The US needs to know what Pakistan knew about Osama bin Laden's presence in the country, the Vice Chairman of a senate committee on intelligence said Wednesday, demanding that Islamabad deliver to the US all top al Qaeda leaders hiding in its territory.
Senator Saxby Chambliss said the fact that bin Laden was found in a garrison city in Pakistan raises questions on whether Pakistanis
were sharing all of the information with the US.
"We need to know what they knew and when they knew it. I mean, gee whiz, you have got the number one terrorist in the world living in your country for some period of time in an area that's surrounded by the Pakistani military, surrounded by the ISI, their intelligence service over there, and they didn't know he was there?" Chambliss told PBS News Hour.
Chambliss is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"It raises questions about, number one, were they sharing all of the information that they had with us? And secondly, if they're going
to sit around and deny this -- then what kind of military do they have? Is it one that we can really rely on as a partner? What kind of
intelligence service do they have and can we really rely on the information that they give
us? So there are just an awful lot of questions surrounding this," an angry Chambliss asked.
It is time for Pakistan to get serious, he said, adding if that country wants to truly be a democratic country and have a strong military that protects its people within and without, "then it will have to stand up and show that they're willing to cooperate in the terrorist world by not cooperating with the Haqqani network, which they do; by not cooperating with the Pakistan Taliban, which they do".
He said if Pakistan was serious about having America as a partner, it should immediately deliver Mullah Omar, Ayman Al Zawahiri and other
top al Qaeda members that are hiding in the mountains on the Pak-Afghan border.
"If they didn't know that, then we really do have questions about the competency of their military and the ISI. So I don't know whether
they can deliver on that or not, but I think it's a reasonable request," he said.
Senator Mark Udall said the US needs to ask questions about its ally -- both in public and classified settings.
"Either the Pakistani government is incompetent or in cahoots.
This may be an opportunity to reset our relationship with Pakistan," he said.
He said the US has invested USD 3 billion in Pakistan every year.
"I think the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Chambliss, would agree that Pakistan is too big to fail -- 180 million Muslims -- but there have to be consequences. And this was a very, very serious situation. Thank God we finally saw that justice was served in Pakistan on bin Laden," Udall said.