Did Pakistan Know bin Laden Was Among Them?

Ziggurat said:
Pakistan has deep and often violent internal divisions. The question isn't whether Pakistan as a whole shielded bin Laden, but whether any part of the government did so. That's not only possible, it is unfortunately very likely. The follow-up question, if that's the answer, is how big a part of the government, and which part.
Click to expand...

From a practical POV there is the question of how much people helped. There is quite a range from "people in the ISI knew where he was and forestalled any investigation" to the ISI touched the edge of his support network from time to time and looked the other way.
 
Sword_Of_Truth said:
Someone please tell me that not a single bloody penny of US taxpayer dollars went to building his compound of feeding his stringy ass? :mad:
Click to expand...

Money is increasingly tracable in this day and age. If you got an nice bit of corruption going on you don't want to ruin it by moving around money in a way that will attract the interest of the CIA.

The cost of the compound is within what should have been possible for bin laden assuming we hadn't managed to wipe out all his funds.
 
The USA has spy satellites. They can take pictures of every city in the region and look for anything out of place like this house. Once they find it they can take a further look. Odd that this was not done. Or maybe it was and this was how they found it?
 
rjh01 said:
The USA has spy satellites. They can take pictures of every city in the region and look for anything out of place like this house. Once they find it they can take a further look. Odd that this was not done. Or maybe it was and this was how they found it?
Click to expand...

It doesn't stand out that much. Before the coordinates were announced people were not having much luck locating it on google earth.
 
Biscuit said:
I think pakistan is one of those situations where the left hand doesn't know everything the right hand is doing. I find it hard to believe that no one in their government knew where he was.

OBL is worth billions to Pakistan. The longer he remained alive and hidden the longer the US would have an interest, and a check book, in the region. I am reading articles and opinion pieces everywhere now saying we should just get out now that OBL is dead. Have the afghans and the taliban make peace and we can go our merry way.
Click to expand...

Pakistan is a tricky country to deal with. They are a nuclear power, and, IMO, there is a significant risk that extreme Islamists could take over Pakistan. In the nightmare scenario, they start giving nuclear weapons to Al Queda or people like them. I think the best course may be to swallow our pride, and maintain some kind of relationship with them.

I find it absolutely incredible that at least some people in the Pakistani military didn't know Osama was there, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the people at the top knew, though I doubt we will ever prove the latter. However, I think in the case of Pakistan, we have to let our interest in not letting nukes go to kooks overrule our emotions, which, for me at least says wash our hands of the bastards.
 
Dumb All Over said:
BTW, I started this thread in USA Politics for a reason. If it is determined that the Pakistanis did know bin Laden was there and opted not to inform the U.S. of this, should the U.S. continue to send them billions of dollars?
Click to expand...

no...............
 
"Pakistan" is not a single entity, nor is the Pakistani government or military.

Are there *some* in the government or military that knew? Probably, I'd guess. There may even be some in the US government who knew, for that matter.
 
I totally believe that the Pakistani military had no knowledge of the whereabouts of OBL and that not finding him was the result of..."shortcomings". After all, who would see anything suspicious or conspicuous about a place like this?
It's not like it was this:
1211960304UPvg1W.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom