By NAHAL TOOSI and ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press
ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan criticized the American raid
that killed Osama bin Laden as an "unauthorized unilateral action,"
laying bare the strains the operation has put on an already rocky
alliance.
U.S. legislators along with the leaders of Britain and France questioned how the Pakistani government could not have known the al-Qaida leader was living in a garrison town less than a two-hour drive from the capital and had apparently lived there for years.
"I find it hard to believe that the presence of a person or
individual such as bin Laden in a large compound in a relatively small
town ... could go completely unnoticed," French Foreign Minister Alain
Juppe told reporters in Paris.
British Prime Minister David Cameron also demanded that Pakistani
leaders explain how bin Laden had lived undetected in Abbottabad. But in
a nod to the complexities of dealing with a nuclear-armed, unstable
country that is crucial to success in the war in Afghanistan, Cameron
said having "a massive row" with Islamabad over the issue would not be
in Britain's interest.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. is committed to cooperating with Pakistan.
"We don't know who if anybody in the government was aware that bin
Laden or a high-value target was living in the compound. It's logical to
assume he had a supporting network. What constituted that network
remains to be seen," Carney said.
"It's a big country and a big government and we have to be very
focused and careful about how we do this because it is an important
relationship."
A day after U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida leader following a
10-year manhunt, new details emerged Tuesday from Pakistan's powerful
intelligence agency and bin Laden's neighbors in Abbottabad.
Residents said they sensed something was odd about the walled
three-story house, even though bin Laden and his family rarely ventured
outside and most neighbors were not aware that foreigners were living
there.
"That house was obviously a suspicious one," said Jahangir Khan, who
was buying a newspaper in Abbottabad. "Either it was a complete failure
of our intelligence agencies or they were involved in this affair."
Neighbors said two men would routinely emerge from the compound to
run errands or occasionally attend a neighborhood gathering, such as a
funeral. Both"men were tall, fair skinned and bearded.
"People were skeptical in this neighborhood about this place and
these guys," said Mashood Khan, a 45-year-old farmer. "They used to
gossip, say they were smugglers or drug dealers. People would complain
that even with such a big house they didn't invite the poor or
distribute charity."
U.S. officials have suggested Pakistani officials may have known
where bin Laden was living and members of Congress have seized on those
suspicions to call for the U.S. to consider cutting billions of aid to
Pakistan if it turns out to be true.
Western officials have long regarded Pakistani security forces with
suspicion, especially when it comes to links with militants fighting in
Afghanistan. Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
publicly said she suspected that some members of Pakistan's government
knew where bin Laden was hiding.
However, within Pakistan criticism has been focused on the U.S.
breaching the country's sovereignty. The Obama administration has said
it did not inform the Pakistanis in advance of the operation against bin
Laden, for fear they would tip off the targets.
A strongly worded Pakistani government statement warned the U.S. not
to launch similar operations in the future. It rejected suggestions that
officials knew where bin Laden was.
Still, there were other revelations that pointed to prior knowledge that the compound was linked to al-Qaida.
Pakistani intelligence agencies hunting for a top al-Qaida operative
raided the house in 2003, according to a senior officer, speaking on
condition of anonymity in line with the spy agency's policy.
The house was just being built at the time of the raid by Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence agency, and Abu Faraj al-Libi, al-Qaida's
No. 3, was not there, said the officer.
U.S. officials have said al-Libi once lived in the house and that
information from him played a role in tracking the al-Qaida chief down.
Al-Libi was arrested by Pakistani police after a shootouô in 2005 and he
was later handed over to U.S. authorities.
The Pakistani officer said he didn't know why bin Laden would choose a house that already had been compromised.
He also insisted the ISI would have captured bin Laden if it had
known he was there, and pushed back at international criticism of the
agency.
"Look at our track record given the issues we have faced, the lack of
funds. We have killed or captured hundreds" of extremists), said the
officer. "All of a sudden one failure makes us incompetent and 10 years
of effort is overlooked."
Al-Qaida has been responsible for score of bloody attacks inside
Pakistan, so on the face of it would seem strange for Islamabad to be
sheltering bin Laden. Critics of Pakistan say that by keeping him on the
run, Islamabad was ensuring that U.S. aid and weapons to the country
kept flowing.
The Pakistani government said that since 2009 the ISI has shared
information about the compound with the CIA and other Western
intelligence agencies, and that intelligence indicating foreigners were
in the Abbottabad area continued until mid-April.
In an essay published Tuesday 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 him.
The raid followed months of deteriorating relations between the CIA
and Pakistan's intelligence service. Those strains came to a head in
late January after a CIA contractor shot and killed two Pakistanis in
what Washington said was self-defense.
In a statement, the Pakistani government said "this event of unauthorized unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule."
"The government of Pakistan further affirms that such an event shall
not serve as a future precedent for any state, including the U.S.," it
said, calling such actions a "threat to international peace and
security."
The statement may be partly motivated by domestic concerns. The
government and army has come under criticism following the raid by those
who have accused the government of allowing Washington to violate the
country's sovereignty. Islamabad has also been angered at the suspicions
it had been sheltering bin Laden.
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Associated Press writers Chris Brummitt, Munir Ahmed and Asif Shahzad contributed to this report from Islamabad.
