Cahoots

Pakistan Agreed to bin Laden Mission: Report

Bush and Musharraf struck deal 10 years ago.

This might put the U.S.-Pakistan tensions in a new light. A U.S. official tells the Guardian that the U.S. and Pakistan struck a secret deal almost a decade ago permitting the U.S. to act unilaterally against Osama bin Laden if they found out he was in Pakistan. The deal was made between General Pervez Musharraf and then- President George W. Bush after bin Laden escaped U.S. forces in Tora Bora in 2001. According to the agreement, Pakistan would vocally protest the incursion, (pretending they didn’t know about it), but would take no action. If the agreement was real, Musharraf is holding up his end of the bargain: Now running an opposition party from exile in London, he has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the raid.