Obama: bin Laden had support network
Osama
bin Laden benefitted from ``some sort of support network'' inside Pakistan,
President Barack Obama said in a Sunday broadcast interview, but he added it is
not clear whether government officials knew the terrorist leader was living
inside their country when U.S. commandos killed him in a raid last weekend.
¡°We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of
government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to
investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to
investigate,¡± Obama said in an interview for CBS' news magazine ¡°60
Minutes.'¡±
Bin Laden was living in a high-security compound in Abbottabad, a Pakistani
city with a strong military presence, when U.S. Navy SEALs raided his compound
in the middle of the night and killed him. The terrorist leader's body was
quickly buried at sea.
The president made his comments as top administration officials and lawmakers
rebutted calls for a cut-off in American aid to Pakistan, an inconstant ally in
the long struggle against terrorists.
Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said:
¡°Everybody has to understand that even in the getting of Osama bin Laden,
the Pakistanis were helpful. We have people on the ground in Pakistan because
they allow us to have them.
¡°We actually worked with them on certain parts of the intelligence that
helped to lead to him, and they have been extraordinarily cooperative and at
some political cost to them in helping us to take out 16 of the top 20 al-Qaida
leaders with a drone program that we have in the western part of the
country.¡±
The senior Republican on the committee, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, said:
¡°Pakistan is a critical factor in the war against terror, our war, the
world's war against it, simply because there are a lot of terrorists in
Pakistan.¡±
Lugar said: ¡°There are al-Qaida still. There are many Taliban. They go
back and forth to Afghanistan.¡± He also noted that Pakistan possesses
nuclear weapons, and said a cut-off in aid could weaken the United States'
ability to make sure they do not fall into the hands of terrorists.
Kerry strongly defended the president's decision to order the raid, and the
shooting death of bin Laden. The administration has offered shifting accounts
of the events that unfolded in the 40 minutes the Navy SEALs were inside bin
Laden's compound, most recently saying the terrorist mastermind was unarmed but
appeared to be reaching for a weapon when he was shot in the head and chest.
¡°I think those SEALs did exactly what they should have done. And we need
to shut up and move on about, you know, the realities of what happened in that
building,¡± Kerry said.
National security adviser Tom Donilon said, ¡°I've not seen evidence that
would tell us that the political, the military, or the intelligence leadership
had foreknowledge of bin Laden¡± being in the country. He said the U.S.
has asked the Pakistani authorities for access to people whom the SEALs left
behind in the compound, including three of bin Laden's wives. The U.S. also
wants access to additional materials collected there, he said.
Pakistani authorities were not immediately available for comment Sunday on the
demand, which could be a fresh sticking point between the two countries.
U.S. officials have said the SEALs took voluminous computerized and paper
records when they choppered out of bin Laden's compound.
¡°This is the largest cache of intelligence derived from the scene of any
single terrorist,¡± Donilon said. ¡°It's about the size, the CIA
tells us, of a small college library.¡±
Donilon said the information gathered already has shown the world's most wanted
terrorist was actively involved in planning and directing al-Qaida's plots.
¡°What we now know, again taking a look initially here, is that he had
obviously an operational and strategic role, and a propaganda role, for
al-Qaida,¡± Donilon said.
Donilon also sidestepped when asked if waterboarding and other so-called
enhanced interrogation of detainees had produced information that led to the
successful raid against bin Laden's compound. ¡°No single piece of
intelligence led to this,¡± he said.
Public opinion polls have shown a boost in Obama's support in the days since
the raid, and his re-election campaign was eager to draw attention to the CBS
interview.
Jim Messina, the president's campaign manager, emailed Obama supporters
encouraging them to watch the program. The note included a link to a listing of
all of the network's local affiliates around the country _ and another one
requesting donations to the president's re-election effort.
Donilon appeared on ABC, NBC, CNN and Fox. Lugar was on CNN, and Kerry spoke on
CBS.
Source: The Korea Herald