The US government lied to the world about how Osama bin Laden was killed, skewing the facts so Obama could claim political glory, an investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh claims.
It is alleged that the Pakistani government had been holding the 9/11 mastermind in his Abbottabad compound - located in a residential area known to be vastly populated by military officials - for years.
The CIA learned of his location after a high-ranking intelligence officer in the country tipped off the US in the hope of claiming a $25 million bounty, the journalist claims.
In his investigation, the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist also alleges that the Obama administration negotiated with the Pakistani government and its intelligence officials from the ISI ahead of the raid, but then later claimed it was a secret infiltration mission.
Hersh, citing an unnamed source, says that Pakistani intelligence services cut the power to bin Laden's compound ahead of the raid to aid the SEAL team in avoiding local military intervention.
There was no firefight, he claims, and the only bullets fired were those that killed the terror chief.
Barrack Obama concealed the truth about the raid one year before an election in a bid to boost his administration's popularity, it is claimed.
The article, published in the London Review of Books, says that bin Laden was also not buried at sea as previously claimed, and that he was in fact buried in Afghanistan.
Hersh says that Obama's speech informing the American people about the successful raid was "put together in a rush".
