Elements in the Pakistan government, particularly its intelligence establishment, know where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding inside the country, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has said, declaring America will not be satisfied till it gets the world's most wanted fugitive.
"I think elements in the government do (know bin Laden's whereabouts). I've said that before," she told the Fox News channel in Islamabad.
"If there were a terrorist network operating somewhere, even in the most remote place in the United States, some sheriff, some local state policeman, somebody in our collective government would probably know that there was something suspicious going on," she added. "So, that's why I assume somebody, somebody in this government, from top to bottom, does know where bin Laden is. And I'd like to know too. Top levels of the government say they don't know, to be fair to them. It would similar, again, if somebody walked into my office and said do you know where bad guy in the Mexican cartel is on our side of the border? I would say I don't know, but I assume somebody knows. So, I think we've got to keep pressure on, which we are doing."
Clinton acknowledged that Pakistan had been cooperating to some extent. "I think it is also important to know we have been getting with Pakistani cooperation a lot of the top leadership of Al-Qaeda," she said.
She added that they were getting closer to the goal. "I don't want to put a proximity or timeline on it," she said. "We have gotten closer because we have been able to kill a number of their trainers, their operational people, their financiers. But I won't be satisfied until we get it done
We haven't gotten bin Laden or Zawahiri, but we've consistently been able to track and kill a lot of their principal leadership
It's not yet what I want it to be, because having been a senator from New York on 9/11, I want those guys. I will not be satisfied until we get them. But we've made a lot of progress. We've created a closer cooperative relationship between the United States and Pakistan, in going after what are now common enemies."
Clinton said Islamabad had argued about how many groups they could fight. In an interview with MSNBC, Clinton said she told the Pakistani leadership, "Look, you've got to take on every non-governmental armed force inside your country, because even though you think they won't bother you today, there is no guarantee. It's like keeping a poisonous snake in your backyard
You don't know whether tomorrow it will go after you, so we have been making that case and I find greater receptivity to it, but we still have to make it stronger."
She acknowledged that the relationship with Pakistan has not been at its best. "We inherited a situation with such mistrust between the United States and Pakistan that it takes day-by-day confidence-building. And we've been doing that," she said. "It is not to get just a good relationship at the top. You have to go through the bureaucracy
You have to set a new tone; you have to set a new sense of direction and authority. And I think that is happening."
