After US pressurises Pak to explain how world's most dreaded terrorist was living a stone's throw from its military base
After US pressurises Pak to explain how world's most dreaded terrorist was living a stone's throw from its military base
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The hunter and the Hunted: This framegrab from an undated video
released by the US shows Osama bin Laden making a video at his
compound in Abbottabad.u00a0Barack Obama. File pics
Obama sceptical
Obama ratcheted up the pressure on Sunday, when he said on a news channel "we think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan". The White House said the terror kingpin was "hiding in plain sight" in Pakistan, and outraged US lawmakers have voiced suspicion that elements of Pakistan's military intelligence services must have known his whereabouts. Some lawmakers are demanding that billions of dollars in US aid to Pakistan be suspended after Osama's take-down on Pakistani soil.
On a talk show, Haqqani acknowledged Pakistani shortcomings, but insisted officials were unaware that bin Laden was hiding just a few hours' drive from Islamabad, and that if they did "we would have taken action". He added, "We are allies and partners who need each other."
'55/45 situation'
Meanwhile, Obama acknowledged in an interview to a US TV channel that the raid on Osama's hideout was really risky, unnerving, and tricky.u00a0"There was no direct evidence of his presence," he said. "At the end of the day, this was still a 55/45 situation. I mean, we could not say definitively that bin Laden was there. Had he not been there, then there would have been some significant consequences."
Launching a military operation in the sovereign territory of another country without informing it carried risks.
"And so if it turns out that it's a wealthy prince from Dubai who's in this compound and, we've sent Special Forces in, we've got problems," he said. "So there were risks involved in the decision."
But ultimately, "I said to myself that if we have a good chance of not completely defeating but badly disabling Al-Qaeda then it was worth both the political risks, as well as the risks to our men." "It was the longest 40 minutes of my life with the possible exception of when Sasha got meningitis," he said.
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