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Pakistan not made aware of OBL compound raid: Panetta
WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief, Leon Panetta said Pakistan was not made aware of the US raid on Osama bin Laden’s (OBL) compound as it might have leaked the information to the Al-Qaeda chief.Leon Panetta headed the CIA at the time when US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden (OBL) in Abbottabad town. In an interview to CBS 60 Minutes, he said:
“We had seen some military helicopters actually going over this compound. And for that reason it concerned us that if we in fact brought [Pakistan] into it, that they might... give bin Laden a heads up.”
The US still believes that someone in authority in Pakistan knew where the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden, was hiding in the country, nine months after the raid that killed the Al-Qaeda chief.
On Pakistani knowledge of bin Laden's whereabouts, he said: “I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what - what was happening at this compound.
“Don't forget this compound had 18-foot walls. It was the largest compound in the area. So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, what the hell is going on there,” Panetta told.
When he was asked whether he knew for sure that the government of Pakistan knew where bin Laden was, Panetta said, “I don't have any hard evidence, so I cannot say it for a fact. There's nothing that proves the case. But as I said my personal view is that somebody somewhere probably had that knowledge.”
Courtesy www.geo.tv