Where was Osama bin Laden on 9/11

New Delhi: It is not clear where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had parked himself to watch the World Trade Centre crashing on 9/11, but just a day before he was in a Pakistani military hospital in Rawalpindi, it has emerged

"On September 10, 2001, USA's Enemy Number One was in a Pakistani military hospital in Rawalpindi, courtesy of America's indefectible ally Pakistan, as confirmed by a report of Dan Rather, CBS News," says Michel Chossudovsky, author of the international bestseller America’s War on Terrorism .

Chossudovsky is a professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization.

Writing on the website of Center for Research on Globalization, http://www.globalresearch.ca, Chossudovsky claims: "Laden could have been arrested at a short notice which would have 'saved us a lot of trouble'."

CBS' Dan Rather had earlier claimed in January 2002 that Bin Laden was hospitalised in Rawalpindi one day before the 9/11 attacks, on September 10, 2001. Rather says Pakistan's military intelligence ISI had told CBS that bin Laden had received dialysis treatment in Rawalpindi, at the Pakistan Army's headquarters.

CBS News quoted Pakistan intelligence sources as saying that "Laden was spirited into this military hospital in Rawalpindi for kidney dialysis treatment. On that night, says this medical worker who wanted her identity protected, they moved out all the regular staff in the urology department and sent in a secret team to replace them. She says it was treatment for a very special person. The special team was obviously up to no good."

"The military had him surrounded," CBS quoted a hospital employee as saying. "And I saw the mysterious patient helped out of a car. Since that time," he said.

"I have seen many pictures of the man. He is the man we know as Osama bin Laden. I also heard two Army officers talking to each other. They were saying that Osama bin Laden had to be watched carefully and looked after."

The TV channel also said that Pakistan government officials had denied that bin Laden had any medical treatment on that night.

Chossudovsky concludes that Osama's whereabouts were known to US officials on the morning of September 12, when US Secretary of State Colin Powell initiated negotiations with Pakistan with a view to arresting and extraditing bin Laden.

These negotiations, led by Gen Mahmoud Ahmad, head of Pakistan's military intelligence, on behalf of the government of President Pervez Musharraf, took place on the 12th and 13th of September in Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's office.

"He could have been arrested at short notice on September 10th, 2001. But then we would not have been privileged to five years of Osama related media stories. The Bush administration desperately needs the fiction of an outside enemy of America," he wrote.