Obama: bin Laden had support network
WASHINGTON -- Osama bin Laden benefitted from "some sort of support network" inside Pakistan, President Barack Obama said in a Sunday broadcast interview, but he added it is not clear whether government officials knew the terrorist leader was living inside their country when U.S. commandos killed him in a raid last weekend.
"We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate," Obama said in an interview for CBS ( CBS - news - people )' "60 Minutes."
Bin Laden was living in a high-security compound in Abbottabad, a Pakistani city with a strong military presence, when U.S. Navy SEALs raided his compound in the middle of the night and killed him. The terrorist leader's body was quickly buried at sea.
The president made his comments as top administration officials and lawmakers rebutted calls for a cut-off in American aid to Pakistan, an inconstant ally in the long struggle against terrorists.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "Everybody has to understand that even in the getting of Osama bin Laden, the Pakistanis were helpful. We have people on the ground in Pakistan because they allow us to have them.
"We actually worked with them on certain parts of the intelligence that helped to lead to him, and they have been extraordinarily cooperative and at some political cost to them in helping us to take out 16 of the top 20 al-Qaida leaders with a drone program that we have in the western part of the country."
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"We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate," Obama said in an interview for CBS ( CBS - news - people )' "60 Minutes."
Bin Laden was living in a high-security compound in Abbottabad, a Pakistani city with a strong military presence, when U.S. Navy SEALs raided his compound in the middle of the night and killed him. The terrorist leader's body was quickly buried at sea.
The president made his comments as top administration officials and lawmakers rebutted calls for a cut-off in American aid to Pakistan, an inconstant ally in the long struggle against terrorists.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "Everybody has to understand that even in the getting of Osama bin Laden, the Pakistanis were helpful. We have people on the ground in Pakistan because they allow us to have them.
"We actually worked with them on certain parts of the intelligence that helped to lead to him, and they have been extraordinarily cooperative and at some political cost to them in helping us to take out 16 of the top 20 al-Qaida leaders with a drone program that we have in the western part of the country."
Read More