Bricks from Bin Laden's house go on sale in Pakistan - Al-Arabiya

The man in charge of bulldozing the house that was home to Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in February is selling bricks and other paraphernalia to tourists, reported the Telegraph.

Shakeel Ahmad told the British newspaper that his salvage yard in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden lived with his family for years before being killed in a U.S. operation on May 2 last year, had “become a tourist attraction for visitors looking for a souvenir.”

Ahmad holds under 200,000 bricks from the house which he says can be used to build homes, adding that some visitors were buying them as mementoes or gifts.

Pakistani authorities destroyed the Bin Laden compound in February this year, ostensibly to rid itself of all associations with the terror leader.
Bin Laden is believed to have moved to Abbottabad in 2004 with his wives and family, evading authorities in Pakistan and the United States until he was finally found and targeted by a special military force in May last year.

Pakistan deported Bin Laden’s widows and children to Saudi Arabia late last month.

Documents retrieved from the Bin Laden raid show a leader in charge of a terror organization but also one that was weakened, writes the Telegraph.

As Bin Laden had no Internet access, he was reliant on couriers to deliver documents so communication was a long-drawn out process.

He had lost many key operatives of al-Qaeda in drone strikes which lowered morale. The Telegraph reports that Bin Laden’s orders of attacks were met with skepticism, according to an American counterterrorism official privy to the documents.

Some documents also revealed Bin Laden’s “ethics” on terrorist acts. This was demonstrated in the case of Pakistani American Faisal Shahzad who planned to bomb a car in New York Times Square in May 2010.

Bin Laden denounced Shahzad, not because he planned an attack, but because he did so after “swearing a loyalty oath to the United States as a newly naturalized citizen,” reports the Telegraph.

He said telling such a lie to the enemy was not allowed.

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Rumble in the house - PakistanToday.com.pk

 0 7 hours ago   |   

Shouting, screaming and other parliamentary activity

Ah, how times change. Hacks of the Press Gallery variety would testify that the prime minister used to be treated with a level of deference by the members of the League at the worst of times. Case in point: the governor raj in the Punjab. Amidst the pandemonium unleashed in the house by the Leaguers in the session following the move, the prime minister steps in. Nothing if not placatory, he managed to calm them down, with some stating the only reason they didn’t walk out of the house was the prime minister’s plea.

Whether the premier was playing the good cop or the League was attempting to buttress his ego and trying to drive a wedge between the president and him, there was no great rift between them. Slowly and gradually, yes, the prime minister’s alleged corruption did become the focal point for some of the Leaguers but the gloves never were quite off. The way they were the other day with the Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar saying, in typical sub-continental adversarial manner, that he would see how the PPP brings in their convicted PM in the house.

Well, the PPP did bring their guy into the house and if any Leaguer didn’t see it, if was perhaps because they had walked out of the house. The premier, also, wasn’t his peaceful self. No one but the speaker and the parliament can deseat me, he said. He accused the League’s leadership of having huge egos which rendered them unable to take any criticism or participate in a working parliament. If the parliament and its sanctity is one’s only bulwark, one owns it and uses it as a weapon. It is up to the prime minister, then, to wear his remarkable attendance record at the house like a badge and bring attention to the Punjab chief minister’s apparent aversion to visiting the provincial parliament. A jibe, also, at the elder Sharif’s dismal parliamentary record during his stints in the prime minister’s office.

These are, unfortunately, interesting times. At the hustle proceeds, both sides are digging in their heels in the parliament, the Q is in silent assent with the government, the ANP is vocal about its support to the government and the MQM, being what it is, is hedging its bets till the dust settles.

Nothing like a bit of fireworks.

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