Author: AP
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 3, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/336066/US-lawmakers-increasingly-exasperated-at-Pak.html
Incredulous U.S. 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, 2001, attacks lived and died in a massive, fortified compound built in
2005 and located on the outskirts of Abbottabad, some 60 miles (100 kilometers)
from the capital of Islamabad. It stood just a half-mile (800 meters) from
the Kakul Military Academy, Pakistan's equivalent of West Point, and close
to various army regiments.
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 Republican
Sen. Susan Collins, a Senate Armed Services Committee member who indicated
that Congress could put limits on funds for Pakistan.
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 U.S. 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."
John Brennan, White House counterterrorism
adviser, said the administration was looking at whether bin Laden had a support
system in Pakistan that allowed him to remain in the country.
"We know that the people at the compound
there were working on his behalf, and that's how we ultimately found our way
to that compound," Brennan told reporters at the White House. "We
are talking with the Pakistanis on a regular basis now, and we're going to
pursue all leads to find out exactly what type of support system and benefactors
that bin Laden might have had."
Based on the location of the compound and
its proximity to army regiments, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman
Carl Levin said Pakistan's intelligence and army has "got a lot of explaining
to do."
Hours later, 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 its 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 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 bin Laden, and said their cooperation with
the United States helped pinpoint the al-Qaida leader.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, 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."
Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the
Senate Armed Services Committee, cautioned against pushing Pakistan away.
"I'm not the easiest on Pakistan, but
the fact is we had a period of time when we had nothing to do with Pakistan
and it was not a productive exercise," McCain said. Pakistan's nuclear
arms would be a direct threat to U.S. national security, he said, if those
weapons fell into the wrong hands.
Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence
Committee, said that while Pakistan must be asked about what it knew of bin
Laden's whereabouts, the relationship remains important for U.S. national
security.
"It is incredibly important to us to
maintain a relationship so we can pursue those targets that we know are posing
a threat to the United States," Rogers said. "So that's a balance,
and we'll have to work through it."