Pakistan accused of playing bin Laden 'double game'
'It's hard to imagine that the military or police did not have any ideas what
was going on' at compound, Sen. Levin says
msnbc.com news services
updated 2 hours 11 minutes ago
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42873092/ns/world_news-death_of_bin_laden/
Incredulous lawmakers are pressing Pakistan for answers to two simple questions:
What did its army and intelligence agents know of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts and when did they know it?
The al-Qaida terrorist leader behind the Sept. 11 attacks lived and died in a massive, fortified compound built
in 2005 and located on the outskirts of Abbottabad, some 60 miles from the capital of Islamabad. It stood just
a half-mile from the Kakul Military Academy, Pakistan's equivalent of West Point, and close to various army
regiments.
Story: Bin Laden hideout location challenges Pakistan credibility
According to the U.S. account, the assault team came away with hard drives, DVDs, documents and more that
might tip U.S. intelligence to al-Qaida's operational details and perhaps lead the manhunt to the presumed next
-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri. The CIA is already going over the material.
White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan told NBC's TODAY on Tuesday that U.S officials hoped to
build on the killing of bin Laden. Brennan said the administration was determined "to pummel the rest of al-Qaida."
Obama, who approved the extraordinarily risky operation by Navy SEALs against bin Laden's Pakistan redoubt and witnessed its progression from the White House Situation Room, his face heavy with tension, reaped
accolades from world leaders he'd kept in the dark as well as from political opponents at home.
Republican and Democratic leaders alike gave him a standing ovation at an evening White House meeting
that was planned before the assault but became a celebration of it, and an occasion to step away from the fractious political climate. Obama plans to visit New York on Thursday.
Amid the high praise Monday for the successful U.S. military operation, congressional Republicans and Democrats questioned whether bin Laden was hiding in plain sight, with Pakistani military and intelligence operatives either
totally unaware of his location or willfully ignoring his presence to protect him.
It was more than a rhetorical question as lawmakers raised the possibility of imposing conditions on the billions
of U.S. taxpayer dollars that flow to Pakistan, largely economic aid to back an unsteady government.
"I think this tells us once again that, unfortunately, Pakistan at times is playing a double game," said Sen.
Susan Collins, R-Maine, a Senate Armed Services Committee member who indicated that Congress could
put limits on funds for Pakistan.
Fragile relationship
Bin Laden's death and questions about Pakistan's eagerness in the fight against terrorism come as the tenuous
U.S.-Pakistan relationship seems even more fragile. In recent weeks, CIA contractor Raymond Davis' killing of
two Pakistanis and stepped-up drone attacks have further strained ties between the two countries.
Different factions within Pakistan itself complicate its role as a U.S. ally. What state officials and those in the
military may have known about bin Laden could be quite different from what tribes and even families in the
region knew or, more to the point, were willing to say about the Abbottabad compound and its occupants.
Early last month, CIA Director Leon Panetta met with Pakistan's intelligence chief, Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha,
a meeting Washington officials saw as make or break. The Obama administration said it was negotiating a
possible reduction in U.S. intelligence operatives and special operations officers in Pakistan as they sought
to ease Pakistani concerns about spy activity.
Prior to the raid on the compound, U.S. officials say, they didn't inform Pakistan of its plans. Unaware and unnerved Pakistanis scrambled their aircraft in the wake of the U.S. military intervention.
Publicly, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton thanked Pakistan for its cooperation and said the country "has contributed greatly to our efforts to dismantle al-Qaida." She said that "in fact, cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound in which he was hiding."
Brennan told TODAY that "clearly there was some kind of support network" for bin However, he declined to blame the Pakistani government for that, calling Islamabad "a strong counterterrorism partner."
But he also said the Pakistani government was conducting its own investigation into how bin Laden dodged authorities for so long. Brennan said it is "unknown at this point" whether individuals inside the Pakistani government were helping bin Laden.
Based on the location of the compound and its proximity to army regiments, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Pakistan's intelligence service and army has "got a lot of explaining to do."
Levin acknowledged Clinton's assessment, but he said he stood by his questions, citing the size of the compound compared with surrounding buildings and the fact that residents took the unusual step of burning all their garbage and avoiding any collection.
"It's hard to imagine that the military or police did not have any ideas what was going on inside of that," Levin told reporters in a conference call.
Said Collins, "It is very difficult for me to understand how this huge compound could be built in a city just an hour north of the capital of the Pakistan, in a city that contained military installations, including the Pakistani military academy, and that it did not arouse tremendous suspicions."
In an essay published Monday by The Washington Post, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied suggestions his country's security forces may have sheltered Osama bin Laden, and said their cooperation with the United States helped pinpoint bin Laden.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., who has traveled extensively to Pakistan and even worked as an intermediary to get Davis released, said candid conversations with the Pakistanis were necessary.
However, Kerry said it would be a mistake to forget "we've had people on the ground tracking this. There's some degree of assistance and cooperation of the Pakistanis."
Meanwhile, the administration weighed whether to release photos of bin Laden's corpse and video of his swift burial at sea. Officials were reluctant to inflame Islamic sentiment by showing graphic images of the body. But they were also eager to address the mythology already building in Pakistan and beyond that bin Laden was somehow still alive.
The only information about what occurred inside the compound has come from American officials, much of it provided under condition of anonymity.
(READ REST OF ARTICLE HERE)
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
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