It was a telling statement. On Wednesday, the US defence secretary Robert M Gates said there was no evidence that anyone In Pakistan's senior leadership knew that Osama bin Laden was hiding in the garrison city of Abbottabad.
He quickly followed it up, however, with his own theory: "Somebody did know".
However, I have to question the whole allegation surrounding this incident. In all the reams of reporting on the extra-judicial killing of Osama bin Laden, and given the allegation that he was on kidney dialysis, there has been no mention of the necessary medical equipment in the Abbottabad house. Is this another red flag that signals caution? Editor
That is now the question that is doing the rounds - from Washington to Islamabad via almost every foreign office in the world. In Pakistan, senior military commanders are said to be embarrassed by the whole situation. Speaking on deep background, one army official said simply that the Pakistani military leadership was in crisis mode.
That theory was seemingly confirmed by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Admiral Mike Mullen who on Wednesday said the Pakistani army was in soul-searching mode.
In a very tense closed-door special joint sitting of Pakistan's parliament on Friday, the head of Pakistan's intelligence service Lt General Ahmed Shuja Pasha was grilled by a wide spectrum of the country’s lawmakers.
Various leaks from that session described it as being tense. Pakistan's top spy was in turn shocked at the allegations levelled at his agency, even at one point offering to tender his resignation. Quite simply, from some who attended that meeting, it was clear that Pasha didn't know Osama bin Laden was in Abbottabad.
Repeated calls to Pakistani government officials have also yielded no results. Two weeks on and no one in Pakistani authority is willing to speak on the record.
If we take the US defence secretary's words at face value and cross reference that with the research I and others have done it seems plausible that Pakistani senior figures did not know. More >>>
Location:Islamabad
