Osama had support system in Pakistan, admits envoy

Pakistan has acknowledged Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had "support system" in the country, but asserted that the government was unaware of his presence on its soil. "Obviously, bin Laden did have a support system in Pakistan. The issue was that support system within the government and the state of Pakistan or within the society of Pakistan," Pakistan ambassador to United States Husain Haqqani said.

"We all know that there are people in Pakistan who share the same belief system as bin Laden and other extremists. So that is a fact, that there are people who probably protected him," he told CNN. But, he maintained that Pakistan was unaware of bin Laden's presence on its soil.

"We did not know. We had no knowledge. And if we had knowledge, we would have acted upon it long ago," he said. The envoy said Pakistan government will conduct an inquiry that how its intelligence failed to notice his presence in Islamabad's proximity.

"We will do a full inquiry into finding out why our intelligence services were not able to track him earlier. Any question about intelligence failure will definitely be addressed by us (Pakistan and US) jointly. We are allies," he said.

When asked why did not anyone from the Inter-Services Intelligence or the military go inside bin Laden's compound in Pakistan's Abbottabad, which was bigger than all the other houses in the area with a big wall around it, Haqqani said, "You can't do that in Pakistan, where there are many houses which are larger than others and unless and until you have due cause." Haqqani said had Pakistan knew about bin Laden's presence, actions for his arrest would have been taken. "If the Pakistani government had known that Osama bin Laden was there, we would have got him, like we got Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (a 9/11 mastermind), like we got Ramzi bin al-Shibh, like we got many others."

"All the major personnel, Al Qaeda personalities currently in Guantanamo, were arrested by Pakistani authorities in cooperation with the United States. So if we really had known where bin Laden was, we would've got him," he said.

The envoy said Pakistan is "very glad" that US did it. "They had superior intelligence, they had superior technology and we are grateful to them and to God for having given us this opportunity to bring this chapter to an end."

Haqqani asserted that eliminating a terrorist like bin Laden is possible only when there is cooperation between various countries. "I think that eliminating him and eliminating other terrorists who are unrepentant is significant and important, and it can only be possible by cooperation between the various governments and counties," the envoy said.

"At the same time, we have to understand that there will always be people who have a negative view and a negative attitude about these matters. So we should just not get bogged down with that," he said. 

"Understand the cooperation between the Pakistani government, the elected people, the parliament which want actually people like bin Laden to be eliminated," he said.

The ambassador indicated there were some in Pakistan that still had to come to terms with working with the US. "Look, we have to as a nation in Pakistan re-evaluate our view of this whole problem," he said.

"There were some after 9/11 who said, 'We shouldn't side with the United States because the United States is about to crumble like the Soviet Union did and we should actually support the Taliban'," Haqqani said.

"You remember that, that changed. Pakistan has to come to terms with the fact." Haqqani said bin Laden living barely a two-hour drive from Islamabad "is not the point."

The point is that he has been eliminated in a successful operation by the United States, and Pakistan has expressed satisfaction at the conclusion of this operation." On why the US did not trust Pakistan to share anything with it about this operation, Haqqani said the United States had not shared information on the secretive mission even with "Australians, with the British, with the Canadians".

"The United States made a critical decision. President Obama decided that the success of the operation was far more important than the niceties." Haqqani said Pakistan and the United States have a lot of things to work out as the two countries move forward. "Pakistan has no interest, the people of Pakistan have no interest in protecting and keeping terrorists on our soil. We need to build our nation. Half our children don't go to school. Two-thirds of our people live below the poverty line. Those are the issues we want to address."