U.S. to Probe Pakistani Help for Bin Laden

Wall Street Journal reports:

Obama administration officials said Monday they would probe whether Pakistani authorities helped al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden stay in hiding for years, one day after he was killed by U.S. special forces at an outsize mansion complex located in the same city as Pakistan's top military academy.

The announcement came as the U.S. moved swiftly to identify and dispose of the body they retrieved during a 40-minute strike inside Pakistan that was ordered by President Barack Obama. DNA tests showed a "virtually 100%" match of the body against genetic material from several bin Laden family members, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday. Bin Laden's remains were buried at sea.

Emerging details of the U.S. raid immediately raised questions about how bin Laden, the most wanted man in American history, had eluded a manhunt that dates back more than a decade. The al Qaeda leader was cornered not in a remote border hideout but in a three-story mansion complex in Abbottabad, a city roughly 40 miles north of Islamabad that is thick with active and retired Pakistani military personnel.

Senior U.S. officials said Monday that bin Laden clearly had support from within Pakistan that allowed him to live there.

At a news briefing, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, credited Pakistan with capturing and killing more terrorists inside its borders than any other country, part of White House efforts since the strike to play down unhappiness with Pakistan. But he also said it was "inconceivable" that bin Laden didn't have a significant "support system" there.

Asked if it was credible to think that "Pakistani authorities" had no idea that the compound was being built, Mr. Brennan said: "We are talking with the Pakistanis on a regular basis now, and we're going to pursue all leads to find out exactly what type of support system and benefactors that bin Laden might have had."

He didn't specify which agencies of Pakistan's government would be investigated. But privately, administration officials said the U.S. would have to probe for the possible involvement of Pakistan's spy service and the military. "There are only so many agencies in the government that might have been involved," said an official.