Pakistan Can't Seem to Figure Out Why Bin Laden Was Hiding in Abbottabad

[Valin]

The Atlantic Monthly:

 

Jeffrey Goldberg

2/20/12

 

The Pakistani commission appointed to investigate just how Osama bin Laden came to be living in Abbottabad, in a large house adjacent to Pakistan's military academy (a house built by an architect regularly employed by the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, according to a report from David Ignatius) appears to be struggling to reach a credible conclusion, and has already blown past its deadline:

 

(Snip)

 

Part of the reason the commission may be late in releasing its findings is that it has spent a great deal of time investigating Pakistanis accused of aiding the Americans in their raid on Abbottabad, rather than on finding out who was hiding Bin Laden. A prime target of this witchhunt has been the now-former Pakistani ambassador in Washington, Husain Haqqani, who stood accused of issuing visas to American intelligence and military personnel. The charge is absurd and baroque on its face, of course; The Pakistanis are, officially at least, cooperating with the U.S. in the fight against al Qaeda (unofficially, elements of the ISI are supporting organizations that kill Americans in Afghanistan), and Pakistan's military budget is underwritten by the American taxpayer, so naturally there is a great deal of military traffic between the U.S. and Pakistan.

 

(Snip)

 

Lately, Pakistan's civilian leaders, in particular the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, motivated in part by the scurrilous attack on Haqqani, and all that it represents, have become more outspoken about military interference in the country's affairs. The army, and the ISI, are back on their heels a bit, and neither the fake Husain Haqqani scandal, nor the Abbottabad commission report -- no matter what it says -- is helping their standing. It wouldn't surprise me if, years from now, we look back on the twin failures represented by the Abbottabad raid -- Pakistan inability to stop an American raid, and its seeming willingness to hide Bin Laden -- as the moment when the military's ruinous control over Pakistan slowly began unraveling.