Washington - Retired CIA agent Richard Franko, who was undercover in Afghanistan for five years trailing Osama Bin Laden, has revealed his frustrations with tracking the world's most wanted criminal in his new book, I Think I Saw Osama.
"To begin with, the idea of us fitting in and gaining confidence of the locals was a good idea.
"Our plan was to disguise the Caucasian features of our agents by modifying the local Afghan turban to completely cover the face as well as the top the head.
"Well a good tactic from a planning perspective field implementation proved it had the inadvertent effect of making us standing out from the local community as well as restricting our vision.
"What we thought were good leads often turned into dead ends with many of our undercover agents being led into back alleys and beaten with sticks by women and small children.
"Several times I found out I was in the same room as Bin Laden and did not even know it until later.
"He put Post-it Notes on my ass that said 'Kick-me' in Arabic."
