Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Wednesday that he surmised that “somebody” in Pakistan had been aware that Osama bin Laden was hiding in a compound in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, but that there was no evidence so far that anyone in the country’s senior leadership had known.
“My supposition is, somebody knew,” Mr. Gates said at a Pentagon news conference with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Beyond that, he said, the Obama administration, which has repeatedly said that Bin Laden seemed to have a “support network” while in hiding, had little information.
“We don’t know whether it was retired people, whether it was low level — pure supposition on our part,” Mr. Gates said. “It’s hard to go to them with an accusation when we have no proof that anybody knew.”
Mr. Gates said that his supposition, shared by many other Obama administration officials, did not extend to Pakistan’s top political and military officials. “I have seen no evidence at all that the senior leadership knew,” Mr. Gates said. “In fact, I’ve seen some evidence to the contrary.”
Mr. Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, did not elaborate on that evidence. But hundreds of intelligence analysts continue to pore over the large trove of computer files, whose volume of data has been compared to that of a small college library. Navy Seal commandos recovered the material after they killed Bin Laden on May 2 in a raid on his Abbottabad compound, a short distance from an elite military academy that is Pakistan’s West Point.
Asked if the Pakistani senior leadership should pay a price for apparently not knowing that Bin Laden was there, Mr. Gates replied swiftly. “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,” he said.
Admiral Mullen echoed Mr. Gates. “I don’t think that we should underestimate the humbling experience that this is, and in fact the internal soul-searching that’s going on inside the Pakistani military right now,” he said.
At the same news conference, Mr. Gates and Admiral Mullen each said that there had been too much public discussion about the details of the raid and that there were concerns about security for the families of the Navy Seal members who had carried it out.
Mr. Gates, who met privately with the commandos four days after the raid, said that the commandos, whose names are classified, “did express concern, not so much for themselves but for their families.” Mr. Gates suggested that security measures might be taken as a precaution against potential retaliation by terrorists.
“All I will say is that we have been taking a close look at that, and we will do whatever is necessary,” Mr. Gates said.
In comments last week at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Mr. Gates said that top administration officials in the White House Situation Room who monitored the raid as it was happening had agreed not to release operational details but that the agreement fell apart afterward.
Although Mr. Gates appeared to be referring to an extensive White House briefing that followed the raid, he said at the Pentagon news conference on Wednesday that he was not singling anyone out.
Admiral Mullen said simply that “it is time to stop talking.”
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