SOURCE BY:JIM SCIUTTO
A senior Pakistani security official told ABC News that Osama bin Laden's teen daughter saw her father killed "in front of her eyes," and admitted that Pakistani intelligence failed to catch America's most wanted man, even though he was hiding in plain sight.
In an hour-long exclusive interview with ABC News, the official said all of bin Laden's relatives who were captured are cooperating with intelligence. That includes his 13-year-old daughter, who witnessed his killing, bin Laden's youngest wife, who was injured while defending him, and about 6-7 other children.
The fact that bin Laden was hiding in a relatively comfortable house was "a failure" on the part of Pakistani officials, the official admitted, but he argued that the CIA was as much to blame for taking so long to find him, despite the money and technological resources at their disposal.
The official expressed bitterness both at an operation that kept them in the dark and at comments from American officials criticizing Pakistani cooperation and competence.
"We didn't know he was there. Yes, that was an omission and we have been remiss in our duties. But if it's true he was living there for years and the U.S. had information, who's incompetent?" he said. "If anyone failed for so long, it's the CIA."
Bin Laden's sprawling compound, located in an affluent neighborhood in the scenic town of Abbottabad, did not attract the attention of Pakistani security officials, in part, because it had been raided in 2003 in an attempt to capture Abu Faraj Al-Libi, an alleged senior al Qaeda operative who was later captured in 2005. Bin Laden did not think lightning would strike twice, the official said.
