Abbottabad: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that although it has not been proven that anybody at the top of the Pakistan government knew about the presence of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, but it "seems likely that somebody did know."
Bin Laden, who had evaded capture for a decade, was killed on May 2 in a top-secret US unilateral military operation involving a small team of American Special Forces in Pakistan's Abbottabad city.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates had told reporters at a Pentagon briefing on May 18 that his supposition is that "somebody" in Pakistan knew about the presence of bin Laden in the country.
In an interview with CBS News, Clinton said: "I would answer the same way that Secretary Gates said, because he and I see this eye to eye. We believe that it was not proven that anybody at the top of the government in Pakistan knew where bin Ladin was, but it seems likely that somebody did know."
"I said that the first time I went to Pakistan. I said, "It's hard to believe that somebody in your government somewhere - and it could be some very low-level person - doesn't know where he is." And we're having very candid conversations with our Pakistani partners," she added.
Clinton also made it clear that the United States 'expects more' from Pakistan in the ongoing war on terror.
"We've had good cooperation on many important strategic interests of the United States with Pakistan, and we have supported them in their own fight against the extremists who are killing and threatening their people. But we expect more. We're having conversations about what more we can do together," she said. ANI
