ANALYSIS:That Osama bin Laden lived deep inside Pakistan has left US authorities incredulous
THE KILLING of Osama bin Laden has severely strained the United States’ already fraught relationship with Pakistan.
That bin Laden lived “in plain sight” – as the White House put it – for up to six years in a purpose-built, three-storey villa a short distance from Pakistan’s military academy in the garrison town of Abbottabad, 50km north of the capital Islamabad, has rendered US officials incredulous.
John Brennan, president Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, said it was “inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for an extended period”.
“We need to dig deeper into this . . . We’re not accusing anybody at this point but we want to make sure we get to the bottom of this,” he said.
“Someone knew,” Maj Gen James Helmly, who served as the top US military officer in Pakistan between 2006 and 2008, told the New York Times. “Whether it’s in the top echelons of the [Pakistani intelligence service] ISI is anyone’s guess. But if someone is building a big, ostentatious project like that, and if it’s like where I live, people are going to say, ‘I wonder who’s living there?’”
At best, US officials say, the Pakistanis have demonstrated incompetence. At worst they are playing a double game. Pakistani officials protest that they have in the past “delivered” high-ranking al-Qaeda members, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 atrocities, who was apprehended in Rawalpindi.
Sceptics point out that Pakistan’s “big catches” tended to coincide with Congressional votes on aid funding. President Obama had requested $3 billion in military and development aid for Pakistan in his draft 2012 budget. The country has received some $20 billion from the US over the past decade.
In the wake of bin Laden’s death, both the House of Representatives and the Senate have scheduled hearings on US-Pakistani relations.
“It’s very hard for me to understand how Pakistan, particularly the ISI, would not have known something was going on in that compound,” said Sen Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I have a growing concern that the Pakistani government, the Pakistani military and the Pakistani intelligence community is really walking both sides of the street, and the question comes what to do about it.” Ms Feinstein said financial support for Pakistan should be reconsidered.
Sen Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said “the Pakistani army and intelligence have a lot of questions to answer”.
American misgivings are aggravated by Pakistani complaints that bin Laden’s killing violated their sovereignty. Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf said it was “a pity” there was no trust between the US and Pakistan and that “our sovereignty has been violated”.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry yesterday expressed “concerns and reservations” about the US raid. “This event of unauthorised, unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule” and “shall not serve as a future precedent”, it said.
Despite deep mutal distrust, the US relied on Pakistan to clear up after Monday’s raid. Pakistanis reportedly took custody of bin Laden’s surviving family members and questioned them. They also removed wreckage of a helicopter that malfunctioned during the raid and was destroyed by the US navy Seals.
Relations between the US and Pakistan suffered when a CIA contractor shot two Pakistanis dead in January. Pakistan has demanded that the CIA reduce its operations, especially drone strikes which have repeatedly killed Pakistani civilians.
The US claims Pakistan is harbouring the Afghan Taliban leadership in the southwestern city of Quetta, as well as the Haqqani network in the mountainous tribal areas. The latter uses Pakistan as a base to attack US troops in Afghanistan.
An opinion piece by Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari published yesterday by the Washington Post showed how opposed are US and Pakistani versions of events. Mr Zardari expressed satisfaction at bin Laden’s death but his only reference to the al-Qaeda leader’s presence in Pakistan was an ambiguous denial: “He was not anywhere we had anticipated he would be but now he is gone.”
Mr Zardari wrote that Pakistan is “the world’s greatest victim of terrorism” and said bin Laden had twice tried to assassinate his wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was killed by a suicide bomber in 2007.
US reports consistently say that Pakistanis are profoundly anti-American and support radical Islamists. Mr Zardari quoted polls showing 85 per cent of Pakistanis are strongly opposed to al-Qaeda.
He and the foreign ministry claimed Pakistani help in identifying an al-Qaeda courier led to bin Laden’s killing. US sources say the courier was identified because the CIA interrogated al-Qaeda operatives under torture. The CIA told the Pakistanis as little as possible but obtained some information from them which helped track the courier to Abbottabad.
