Ex-CIA official terms Hersh's article propaganda put out by Pak to save face post Osama's killing

Days after Pulitzer Prize-winning author Seymour Hersh claimed in an article that the United States' version of the raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was a sham, a former CIA official has contended that the article was a piece of propaganda used by Pakistan to save face as they were embarrassed by the Abbottabad raid.

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said that Pakistanis were "incredibly embarrassed" by America's intelligence work on bin Laden, and by the military's ability to fly deep into Pakistani territory undetected, reported The Express Tribune.

Morell contended that the U.S. source cited by Hersh in his article may have somehow got the information from Pakistan and had passed it on to the author.

Hersh had claimed in an article published in the latest issue of the London Review of Books that in 2006, Laden was under Pakistani control, kept in Abbottabad with the financial assistance of Saudi Arabia. He argued that the Pakistani officials allowed the U.S. to conduct a raid, "a de facto assassination," after American officials found out about Bin Laden's whereabouts through a source in Pakistani intelligence.

Hersh said that the a deal was then struck that allowed the U.S. to set up a detailed surveillance of the area, obtaining DNA evidence confirming Laden's identity and even providing a Pakistani agent to help guide the operation, in lieu of continued financial support of the nation's intelligence service and its leaders.