Bin Laden’s lair surrounded by military America’s suspicions that the Pakistani government knew Osama bin Laden was hiding in plain sight are eroding Washington’s fragile relationship with Islamabad, and the White House is scrambling to ease tensions even as it rebukes its chief ally in the war against al Qaeda.
Less than 24 hours after the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden, Americans’ celebratory relief turned to skepticism and anger when it was revealed that the 6-foot-5 al Qaeda leader lived for at least five years in a compound surrounded by Pakistani military personnel and about a 75-mile drive from Islamabad. All the while, the Pakistani government was denying any knowledge of bin Laden’s whereabouts.
The White House is now investigating the extent of bin Laden’s support network in Pakistan, and whether the government itself was aiding the world’s most wanted terrorist.
The administration is simultaneously working to temper the finger-pointing, with Obama repeatedly highlighting Pakistan’s sharing of intelligence that helped locate bin Laden.
Pakistan is “as much, if not more, on the front lines of the battle against terrorism,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
On whether the Pakistani government was hiding bin Laden, Carney said, “We don’t know the members of [bin Laden’s] support system.”
Relations between the United States and Pakistan have long been complicated. Over the past 70 years, the U.S. gave Pakistan billions of dollars in aid and military assistance but then broke ties with Islamabad when it began assembling a nuclear arsenal that Pakistan insisted was vital to its national defense against a nuclear-armed India. But Washington once again embraced Pakistan as a key ally when the U.S. went to war in neighboring Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“Our relationship with Pakistan, while complicated, it is very important,” Carney said. “It is very important precisely because of our need to continue the fight against al Qaeda, to continue the fight against terrorists.”
Other senior administration officials were more blunt.
“I think it’s inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time,” John Brennan, Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Congress is pressing the White House to withhold nearly $1.5 billion in aid to Pakistan until it can determine what role the government played.
The softer approach coming from the White House reflects concern that too much probing in Pakistan could destroy the United States’ already fragile relationship with the country.
“If the ultimate goal is U.S. security, then cutting Pakistan loose and letting it be on its own is the worst thing you can do,” said Moeed Yusuf, an expert on Pakistan who will testify on Capitol Hill Thursday. “Pakistan is a country of 180 million people with 100 million under the age of 24, with nuclear weapons, guns and what have you. … That’s going to be the ultimate nightmare.”
If the U.S. gives Pakistan the cold shoulder, the country will become a safe haven for terrorists, he said.
“It will give way to right-wing extremists,” said Yusuf, a Pakistani native who travels to the country monthly. “There will be more turbulence in the country, more anti-American sentiment and more space for terrorists.”
