US presses Pakistan for information
Obama administration officials here and in Islamabad are demanding that Pakistan quickly provide answers to specific questions about Osama bin Laden and his years-long residence in a bustling Pakistani city surrounded by military installations.
In addition to detailed information about the bin Laden compound who owned and built the structure and its security system Pakistani officials are being asked in meetings with US military, intelligence and diplomatic interlocutors to provide names of witnesses who can testify about visitors to the compound.
US lawmakers have said it defied logic that bin Laden was able to hide in plain sight without some level of official Pakistani knowledge or complicity. Some have suggested that $3 billion in annual US military and economic assistance be reconsidered, while others joined with House Speaker John A Boehner, who said Tuesday that “this is no time to back away from Pakistan.”
How Pakistan responds will determine the future of the long-brittle relationship between the two countries, as well as the endgame in the Afghanistan war, according to US and Pakistani officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about what they called a pivotal moment.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said yesterday the failure to discover bin Laden's refuge earlier must be shared by intelligence agencies around the globe--not just his nation's.
In Pakistan, authorities told local media that yesterday they arrested, then released, a contractor who had worked on the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad.
No details were released, but it appeared that the contractor likely worked on the residence as it was being built.
But apart from the blame game, the moment of crisis is also seen by some administration officials as an unprecedented opportunity to solidify the relationship, assuming wholehearted Pakistani cooperation.
“At this point, it's very important that Pakistan demonstrate its commitment to work with America in the war on terror,” one US official said.
After weeks of tight focus on the operation itself, the White House will hold high-level national security meetings this week on how to leverage the post-raid situation to gain more, rather than less, cooperation.
A Foreign Ministry statement said Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), had kept the compound “under sharp focus” since construction got underway in 2003.
But one intelligence official said that although it was searched in pursuit of an al-Qaeda operative that year, nothing was found and it was never scrutinised again.
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