Pakistan denies sheltering Osama Bin Laden

bin Laden but admitted that his security forces were left out of a US operation to kill the al Qaeda chief.
The revelation that bin Laden had holed up in a luxury compound in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, possibly for five to six years, prompted many US lawmakers to demand a review of the billions of dollars in aid Washington gives to nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari President, issuing his first formal response to questions about how the world’s most-wanted militant was able to live for so long in comfort near Islamabad, did little to dispel suspicions.
“Some in the US press have suggested that Pakistan lacked vitality in its pursuit of terrorism, or worse yet that we were disingenuous and actually protected the terrorists we claimed to be pursuing,” Zardari wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. “Such baseless speculation may make exciting cable news, but it doesn’t reflect fact.”
It was the first substantive public comment by any Pakistani leader on the airborne raid by US. special forces on bin Laden’s compound on Monday that brought to an end a long manhunt for the al Qaeda chief who had become the face of Islamic militancy.
Pakistan has faced enormous international scrutiny since bin Laden was killed, with questions over whether its military and intelligence agencies were too incompetent to catch him, or knew all along where he was hiding and even whether they had been complicit.
Reflecting US-Pakistani relations strained by years of mistrust, Islamabad was kept in the dark about the raid until after all US aircraft were out of Pakistani airspace.
Facing pressure to produce absolute proof of bin Laden’s demise, White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said the United States was considering whether to release photographs and video taken during the raid as proof that bin Laden had died in the raid.
“We want to make sure that we’re able to do it in a thoughtful manner. We also want to anticipate what the reaction might be on the part of al Qaeda or others to the release of certain information so that we can take the appropriate steps beforehand,” Brennan told CNN.
The Afghan Taliban yesterday challenged the truth of bin Laden’s death, saying Washington had not provided “acceptable evidence to back up their claim” that he had been killed. In a statement from Kabul they also said aides bin Laden had not confirmed or denied his death.
Another US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said photographs of bin Laden’s burial at sea may be released later yesterday but no decision has been made. Washington was also weighing whether to release a photo of his body.
Taking out bin Laden, who became the epitome of evil for many Americans for masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, is likely to give US President Barack Obama at least a short-term boost in approval ratings that have slid amid US economic woes.
But he may also face more pressure to speed the planned withdrawal this July of some US forces from the unpopular war in Afghanistan.
US, Pakistani and Afghan officials held a previously scheduled meeting in Islamabad yesterday and re-committed to the fight against militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan but deflected questions about the bin Laden operation.
Meanwhile, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said one of Osama bin Laden’s daughters had seen her father being shot dead by US forces, and was one of about 10 relatives of the al Qaeda leader in custody pending interrogation.
The official, who declined to be identified, said the daughter, aged 12 or 13, was one of the people who had confirmed that the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks had been killed by US commandos in a raid early on Monday.
The relatives – one of bin Laden’s wives and up to eight children – will be interrogated and then probably turned over to their countries of origin, and not the United States, in accordance with Pakistani law, he said.
The official said the wife and children were left behind after an American transport helicopter, possibly an MH-60 Sea Hawk, was abandoned because of mechanical problems. He said there was not enough room for the group on the other helicopters, which were transporting bin Laden’s body, other male captives and the commandos.
There were no protests and there was no extra security in Islamabad yesterday, just a sense of embarrassment or indifference that bin Laden had managed to lie low for so long in Abbottabad.
“The failure of Pakistan to detect the presence of the world’s most-wanted man here is shocking,” the daily News said in an editorial, reflecting the general tone in the media.
Pakistan, where anti-U.S. sentiment runs high among its public, has a long history of nurturing Islamist militants in the interests of its strategic objectives, primarily facing up to what it sees as its biggest threat – India.
Pakistan’s fear of India has been at the root of its support for the Afghan Taliban and separatist militants in Indian Kashmir.
In the first sign militants were attempting to strike back, Afghan forces killed and wounded 25 foreign fighters after they crossed the border from Pakistan, a government official said.
Bin Laden was buried at sea after he was shot in the head and chest by US special forces who were dropped inside his sprawling compound by Blackhawk helicopters. Analysts warned that objections from some Muslim clerics to the sea burial could stoke anti-American sentiment. – Reuters.