackles insurgent safe havens near the border. On Friday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Islamabad seeking Pakistan's help to end the Taliban insurgency.

Pakistan, which backed the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until its ouster in 2001 by U.S.-backed forces, will be crucial to any attempts to stabilize its western neighbor.

But Pakistan has often been accused of playing a "double game," promising the United States it will go after militants, while supporting some of them, an allegation it denies.

U.S. commanders say the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan is being undermined partly by Pakistan-based militants like the Haqqani network.

The Haqqanis use safe havens in Pakistan's North Waziristan region to stage cross-border attacks against American troops in Afghanistan, and U.S. officials have accused Pakistani intelligence of ties to the group.

Panetta said he saw a "simple test" over Pakistan's commitment to tackling the Haqqanis, "which is whether or not the Haqqanis are continuing to go into Afghanistan and attacking our forces," he said.

"It seems to me that if they have an influence over the Haqqanis, that they could urge them to cease fire and to stop those kinds of attacks," he told lawmakers on Thursday.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Bin Laden will "haunt" America: al Qaeda deputy (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) – Osama bin Laden's longtime lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, said the United States faces rebellion throughout the Muslim world after killing the al Qaeda leader, according to a YouTube recording posted on Wednesday.

In what appeared to be his first public response to bin Laden's death in a U.S. commando raid in Pakistan last month, the Egyptian-born Zawahri warned Americans not to gloat and vowed to press ahead with al Qaeda's campaign against the United States and its allies.

"The Sheikh has departed, may God have mercy on him, to his God as a martyr, and we must continue on his path of jihad to expel the invaders from the land of Muslims and to purify it from injustice," Zawahri said in the 28-minute clip.

"Today, and thanks be to God, America is not facing an individual or a group ... but a rebelling nation which has awoken from its sleep in a jihadist renaissance challenging it wherever it is."

Zawahri's association with bin Laden's predates the al Qaeda attacks on the United States in September 2001 that led to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

While the bespectacled Zawahri has been touted as successor to bin Laden, experts on al Qaeda say that another Egyptian militant, Saif al-Adel, is in interim command of al Qaeda.

In the video, Zawahri warned Americans not to rejoice at bin Laden's death. "You should await what will befall you after every celebration," he said.

He condemned U.S. forces for burying bin Laden at sea, a move opposed by senior Muslim clerics as un-Islamic. The Americans said the burial included Muslim rite and took place at sea to deny bin Laden's followers a shrine.

"He terrified America when he was alive and is terrifying it as a dead man, to the point that they shudder at the prospect of giving him a grave because of what they know of the love of tens of millions for him," he said.

Bin Laden, Zawahri said, would continue to "haunt America and Israel and their Crusader allies, their corrupt agents."

"His famous pledge that 'you won't dream of security until we live it as a reality and until you depart the land of Islam' will continue to deprive them of sleep."

Zawahri pledged allegiance to Taliban leader Mulla Omar, who is spearheading fighting against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, calling him the "emir of the faithful."

Zawahri praised the citizen revolts in his native Egypt and other Arab countries, calling on Pakistanis to follow suit: "Shake off the dust of humiliation and overthrow those who have sold you in the slave market to the United States."

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy and Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Sami Aboudi)

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Official: Bin Laden considered seeking deal with Pakistan

The revelation came as U.S. agents analyzed documents found in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.NEW: Pakistani ambassador to U.S. says Pakistan is "not aware" of any such ideaThis came from documents seized in the raid on bin Laden's compound, a U.S. official saysThere is no indication that Pakistani officials were approached, the official says"This appeared to be a discussion inside al Qaeda," the official says

Washington (CNN) -- Osama bin Laden considered seeking a deal with Pakistan under which al Qaeda leaders in the country would be protected and, in return, al Qaeda would refrain from attacking Pakistan, a U.S. official told CNN Friday.

The revelation surfaced as American agents analyzed the documents that were seized in the May 2 raid of bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

The documents show the al Qaeda leader communicated with his operations chief, Atiya Abdul Rahman, about a possible deal with Pakistan, the official said.

The New York Times first reported on the possible deal.

The official said there is no evidence an approach was ever made to any Pakistani officials to try to cut such a deal.

"This appeared to be a discussion inside al Qaeda," the official said.

Husain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the United States, told CNN's Suzanne Malveaux that Pakistan is "not aware" of any such idea.

"The question is, 'Did he raise it with anyone?' The U.S. government clearly says that he did not. It was something that he and his associates were considering amongst themselves, Haqqani said.

"So if we knew something about it, we would have done something about it long ago."

In the aftermath of the raid, U.S. officials have said that they suspect elements of the Pakistani government knew of bin Laden's hideaway in Abbottabad. But Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said recently that was just a "supposition."

The U.S. official would say Friday only that the Pakistanis are conducting their own investigation and that the United States "has no evidence Pakistan was aware he was living in Abbottabad."

But the official stressed agents are still going through the material that was seized and whether there are any "links to people inside Pakistan is still an open question."

The official said the documents also confirmed a point that U.S. agents were aware of: That bin Laden vetoed a proposal to change the leadership of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The documents say Rahman notified bin Laden that AQAP wanted to make Anwar al-Awlaki the leader of that group, the official said, but bin Laden did not go along.

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CIA to examine bin Laden compound

Pakistan has granted the U.S. access to the compound in Abbottabad, where Osama bin Laden hid for years.An official declined to say when the visit will happenThe CIA has wanted to return to the compound where bin Laden was killedOfficial: The team will "gather up any additional information that can be found"

Washington (CNN) -- A CIA team of forensics specialists has been granted permission by the Pakistani government to visit the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, to search for possibly hidden or buried documents, a U.S. official confirms to CNN.

The team will "gather up any additional information that can be found," the official said.

During the raid earlier this month, the Navy SEAL team was able to gather a substantial amount of intelligence documents and computer media during its 40-minute assault on the compound in Abbottabad. But the CIA has wanted to return to see if other material could be found.

Former Pakistan leader: U.S. showed "arrogance"

The team of agents also wants to have a close look at the compound to see what else it can learn about Bin Laden's stay there, the official said.

The agreement was reached several days ago by CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell and the Pakistani government. The official declined to say when the visit will happen and if more than one trip is planned.

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APNewsBreak: US says bin Laden knew of Europe plot (AP)

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER and KIMBERLY DOZIER, Associated Press Kirsten Grieshaber And Kimberly Dozier, Associated Press – 24 mins ago

BERLIN – The United States has told Germany that evidence pulled from Osama bin Laden's hideout shows the terror chief was linked to a plot to attack targets in Europe last year, a senior German official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Two U.S. officials also told the AP that bin Laden had advised Europe-based militants to attack in unspecified mainland European countries just before Christmas. The officials offered no details.

Separately, bin Laden encouraged multiple attacks on Danish targets because of disparaging references to the Muslim prophet Mohammed in Danish media, the U.S. officials said.

European security officials said earlier this month that they'd seen very little of the information from the May 2 raid on bin Laden's hideout, but the Americans have begun sharing more information with intelligence agencies in Europe.

The German official said U.S. officials had told their German counterparts that information retrieved from the Pakistani house where bin Laden was killed shows that senior al-Qaida member Sheikh Yunis al Mauritania was in contact with bin Laden about the Europe plot.

A 29-year-old Moroccan terror suspect was arrested last month in the German city of Duesseldorf with letters between him and al Mauritania about planned terror attacks in Europe, the official told the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

He and other European security officials said they have not seen evidence to suggest that bin Laden was involved in planning the attacks.

"We now know he was a lot more operational than previously thought — and there's some interesting information that has come out on this — but whether this means he was involved in the actual planning or advising remains unclear," said a European security official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive intelligence information.

In September, intelligence gleaned from a terror suspect detained in Afghanistan prompted heightened security in Britain, France and Germany.

Germany raised its security threat level in November after officials said they had received information from their own and foreign intelligence services, including in the U.S., that indicated a sleeper cell of some 20 to 25 people may have been planning an attack somewhere in Europe. Later, Germany also received information on possible separate attacks at Christmas or New Year's.

Germany eased the threat level this year.

The first link to bin Laden appears to have been uncovered with the April arrest of a Moroccan named Abdeladim El-Kebir. At the time he was taken into custody, German officials said el-Kebir and two or three other suspects were working on making a shrapnel-laden bomb in Germany to attack a crowded place such as a bus in spring or summer 2011.

The message exchange with al Mauritania found at his home also indicated that he belonged to the group that American security officials last year warned may be plotting attacks in Europe, the German official told the AP.

The German official suggested that the letter contained some indication that bin Laden had been kept abreast of the plot to attack Europe in fall 2010.

A recent U.S. security briefing on the bin Laden house evidence "basically confirmed to us what we had already found in the letter exchange between El-Kebir and (al Mauritania)," the official said.

On the day of El-Kebir's arrest, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich released a statement saying the suspects had been under surveillance since November, when Germany increased security. He added authorities had accumulated enough evidence to launch an official criminal investigation last month.

After his arrest, German intelligence officials said el-Kebir received the assignment to carry out a bombing from a high-ranking al-Qaida member early last year. At the time they did not identify the al-Qaida leader, and did not say he was also thought to be connected to earlier European plots.

El-Kebir left Germany in early 2010 and trained in an al-Qaida camp in Waziristan near the Afghan-Pakistan border, and returned last year to carry out the attack.

He had at one time resided in Germany on a student visa but later returned illegally after abandoning his studies.

___

Dozier reported from Washington. Contributing to this report were Paisley Dodds in London, Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Al Clendenning in Madrid.

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Pakistan returns U.S. helicopter from bin Laden raid (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pakistan has returned to the United States wreckage of a U.S. helicopter destroyed during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a Pentagon official told Reuters on Tuesday, but the gesture was expected to do little to improve strained ties.

The U.S. Navy SEAL team that stormed bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2 blew up the chopper after it was damaged during a hard landing. They wanted keep sensitive U.S. technology out of enemy hands.

But bits of the helicopter, including the tail section, remained behind and the United States demanded that Pakistan return them to U.S. custody.

"It (the wreckage) was returned over the weekend and is now back in the United States," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said.

The raid that killed bin Laden badly damaged U.S.-Pakistan relations, and nagging questions remain in Washington about how bin Laden managed to go unnoticed for years in the garrison town of Abbottabad, only 30 miles from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. Some U.S. officials speculate he must have had support.

In turn, Pakistan has branded the raid a violation of its sovereignty, since Islamabad was not informed about the U.S. operation until it was over. Pakistan's parliament has threatened to cut supply lines to U.S. forces in Afghanistan if there are more military incursions.

Senator John Kerry, on a trip to Islamabad on May 16, described a Pakistani pledge to return the chopper's wreckage as one step needed to rebuild trust between the two countries which was badly damaged by the raid.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE?

But Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official who has advised President Barack Obama on policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, said returning the helicopter fell far short of what it would take to mend frayed ties.

"It's too little, too late to change the downward spiral in U.S.-Pakistani relations," Riedel said.

Even before bin Laden's death, bilateral ties had reached a low point over Pakistan's arrest of a CIA contractor and mounting U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's western regions.

The government of President Asif Ali Zardari, along with Pakistan's even more powerful military leaders, has denied any prior knowledge of bin Laden's whereabouts.

But some U.S. lawmakers are calling for a radical shift in U.S. policy on Pakistan as officials brace themselves for possible revelations about Pakistani complicity in data seized from bin Laden's compound.

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged the "trust deficit" between the two countries. But he also said Pakistan was too important to walk away from.

"Pakistan is very important, not just because of Afghanistan but because of its nuclear weapons and because of the importance of stability in the subcontinent," Gates told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think-tank.

"So we need to keep working at this."

(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan and David Alexander; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Bin Laden 'was talking with terrorists'

"These are not just the writings of an elderly jihadi," one official said of bin Laden's communications.Handwritten materials from compound show responses, U.S. official saysPersonal journal has guidance on how to attack U.S.Ideas, not concrete plans, are seen, official says

(CNN) -- Data and documents taken from the compound show that messages from Osama bin Laden did make it out of the compound to other members of al Qaeda, a U.S. official says.

"There are strong indications there is back and forth with other terrorists," the official said.

U.S. officials have said they view the raided compound as the al Qaeda leader's "command and control center" but had not explained before why they believed that to be the case.

"These are not just the writings of an elderly jihadi," the official said.

The source said there is evidence of two-way written communications demonstrating that not only was bin Laden sending messages, he was getting responses as well.

Bin Laden relatives want probe and proof of death

The official also provided new details on bin Laden's personal journal, which was seized during the Navy SEAL raid, the official said. The handwritten journal, which was referred to last week by other officials as the al Qaeda playbook, is being reviewed by intelligence officials. Other handwritten materials are being reviewed, too.

The initial assessment is that the writings are from bin Laden, not the other occupants of the house. The official emphasized that the U.S. government is continuing to look at all the material, and the initial assessment could change.

The journal includes information about the importance of attacking the U.S. and lists key dates on the American calendar -- including July 4, Christmas and the 10th anniversary of September 11 -- and other guidance for how to attack the United States, the official said. U.S. investigators believe similar information is contained in other documents, the source said.

Official: Bin Laden death offers 'new narrative' ahead of Obama speech

Both New York and Washington are mentioned in the document.

The idea of targeting railroads, which authorities warned about last week, was learned from this notebook, the official said.

At this point, the official said, there is no indication of a time, date or place for any specific attack, and much of what has been seen are more bin Laden ideas than actual plans.

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Justice Stevens says bin Laden killing legally justified

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens spoke of the bin Laden raid in remarks at Northwestern University."I must say I was very proud of the SEALs," retired Justice Stevens says"I haven't the slightest doubt it was entirely appropriate," he saysStevens has been unusually outspoken for a retired justice

Washington (CNN) -- Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has voiced support for the killing of al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces, saying it was legally justified.

In remarks Thursday evening at his alma mater, Northwestern University, the 91-year-old former justice said the order by President Barack Obama for the covert mission by U.S. Navy SEALs was "to remove an enemy who had been trying every day to attack the United States," according to two people who attended a symposium and dinner that was closed to the media.

Stevens said he was pleased the president took the risky decision to launch the May 2 commando assault on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. The justice added, "I must say I was very proud of the SEALs."

No sitting member of the Supreme Court has commented on the bin Laden killing and is not likely to, since current or related executive branch issues may someday come before them.

There have been legal questions surrounding whether U.S. and international law would permit a unilateral executive decision to kill a terrorist leader with no ties to any government. Attorney General Eric Holder said the day after the mission, "It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field."

As founder and head of al Qaeda, bin Laden was viewed by the administration as a combatant actively involved in past and current hostilities against the United States and other countries.

The insistence by Obama officials that the killing was justified come despite bin Laden not being armed when commandos stormed his third-floor room. Those officials insist the Saudi native "resisted" and made no clear indication he would surrender.

Stevens said based on his knowledge of the facts, "I haven't the slightest doubt it was entirely appropriate for American forces to act" as they did. "It was not merely to do justice and avenge September 11."

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog first reported Stevens' remarks.

He stepped down from the high court last year after nearly 35 years on the bench, and was replaced by Justice Elena Kagan.

Unusually for a retired justice, he has been outspoken on current hot-button cases his former colleagues are considering and on other news events. He voiced support in November for a planned Islamic community center near the site of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, urging religious and ethnic tolerance.

He announced this week he has almost completed writing a memoir of sorts, a look at the five chief justices he has known and worked with over the past 64 years. Called the "Five Chiefs," and to be published by Little Brown this October, the book will also give an inside look at the court and Stevens' personal insights on colleagues past and present, including current Chief Justice John Roberts.

Before retiring, Stevens had been a consistent supporter of limited rights for terror suspects in U.S. custody overseas to challenge their detention in federal courts. In the first terrorism case to arise in the high court from the 9/11 attacks, Stevens said foreign-born terror suspects captured abroad and held at a Navy-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, did have some basic rights.

"What is presently at stake is only whether the federal courts have jurisdiction to determine the legality of the executive's potentially indefinite detention of individuals who claim to be wholly innocent of wrongdoing," he wrote in 2004.

Stevens is a World War II veteran. He served as an intelligence officer in Hawaii, where his work included supervising the cracking of secret Japanese codes. He was speaking in public Friday to graduates at his old law school in Chicago, where he graduated in 1947 at the top of his class.

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Lawsuit filed over bin Laden death photos

"The American people have a right to know, by law" more about bin Laden's death at his Pakistan compound, Judicial Watch said.Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch sues Defense DepartmentLegal group has made Freedom of Information request for materialsIt wants video, photographs of raid that killed al Qaeda leaderObama has said government will not publicly release photos

Washington (CNN) -- A conservative legal watchdog group has filed the first lawsuit seeking public release of video and photographs of the U.S. military raid and aftermath that left al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden dead.

Judicial Watch is asking the Department of Defense to comply with a Freedom of Information request for the material, especially photos of the September 11 mastermind lying dead on the third floor of his Pakistan hideout. The legal complaint to force compliance was made in federal court in Washington on Friday.

The group says it is being "irreparably harmed" by the Obama administration's "unlawful withholding of requested records."

Judicial Watch made its initial request the day after the commando assault by Navy SEALs. A similar request for material was filed against the CIA.

President Barack Obama had announced that the U.S. government would not reveal any photographs of the May 2 military action and bin Laden's subsequent burial at sea. Some members of Congress have been allowed to privately view the materials this week.

Some al Qaeda-affiliated leaders, along with domestic and foreign websites and blogs, have questioned whether bin Laden was really killed and whether the details of his death released by the administration were accurate.

A May 9 letter from the Pentagon to Judicial Watch -- mentioned in the legal complaint -- stated, "At this time, we are unable to make a release determination on your request within the 20-day statutory time period" required by federal law. The legal group had the option of filing an administrative appeal directly with the Defense Department, rather than going for a lawsuit.

"The American people have a right to know, by law, basic information about the killing of Osama bin Laden," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. "Incredibly, the Obama administration told us that it has no plans to comply with the Freedom of Information law, so we must now go to court. President Obama's not wanting to 'spike the football' is not a lawful basis for withholding government documents. This historic lawsuit should remind the Obama administration that it is not above the law."

Obama had barred any public release of photos or video, telling CBS News, "It is important to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool." He added, "We don't trot this stuff out as trophies. We don't need to spike the football."

Judicial Watch calls itself a "a conservative, nonpartisan educational foundation (promoting) transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law."

The case is Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense (1:11-cv-00890).

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Pakistani PM: End 'blame game' over bin Laden

Abbottabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan will allow the United States to question or take into custody the apparent wives of Osama bin Laden only if their "country of origin has been asked for permission," a senior Pakistani intelligence source told CNN on Monday.

One of bin Laden's wives is from Yemen, the official said.

Pakistani officials have said bin Laden's family members will be repatriated to their home countries after initial interrogations are completed.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday delivered his first address to the lower house of Parliament since the killing of bin Laden, rejecting accusations that his government had failed to adequately pursue the world's most wanted terrorist.

While calling bin Laden's death "justice done," Gilani repeatedly assailed U.S. violation of Pakistani "sovereignty" in conducting the operation without Pakistan's knowledge or involvement.

"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," Gilani said, referring to suggestions by some U.S. officials that there may be some within the Pakistani government or military who were helping shield bin Laden or failing to look for him. "We emphatically reject such accusations. Speculative narratives in the public domain are meant to create despondency. We will not allow our detractors to succeed in offloading their own shortcomings and errors of omission and commission in a blame game that stigmatizes Pakistan."

Bin Laden was found in a compound in Abbottabad, a city with a heavy military presence a few hours drive from Islamabad -- rather than in the remote mountains and caves that Pakistani and U.S. officials often said were his hiding place.

Gilani also insisted that Pakistan's response to the sudden arrival of U.S. forces in the nighttime operation deserves praise. "The Air Force was ordered to scramble. Ground units arrived at the scene quickly. Our response demonstrates that our armed forces reacted, as was expected of them." Still, he added, "there is no denying the U.S. technological ability to evade our radars."

"Any attack against Pakistan's strategic assets whether overt or covert will find a matching response," Gilani said. "Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force. No one should underestimate the resolve and capability of our nation and armed forces to defend our sacred homeland."

"Unilateralism runs the inherent risk of serious consequences," Gilani said, in a fiery speech frequently interrupted by applause from some lawmakers. "Suppose the operation had gone wrong."

Still, Gilani said, "Pakistan attaches high importance to its relations with the U.S. We have a strategic partnership which we believe serves our mutual interests. It is based on mutual respect and mutual trust." And recent discussions with the United States "have been good, productive and straightforward," he said.

Gilani also noted that an investigation is under way into bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad.

The speech came amid reports suggesting the possible leak of a CIA agent's name in Pakistan. Pakistani news outlets named a man they identified as the CIA station chief. But a senior Pakistani intelligence official said the name was inaccurate and he did not know where it came from. "If we were going to release the name, we would release the right one," the official said.

A U.S. official said there is "no current plan to bring home the current chief of station" in Pakistan.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's chief of army staff, said Monday that he has requested that Gilani convene a joint session of Parliament for a "briefing on security issues as related to Abbottabad incident," according to a statement from the Pakistani military. Kayani requested "a consensus on important security issues including war on terror" and a response to be articulated through the Parliament as "the most effective way to let the world know the historic achievements of Pakistan against al Qaeda and its terror affiliates."

U.S. President Barack Obama said he thinks bin Laden likely had a group of supporters within Pakistan helping to keep the al Qaeda leader secure for years, despite the U.S.-led international manhunt that extended for nearly a decade with Islamabad's ostensible support.

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night, Obama said, "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don't know who or what that support network was."

The president said U.S. officials "don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government (or) people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate."

"More importantly," he added, "the Pakistani government has to investigate."

In the interview, Obama also said sending U.S. troops on a dangerous mission to get bin Laden was worth the risks, even though it was not certain bin Laden was in the compound.

"Obviously, we're going into the sovereign territory of another country and landing helicopters and conducting a military operation," he said. "And so, if it turns out that it's a wealthy, you know, prince from Dubai who's in this compound and, you know, we've sent special forces in, we've got problems."

Top U.S. officials insist Pakistan remains a critical U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism, but are demanding answers to troubling questions about bin Laden's presence in that country over the past six years.

Last week, CIA Director Leon Panetta -- nominated by Obama to succeed Robert Gates as defense secretary -- told House members during a closed-door briefing that Pakistan was "either involved or incompetent," according to two sources in attendance.

Pakistani armed forces chiefs issued a statement last week admitting "shortcomings in developing intelligence" on the terrorist leader's presence in the country.

Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon, said he has not seen any information to indicate Pakistani officials knew bin Laden was living in Abbottabad.

But if evidence is discovered that is "highly disturbing, we'll certainly press that," he said.

There have been no decisions on reducing the number of U.S. military personnel in Pakistan or halting key supply lines to the war in Afghanistan, despite tensions between the United States and Pakistan, the Pentagon said Monday.

"I couldn't tell you whether there have been discussions. I can tell you there have been no decisions about either of those," Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said.

"We have routine discussions with the Pakistanis, so I would presume there are discussions along these lines, but I have been told there are no decisions about reducing our number of forces or changing our lines of communications through Pakistan," Lapan said.

There are some 300 American military personnel in Pakistan. Overland routes through Pakistan are important for supplying the war effort in Afghanistan.

Lapan refused to answer questions about the downed U.S. helicopter left behind when U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden, including whether the United States is asking Pakistan to return the pieces of what is considered a highly advanced and -- until now -- secret, stealthy design. "We're not talking about it," Lapan said.

The U.S. operation collected a trove of material from the compound -- including 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices, such as disks and thumb drives, a senior U.S. official told CNN.

Investigators are poring over the items for intelligence. In recent days, the materials taken from bin Laden's compound revealed details about a possible attack on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

The material suggests that al Qaeda was particularly interested in striking Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. authorities have found that al Qaeda appeared especially interested in striking on significant dates like July 4, Christmas and the opening day of the United Nations.

As early as February 2010, al Qaeda members discussed a plan to derail trains in the United States by placing obstructions on tracks over bridges and valleys, an alert said, according to one law enforcement official.

Dozens of people in Abbottabad have been arrested because of their suspected connections to the compound where bin Laden was shot and killed, a Pakistani intelligence official said last week. Investigators want to know whether any of the people are al Qaeda members or sympathizers.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, Charley Keyes, and Samson Desta contributed to this report.

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Should bin Laden bounty go to 9/11 victims' families?

New York (CNN) -- Any unclaimed bounty money from the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden should go to the first responders, victims' families and survivors of the 9/11 terror attacks, a pair of New York congressmen said Sunday.

Reps. Anthony Weiner and Jerrold Nadler have introduced legislation that would award up to $50 million of the bounty approved by Congress to help fund organizations that provide health care, psychological care and other resources to those most directly affected in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

"These programs are ones that desperately need funding that are still everyday dealing with the ramifications of September 11," Weiner said at a news conference from ground zero.

"Hopefully they will now benefit from this reward money."

The bounty is part of the Rewards for Justice program run by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Since its creation in 1984, it has paid out over $100 million to more than 60 people.

The State Department approved a bounty of up to $25 million for bin Laden in 2001. Three years later, Congress authorized raising the figure to $50 million, although it was never increased by the State Department.

The program grants money to people who provided "actionable information that put terrorists behind bars or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide," according to its website.

"The department does not generally discuss nominations for awards," State Department spokesman Harry Edwards said shortly after bin Laden was killed last week. The offer, he added, is for a maximum of $25 million. "If it were paid, it could be less."

It is possible that no reward money will be granted. Unidentified detainees provided a key piece of information that helped investigators locate bin Laden, Obama administration officials said.

Even if only a portion of the reward money is given out, the lawmakers plan to introduce legislation to Congress that would funnel the remainder to groups that help survivors and family members "so it doesn't sit fallow in a bank account." Weiner said

"[The reward] was allocated for 9/11 victims in effect, and this is simply, saying use it more effectively for the purpose that it was set up in the first place," Nadler said.

The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 paid out an average of $2.1 million to thousands of victims' family members who filed claims in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the fund's website said. In addition, survivors who filed personal injury claims with the fund were awarded payments ranging from $500 to $8.6 million.

The State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore had no comment on the possible legislation Sunday night.

CNN's Ben Rooney contributed to this report.

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U.S. says it wants access to bin Laden widows

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United States wants access to Osama bin Laden's three widows and any intelligence material its commandos left behind at the al-Qaida leader's compound, a top American official said in comments broadcast Sunday that could add a fresh sticking point in already frayed ties with Pakistan.

Local residents gather to view the house of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Sunday.

Information from the women, who remained in the house after the commandos killed bin Laden, might answer questions about whether Pakistan harbored the al-Qaida chief as many American officials are speculating. It could also reveal details about the day-to-day life of bin Laden, his actions since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the inner workings of al-Qaida.

The women, along with several children also picked up from the house, are believed to be in Pakistani army custody. A Pakistani army official declined to comment Sunday on the request, which U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon revealed on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The CIA and Pakistan's spy agency, known by the acronym ISI, have worked uneasily together in the past on counterterrorism, but the unilateral U.S. raid — done without Pakistan's advance knowledge — has exposed the deep mistrust that scars a complicated if vital partnership for both nations.

Even before the May 1 raid, the ISI said it was cutting cooperation with CIA to protest drone strikes close to the Afghan border, among other things. In the current environment, Pakistan could use the fact it has something Washington wants — bin Laden's widows — as leverage to reduce some of the pressure it is under.

Bin Laden was found in a large house close to a military academy in the army town of Abbottabad where he had been living for up to six years. His location raised U.S. suspicions that he had help from some Pakistani authorities, possibly elements of the powerful army and intelligence services.

Donilon said Washington had seen no evidence that the Pakistani government had been colluding with bin Laden — the public line taken by most U.S. officials since the raid, including President Barack Obama in comments also broadcast Sunday.

"But they need to investigate that," Donilon said. "And they need to provide us with intelligence, by the way, from the compound that they've gathered, including access to Osama bin Laden's three wives, whom they have in ? custody."

Donilon also said Pakistani authorities had collected other evidence from the house which the United States wanted to "work with them on assessing." U.S. commandos managed to seize a large and valuable intelligence haul that included videos, telephone numbers and documents, along with the body of bin Laden, before flying back to Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials.

The Pakistani government has strongly denied it knew of bin Laden's whereabouts, but Western governments have long regarded Islamabad with suspicion. Its armed forces have historical — some say ongoing — links with Islamist militants, which they used as proxies in Afghanistan and India.

The allegations of Pakistani collusion pose an acute problem for the Obama administration because few can see any alternative but to continue engaging with the country. Unstable and nuclear-armed, it remains integral to the fight against al-Qaida as well as to American hopes for beginning to draw down troops in Afghanistan later this year.

"We need to act in our national interest," Donilon said. "We have had difficulty with Pakistan, as I said. But we've also had to work very closely with Pakistan in our counter-terror efforts."

The American commandos killed bin Laden and up to four other people, including one of his sons, at the compound.

Pakistani officials have given little information, some of it conflicting, about the identities of the women and children left behind, including exactly how many there are and what they allegedly have been saying.

One of the wives is Yemeni, Pakistani officials have said. A copy of her passport, leaked to the local media, identifies her as Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah. She has allegedly told Pakistani investigators that she moved to the home in 2006 and never left the upper floors of the three-story compound, where bin Laden was living.

She is from the southern Yemeni province of Ibb, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) south of the capital, Sanaa. A family member there has sought a meeting with Pakistan's ambassador to Yemen to ask about her fate and whether she is to return to Yemen. The relative, a cousin named Walid al-Sada, said the ambassador did not know and promised to get back to the family.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tahmina Janjua said no countries have asked for the return of bin Laden's relatives. The Foreign Ministry in a statement last week said they were being well looked after and will be returned to their countries of origin.

When the Navy SEALs raided bin Laden's compound, they collected computer equipment and videos, including one that showed bin Laden huddled in a blanket and wearing a knit cap while seated on the floor watching television — an image that contrasts with the bin Laden seen in propaganda videos released over the years, which depicted him as a charismatic religious figure unaffected by the world's scorn.

But many Pakistanis, who are routinely misled by their government and live in a country where television and newspapers report conspiracy theories about the malign intentions of the United States uncritically, don't believe bin Laden has died.

"I think Osama did not die," said Mohammad Khan at a newspaper kiosk in Rawalpindi city. "I don't believe even 1 percent that he was martyred in Abbottabad. The making of a video is not a big thing for America. They can do what they want because they have the latest technology. They can make impossible things seem possible."

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