— An intelligence official and local tribal chief say several hundred Taliban fighters held a memorial service for Osama bin Laden in Pakistan’s tribal region.
They say the mourners hailed the slain al-Qaeda chief and shouted slogans against America and Pakistan. The service took place Monday in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.
South Waziristan was the Pakistani Taliban’s main sanctuary before the army launched an offensive in 2009.
The intelligence official and local tribal chief Ghanam Shah Wazir say the army allowed the service to occur because it was led by Maulvi Nazir, a Taliban commander who is believed to have a peace deal with the government.
The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with agency policy.
And Pakistani media have reported a name they allege is that of the CIA station chief in Islamabad — the second such potential outing of a sensitive covert operative in six months, and one that comes with tensions running high over the U.S. raid in Pakistan that killed bin Laden.
The Associated Press has learned that the name being reported is incorrect. Nonetheless, the airing of any alleged identity of the U.S. spy agency’s top official in this country could be pushback from Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence establishment, which was humiliated over the surprise raid on its soil, and could further sour relations between Washington and Islamabad.
On Friday, the private TV channel ARY broadcast what it said was the current station chief’s name. The Nation, a right-wing newspaper, picked up the story Saturday.
ARY’s news director, Mazhar Abbas, said the television station’s reporter gleaned the name from a source. He defended the broadcast, saying it was “based on fact,” and denounced allegations that the name was leaked to the television channel by an official with an agenda.
“The prime responsibility of the reporter is to give a story which is based on facts,” he said. “Interpretation of the story is something else.”
A spokesman for Pakistani intelligence declined to comment. The U.S. Embassy also declined immediate comment Monday. The AP is not publishing the station chief’s name because he is undercover and his identity is classified. It was not immediately clear whether the Americans would pull him out of the country.
Asad Munir, a former intelligence chief with responsibility for the tribal zone, said very few people know the name of the CIA station chief in Islamabad. But he said that releasing it would not necessarily jeopardize the station chief’s safety.
“Normally people in intelligence have cover names,” Munir said. “My name was known to everybody. Only if there is a photograph to identify him could it put his life in danger.”
In December, the CIA pulled its then-station chief out of Pakistan after a name alleged to be his surfaced in public and his safety was deemed at risk. That name hit the local presses after it was mentioned by a lawyer who planned a lawsuit on behalf of victims of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan.
Suspicions have lingered that that outing was orchestrated by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency to avenge an American lawsuit that named its chief over the 2008 terror attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai. The Pakistani agency denied leaking the CIA operative’s name.
The raid on bin Laden’s compound was an extraordinary blow to what was already a badly faltering relationship in recent months.
Before dawn on May 2, Navy SEALS ferried in high-tech helicopters raided a house in the garrison city of Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden had been living for up to six years, killing him and up to four others. The terrorist leader’s body was quickly buried at sea. A wealth of information — ranging from computer thumb drives to videotapes — was seized from the house.
Bin Laden’s location raised suspicions that he had help from some Pakistani authorities, possibly elements of the powerful army and intelligence services. Pakistan’s armed forces have historical — some say ongoing — links with Islamist militants, which they used as proxies in Afghanistan and India.
Islamabad says it was wholly unaware of the impending Navy SEAL attack on the compound, and U.S. officials have backed up that claim. Pakistani authorities also insist they did not know bin Laden was in Abbottabad, and U.S. officials so far have said they see no evidence that anyone in the upper echelons of Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment were complicit in hiding the terrorist leader.
But in the days since, Pakistan has lashed out at what it has called a violation of its sovereignty and warned the United States against any such future unilateral strikes on its territory. The Pakistani prime minister was due to speak on the subject later Monday and expected to hit those same themes.
Survivors of the raid, including children, are in Pakistani custody. The U.S. says it wants access to bin Laden’s three widows and any intelligence material its commandos left behind at the al-Qaeda leader’s compound.
Suspicions of Pakistani collusion with militants pose an acute problem for the Obama administration because few can see any alternative but to continue engaging the Muslim-majority country. Unstable and nuclear-armed, it remains integral to the fight against al-Qaeda as well as to American hopes for beginning to draw down troops in Afghanistan later this year.
Associated Press writers Adam Goldman in Washington, and Deb Riechmann and Nahal Toosi in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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