Pakistan has already paid dearly for its failure to know or acknowledge that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was hiding for more than five years in a compound a short distance from a Pakistani military facility, Pentagon leaders said on Wednesday.
Pushing back against angry public and congressional accusations that Pakistani officials were complicit in bin Laden’s sanctuary there, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he had seen proof that leaders there were unaware of bin Laden’s whereabouts.
“I have seen no evidence at all that the senior leadership knew. In fact, I’ve seen some evidence to the contrary,” Gates told reporters at the Pentagon. “We have no evidence yet with respect to anybody else. My supposition is, somebody knew.”
He would not say who knew, but suggested it could have been retired or low-level Pakistani officials.
US President Barack Obama’s administration is reassessing its fragile and sometimes hostile relationship with Pakistan after the bin Laden killing, which may change the stakes for both sides. For the US, it may provide greater leverage in its argument to prod Pakistan to go after the militants that target the US, instead of only those that target Pakistan.
For Pakistan, outrage and shame over what is seen as a breach of national sovereignty will color leaders’ willingness to cooperate with the US.
Gates and US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen issued a broad defense of Islamabad’s leaders on Wednesday. They urged patience as the “humiliated” country worked through the problems emanating from the US clandestine raid deep into Pakistan that killed bin Laden on May 2.
“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. “I think we have to recognize that they see a cost in that and a price that has been paid.”
That argument, however, may hold no sway in Congress, which has seen more than US$10 billion in aid go to Pakistan over the past 10 years.
If a US aid package to Pakistan should come up for a vote in at least one senate appropriations subcommittee, “it would not pass at all. I don’t know how I would vote on the issue,” said Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign aid.
US Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said as lawmakers are under pressure to cut all US spending, he suggested establishing a “set of benchmarks” for Pakistan to meet, such as going after the Haqqani network, border security and focusing on North Waziristan.
While he cautioned against a rush to cut aid to Pakistan, he said that the US set similar types of benchmarks as it prepared to withdraw troops from Iraq.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not