By Liz McMillan | Article Rating: |
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October 31, 2018 06:30 PM EDT |

According to Wikipedia, The Roosevelt Hotel is a historic luxury hotel, located at 45 East 45th Street (and Madison Avenue) in MidtownManhattan. The hotel, named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt, opened on September 22, 1924.[2] The hotel later closed in 1995 and reopened again in 1997 after an extensive $65 million renovation.
Beginning in 1979, the hotel was leased by the Pakistan International Airlines through its investment arm PIA Investments Ltd. ("PIA"), with an option to purchase the building after 20 years. Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia was one of the investors in the 1979 deal.[5] In 1999, PIA exercised their option and bought the hotel for $36.5 million, after a legal battle with owner Paul Milstein, who claimed it was worth much more.[6] In 2005, PIA bought out its Saudi partner in a deal that included the prince's share in Hôtel Scribe in Paris in exchange for $40 million and PIA's share of the Riyadh Minhal Hotel (a Holiday Inn located on property owned by the prince).[4] PIA has since controlled 99 percent interest in the hotel, while the Saudis have only 1 percent.
Today the hotel is owned 100% by Pakistan government.
In the aftermath of bin Laden's death, US-President Barack Obama asked Pakistan to investigate the network that sustained bin Laden.[3] "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan," Obama said in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS News. He also added that the United States was not sure "who or what that support network was."[3][4] In addition to this, in an interview with Time magazine, CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that US-officials did not alert Pakistani counterparts to the raid because they feared the terrorist leader would be warned.
According to Fred Burton, vice-president of the global intelligence firm Stratfor, officials of ISI, Pakistani military, along with one retired Pakistani military general, had knowledge of the arrangements made for bin Laden and the safe house. Bin Laden's compound was razed that day at his Abbottabad safe house.[5]
David Ignatius in Washington Post referred to the claim of the former ISI chief General Ziauddin Butt that the Abbottabad compound was used by the Intelligence Bureau and noted that a report in the Pakistani press in December had quoted him as saying that Osama's stay at Abbottabad was arranged by Brigadier (retired) Ijaz Shah, senior ISI officer and the head of the Intelligence Bureau during 2004-2008, on Pervez Musharraf's orders.[6] Later Butt denied making any such statement.[7]
Published October 31, 2018
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