Pakistan: Quick Thoughts

So, the notion that Pakistan must have known Bin Laden was living among them (in some degree of “palatial comfort”) continues to make the rounds, sparking some serious issues between the US and Pakistan. Since it broke, I’ve been…somewhat puzzled by the certainty a lot of people show. One of my first thoughts in all this, in fact, was that if it turned out he’d be going down to market every other day for a falafel or something, that would be pretty damning.

But, by all accounts, no one around actually knew Bin Laden was in there. In fact, most of the locals thought he was someone from the tribal areas who had pissed off the wrong people and was hiding out (mostly true, as it happened). Bin Laden was so good at staying out of sight that the safehouse full of CIA agents who were conducting surveillance of the place couldn’t be 100% certain that he was in there. I’m also confused about the factor of the military academy’s proximity. I mean, it’s not like they conduct operations out of there, or something. It’s a school. Does the US military have positive ID on every recluse and shut-in living within 1 mile of West Point? Annapolis? Colorado Springs?

Probably not.

As it is, I think it’s pretty likely that there are elements within the Pakistani military and intelligence service that knew Bin Laden was there and, like a good mole, discretely steered attention away from where he was hiding. The people in overall command likely didn’t know that they had people with this knowledge in their midst or, if they suspected it, knew a witchhunt would be far more destructive to their security apparatus than they could afford. That sucks, but that’s kind of the situation with Pakistan right now. I’m not sure what good it does us to get all worked up about it, since I think most attention-paying people have understood this from the beginning.

Mirrored from Bum Scoop.