WASHINGTON: The White House has demanded Pakistan investigate the support network that sustained Osama bin Laden, but one week after killing the Al-Qaeda chief the United States says there is no proof Islamabad knew of his hideout.
“There was some support network in Abbottabad, Pakistan with the support of bin Laden,” White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon told NBC Sunday talk show “Meet The Press.”
"We haven't seen evidence that the government knew about that. But they need to investigate that." US President Barack Obama ordered the clandestine US Navy SEAL mission that killed Bin Laden at his Abbottabad compound, which also allowed the United States to seize a massive cashe of intelligence.
But Donilon stressed that, despite the fugitive terror chief hiding for years in a three-storey house near the capital Islamabad, “I've not seen evidence that would tell us that the political, the military, or the intelligence leadership had foreknowledge of bin Laden.”
"The second point though, is the fact which you're alluding to, is that Osama bin Laden was in this town for six years, 35 miles (50 kilometers) away from the capitol of Pakistan, Islamabad, in a town that was known as a military town where they had an important military academy. This needs to be investigated.”
Donilon, like US intelligence officials on Sunday, described the data haul from the raid as the richest terrorism treasure trove ever collected.
“This is the largest cache of intelligence derived from the scene of any single terrorist,” he said. “It's about the size, the CIA tells us, of a small college library.
“If we develop any information about planning or imminent threats, obviously, we will act on this,” he added.
Donilon would not comment on specific potential threats, but when asked about reports that bin Laden was planning US rail attacks for the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, he responded “to the extent that we hear information like that, we obviously make the appropriate notices and take the appropriate action.”
While killing bin Laden, the 9/11 mastermind, is a significant US victory, Donilon cautioned: “we can't declare al-Qaeda strategically defeated."
"They continue to be a threat to the United States. But we have taken a really important milestone in terms of taking down this organization.”
Donilon said it's “absolutely critical for us to remain vigilant as we continue to press this organization.”He said the United States was now eyeing the world's new most wanted man:
Ayman al-Zawahiri, long considered Al-Qaeda's number two.
But Donilon said Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon and global terrorism franchise master who has been hiding ever since the United States declared its war on terror after the 9/11 attacks, “is not anywhere near the leader that Osama bin Laden was.”
Al-Qaeda “will have to work themselves through some sort of succession,”Donilon said. Killing bin Laden was “a real blow.”
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