Relations between US and Pak strained
ABBOTTABAD: When the United States found and killed Osama bin Laden earlier this month in Abbottabad of Pakistan, the relations between the two countries suffered.
The relationship between the CIA and Pakistan’s intelligence agency is not shut down, but is strained, said a U.S. official.
The revelation that bin Laden had been living in a Pakistani home has fueled suspicions that Pakistani officials knew about the whereabouts of the terror leader.
The U.S. official, who did not want to be identified for safety concerns, said both sides need to continue working together.
“Both sides understand the importance of the relationship,” the official said. “Cooperation is continuing, discussions are continuing, but there are issues to work through.”
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White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration is optimistic that U.S.-Pakistani cooperation “will continue with regards to” access to bin Laden’s wives “and also to the materials that were collected by the Pakistanis after the U.S. commandos left” the compound where they killed bin Laden.
Carney described the U.S.-Pakistani relationship as “important and complicated.”
On Tuesday Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik also said that the United States will be given access to Osama bin Laden’s wives and children.
But on Monday, a senior Pakistani intelligence source had said the United States could question bin Laden’s wives only if their “country of origin has been asked for permission.”
One of bin Laden’s wives is from Yemen. A well-placed U.S. official who would not speak on the record said the other two wives are from Saudi Arabia.
Malik did not say when or where the United States would have such access. Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Tuesday U.S. and Pakistani officials were discussing the matter.
