India, Oct. 25 -- In a startling new revelation, a former CIA officer claimed that one of the world's most wanted terrorists, Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks, fled Afghanistan disguised as a woman to escape US forces.

In an exclusive interview with news agency ANI, John Kiriakou, who was in the CIA for 15 years and was the chief of CIA counterterrorism operations in Pakistan, also said they did not know that the translator for the commander of Central Command was actually an "Al Qaeda operative who had infiltrated the US military".

"We believed we had Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda leadership cornered at Tora Bora," Kiriakou said.

"We did not know that the translator for the commander of Central Command...