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Pakistan criticises US raid on Laden
[Bangla Daily Star] Pakistain criticised the American raid that killed the late Osama bin Laden
... who no longer exists...
as an "unauthorised unilateral action," laying bare the strains the operation has put on an already rocky alliance.

US politicians along with the leaders of Perfidious Albion and La Belle France questioned how the Pak government could not have known the al-Qaeda 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 news hounds in Gay Paree.

British Prime Minister David Cameron
... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
also demanded that Pak 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 Perfidious Albion's interest.

White House front man Jay Carney told news hounds Tuesday that the US is committed to cooperating with Pakistain.

"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 US commandos killed the al-Qaeda leader following a 10-year manhunt, new details emerged Tuesday from Pakistain's powerful intelligence agency and bin Laden's neighbours 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 neighbours 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."

Neighbours said two men would routinely emerge from the compound to run errands or occasionally attend a neighbourhood gathering, such as a funeral. Both men were tall, fair skinned and bearded.

"People were skeptical in this neighbourhood about this place and these guys," said Mashood Khan, a 45-year-old farmer. "They used to gossip, say they were smugglers or drug pushers. People would complain that even with such a big house they didn't invite the poor or distribute charity."

US officials have suggested Pak officials may have known where bin Laden was living and members of Congress have seized on those suspicions to call for the US to consider cutting billions of aid to Pakistain if it turns out to be true.

Western officials have long regarded Pak security forces with suspicion, especially when it comes to links with faceless myrmidons fighting in Afghanistan. Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Jay ...
publicly said she suspected that some members of Pakistain's government knew where bin Laden was hiding.

However,
The didactic However...
within Pakistain criticism has been focused on the US breaching the country's illusory sovereignty. The B.O. regime has said it did not inform the Paks in advance of the operation against bin Laden, for fear they would tip off the targets.

A strongly worded Pak government statement warned the US 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-Qaeda.

Pak intelligence agencies hunting for a top al-Qaeda operative raided the house in 2003, according to a senior officer, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
in line with the spy agency's policy.

The house was just being built at the time of the raid by Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, and Abu Faraj al-Libi, al-Qaeda's No 3, was not there, said the officer.

US officials have said al-Libi once lived in the house and that information from him played a role in tracking the al-Qaeda chief down. Al-Libi was incarcerated by Pak police after a shootout in 2005 and he was later handed over to US authorities.

The Pak 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 beturbanned goons), said the officer. "All of a sudden one failure makes us incompetent and 10 years of effort is overlooked."

Al-Qaeda has been responsible for score of bloody attacks inside Pakistain, so on the face of it would seem strange for Islamabad to be sheltering bin Laden. Critics of Pakistain say that by keeping him on the run, Islamabad was ensuring that US aid and weapons to the country kept flowing.

The Pak 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, Pak President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
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 Pakistain's intelligence service. Those strains came to a head in late January after a CIA contractor shot and killed two Paks in what Washington said was self-defense.

In a statement, the Pak government said "this event of unauthorised unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule."

"The government of Pakistain further affirms that such an event shall not serve as a future precedent for any state, including the US," 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 illusory sovereignty. Islamabad has also been angered at the suspicions it had been sheltering bin Laden.
Posted by: Fred 2011-05-04
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=321821