LAHORE A statement warranting strong exception came from Leon Panetta who alleged that either the ISI was involved in keeping Osama bin Laden (OBL) in safe custody or it was incompetent to trace his whereabouts. According to him, the US believes that Osama had been in the custody of Pakistani security agencies for years. Will Panetta like to explain how 19 hijackers of four American airliners involved in 9/11 managed to study and train in the United States without any knowledge of the CIA? Will he also like to answer how four groups of these hijackers would penetrate the security systems and secure control of four airliners with passengers on board? Will he also explain how they could take off bypassing all air control codes? Has he any plausible justification for allowing them to keep flying for 15 to 55 minutes over New York and Washington cities? Could that be termed total incompetence of the CIA and the US Air Force of the Bush administration? Or was that also another scripted episode of Rambo series? Many a question about 9/11 remain unanswered. If one revisits these questions, the entire American intelligence networks would stand exposed. After having killed Osama bin Laden, the US administration and its cronies have been howling at the top of their voice about our lapse in tracing his whereabouts or about our alleged deliberate designs to protect him. These shouts have the ulterior motive of strangulating Pakistan by using every tactic under the sun. Having carried out a 'secret mission to target OBL living in a compound located in a security zone in Abbottabad, the American military top brass is claiming that neither the Pakistani government nor its security agencies had any knowledge of what can best be termed as Rambo movie type drama. Leon Panetta even expressed the belief: Had we informed the Pakistan government or the ISI, there was a strong possibility that the target would have slipped. The Americans have long been lying about their successes and achievements in Afghanistan. They had, on two previous occasions, claimed to have killed OBL. Not only had they withdrawn the picture of OBLs dead body released to the world press the day before, but also retracted his video-taped message, which raise serious questions about their claim of having killed Osama at Abbottabad. Another most important question is the manner in which the American Naval Seals disposed of the dead body by packing it into a bag and throwing it into the ocean. Under all circumstances, the remains of a person who had been killed for his alleged crimes are handed over to his kith and kin for performing the last rites. Why was such haste shown in getting rid of OBLs body? On the other hand, no one in America or Europe seems to believe a word of what President Asif Zardari has written in his article in the Washington Post, claiming that one could not underrate Pakistans contribution and sacrifices that it has rendered in the war on terror which, he says, is as much our war as it is of the US. The 40-minute 'Get Osama Operation that started late Monday evening has cast serious aspersions on Pakistani security agencies, its armed forces and the federal government which all have been shown to have been caught with their pants 'on. The ISIs admission of its intelligence failure is not good enough excuse for shunning the responsibility for letting the nation down. An ISI official, in an interview to the BBC, would go to the extent of saying: We were totally caught by surprise. They were in and out before we could react. This statement alone speaks volumes about the competence of our apex intelligence agency assigned the task of defending Pakistan against internal and external enemies. What was our Air Force doing and why its radars could not notice the penetration of four American helicopters, flying from Jalalabad, into our airspace? It would be equally embarrassing if they actually flew from an airbase close to Tarbela, which is otherwise being used by the CIA for flying drones that carry out missile attacks in our FATA region. As far as our federal government is concerned, one can hardly expect anything better since they are all American stooges and have no feeling of national shame. For long they have been ready and willing to sell, and have been selling, their bodies and souls for handsome personal gains. Our great rulers have been doing everything against their own people on the demand of the IMF, be it the imposition of the RGST or raising the price of petroleum products. The most important issue is that of national credibility. Every word being uttered in the world about the Osama operation carries an element of taunt. We are being called liars and a lot of incompetent goofs. We are making a fool of ourselves by proffering the unconvincing explanation. Our Foreign Office, political stalwarts and spokespersons for the security agencies are issuing contradictory statements, drawing even greater embarrassment. We are bound to be isolated once again. The propaganda unleashed against us, not by friends alone, would administer a serious blow to our reputation and credibility. India has already started showing eyes; in fact, it has done the groundwork. The US Congress is talking of suspending economic assistance without which our system would crumble. In this state of isolation, once again it is China that has spoken complimentary words in our favour, terming Pakistans contribution in the war against terror second to none. Will we learn any lesson from playing into the hands of our ill-intentioned foreign masters? The answer is a big 'No because our history is full of such events that could have made us change our attitudes. Yet, we never did.