— Suspicion rose Monday that Pakistan’s intelligence service leaked the name of the CIA chief in Islamabad to local media in anger over the raid that killed Osama bin Laden — the second outing of an American covert operative here in six months.
The U.S. said it has no plans to pull the spy chief, but the incident is likely to exacerbate an already troubled relationship between the two countries a week after Navy SEALs in helicopters swooped down on bin Laden’s compound without first telling the Pakistanis. The CIA and Pakistan’s spy agency have long viewed each other with suspicion, which the death of the terror leader has laid bare.
The Pakistani military and intelligence services have suffered withering criticism at home for failing to stop the U.S. operation. Many Pakistanis view the raid as a violation of their sovereignty — even if they were pleased that bin Laden was killed.
President Barack Obama said the U.S. believes bin Laden must have had a support network inside Pakistan.
“But we don’t know who or what that support network was,” Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” “We don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that’s something that we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate.”
Gilani proclaimed the death of bin Laden as “indeed justice done” since al-Qaida has launched many attacks inside Pakistan. But he warned the U.S. not to try a similar covert raid in the future.
“Unilateralism runs the inherent risk of serious consequences,” Gilani said. “Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force. … No one should underestimate the resolve and capability of our nation and armed forces to defend our sacred homeland.”
At the same time, however, he stressed the importance of Pakistan-U.S. ties and insisted the relationship was still strong.
