White House dismisses Hersh's version of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's killing

The White House has reportedly rejected claims made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Seymour Hersh that the United States' version of the raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osma bin Laden was a sham, as "baseless" and "patently false."

A statement released by White House National Security spokesman Ned Price said that the article had "too many inaccuracies and baseless assertions to fact-check each one," reported the Dawn.

According to Hersh, the U.S. raid that killed Laden was not a secret but a joint operation between the U.S. and Pakistani military intelligence.

The author claimed in an article 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.

Obama had claimed that Laden was killed in a daring attack conducted by US Navy Special Forces on the basis of months of secret intelligence-gathering, without the knowledge of the Pakistanis.

The article, published in the latest issue of the London Review of Books, said that the White House's version may have been written by Lewis Carrol, referring to the author of Alice in Wonderland.