US embassy speaks out on Osama informer

Dar es Salaam. The United States yesterday refused to be drawn into a discussion on claims that information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden was first relayed to its embassy in Dar es Salaam in 2005.

The public affairs officer at the embassy, Ms Marissa Maurer, told The Citizen that her country’s policy, under the Rewards for Justice War Crimes programme that offers up to $5 million, is to keep the identity and residence of informants a top secret.

“We cannot reveal the identity of persons or places where we get sensitive information,” she explained. “Such material remains highly confidential.”

The Citizen published a story yesterday claiming that a man who tipped off the US security agencies about the whereabouts of Bin Laden in Dar es Salaam is now demanding a reward of $27 million.

The man—whose nationality, race or full identity cannot be revealed for security reasons—has gone public via the International Reward Centre (IRC) after the US allegedly left him in the cold and declined to reward him accordingly.

Fresh details suggest that the informant revealed where Bin Laden could be found via the US embassy in Dar in 2005. According to the IRC website, the US originally claimed that Bin Laden was located in 2011 using electronic intelligence. But the website, www.internationalrewardcentre.com, disputes this and asserts that the work was accomplished thanks to an unnamed informant who walked into US embassy in Dar and revealed that the world’s most wanted terrorist at the time was holed up in Abbottabad in Pakistan.

The IRC does not state clearly how the informant came to know about bin Laden’s whereabouts but insists that, based on the evidence produced, the source was very valuable and had connections with insiders within al-Qaeda operations.

IRC, a New Zealand-based company that is acting on behalf of the informant, has electronic documents that show that an informant supplied the US embassy in Dar with information. The informant is also reported to have supplied the US State Department with the names of terrorist cell leaders in Tanzania, including their modus operandi plus a brief on Al Qaeda’s mission in Tanzania.

The Citizen contacted the embassy yesterday for clarification on the fresh details, which show that the information that helped US intelligence first originated from Dar es Salaam about a decade ago. Under this programme, the Secretary of State may offer rewards for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of anyone who plans, commits, or attempts international terrorist acts against US persons or property, that prevents such acts from occurring in the first place and that leads to the location of a key terrorist leader or disrupts terrorism financing.

“While we cannot discuss specific Rewards for Justice War Crimes cases,” she said, “people with information on any past or planned act of international terrorism against the United States anywhere in the world are urged to contact the embassy or consulate, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US military, or the Rewards for Justice programme directly.”

The informant was linked with the US embassy by a local journalist after he tried unsuccessfully to reach US officials some time in 2005. A journalist who interviewed the informant told The Citizen that US authorities directed that all communication be channelled first through Tanzania’s ministry of Home Affairs’ department of counter-terrorism.

“I have read your story today (yesterday)…I recall meeting this guy from (we can’t name the country) and after having a series of interviews, I finally linked him with officials at the US embassy in Dar ,” The journalist told The Citizen yesterday. “I remember writing a dozen times to the US embassy before I got a reply directing me what to do to connect the informant with the American officials.” The journalist said he could remember the incident very well and could also reproduce mail to prove his story.

According to the informant, he decided to betray his allies—because of his links with prominent Al-Qaeda members in Pakistan and Afghanistan—expecting reward and protection from the US government.

It is not clear why the US officials were reluctant to accept the informant at first though, from what the embassy said yesterday, people with information on any past or planned act of international terrorism against the US anywhere in the world are urged to contact a US embassy or consulate, the FBI, the US military, or the Rewards for Justice programme directly.