Thaindian News

Washington, May 19 (IANS) Somebody in Pakistan “had to know” that Osama bin Laden was hiding there, said US Defence Secretary Robert Gates as Washington continued to seek answers from Islamabad over its failure to locate the slain Al Qaeda leader.

While the US has no proof that Pakistan’s top leaders knew Osama was hiding in Abbottabad, “somebody had to know”, Gates said Wednesday.

“It’s my supposition, and I think it’s a supposition shared by a number in this government, that somebody had to know, but we have no proof and no evidence,” Gates told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday.

Due to lack of evidence, “it’s hard to hold them accountable for it”, he said.

But Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen also cautioned against holding back aid until Pakistan moves against militants within its borders, saying Islamabad was already paying for its inaction.

“If I were in Pakistani shoes, I would say I’ve already paid a price. I’ve been humiliated. I’ve been shown that the Americans can come in here and do this with impunity,” Gates said.

Responding to a question about what should be done if someone in Pakistan’s government did know, Gates said: “I think we have to recognize that they see a cost in that and a price that has been paid.”

Mullen added that the incident was a “humbling experience” for the Pakistanis and had led to “internal soul-searching”.

Washington has also sought answers from Pakistan and conveyed concerns of the administration and lawmakers about long-term national security following Islamabad’s failure to locate Osama.

“We understand concerns raised in Congress in the wake of the bin Laden raid, and we share some of those concerns,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Wednesday.

“We’ve been quite clear in conveying those concerns to the Government of Pakistan,” he said when asked about a letter by five senators to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeking an assessment of Pakistan’s commitment to and efforts towards the fight against terrorism.

Noting that the visit of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, to Pakistan was being followed by US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mark Grossman, Toner said: “We’re going to continue this dialogue.”

“We’ve also been consistent in saying that we believe this kind of counterterrorism cooperation is indeed in the interest of both our countries, our long-term national security interests, and we’re going to seek to move forward,” he said.

“But it’s also important to stress that we do have these concerns, we share them, and we want answers,” Toner said.

Asked about terror groups operating out of Pakistan, he said “a productive counterterrorism relationship with Pakistan” was “in our mutual interest”.

As Washington continued its efforts to tackle the evolving situation, a maverick Republican presidential contender said the US may end up occupying Pakistan, but the move would be “unsuccessful”.

“I see the whole thing as a mess, and I think that we are going to be in Pakistan,” Texas congressman Ron Paul told MSNBC Wednesday.

“I think that’s the next occupation and I fear it. I think it’s ridiculous, and I think our foreign policy is such that we don’t need to be doing this,” he said.

He sees an occupation of even greater scale than Afghanistan on the horizon, Paul said. But if it happens, “it will probably be very unsuccessful”, he said.

Paul said the US has created a civil war in Pakistan and violated the country’s national security by its May 2 raid on Osama’s hideout in Pakistan.