U.S. Officials: Pakistanis Tip Off Militants Again





The Pakistanis believe the Americans violated their sovereignty by keeping them in the dark about the raid. American officials believe bin Laden's location proves some elements of the Pakistani army or intelligence service helped hide the Al Qaeda mastermind, bolstering their argument that the raid had to be done solo.

The U.S. officials explained Saturday how they first offered the location of the third, and then the fourth site, in order to give Pakistan another chance to prove it could be trusted to go after the militants.



Pakistan's army on Friday disputed reports that its security forces had tipped off insurgents at bomb-making factories after getting intelligence about the sites from the United States. The army called the assertions of collusion with militants "totally false and malicious."

Army officials further claimed they had successfully raided two more sites, after finding nothing at the first two, but a Pakistani official reached Friday offered no details of what they found there.

The official admitted that in each raid, however, the Pakistani security services notified the local elders who hold sway in the tribal regions. The official said they would investigate U.S. charges that the militants had been tipped off.

Two U.S. officials said they were asking the Pakistanis to withhold such sensitive information from the elders, and even their lower ranks, to prove they could be trusted to keep a secret, and go after U.S. enemies.

At least two of the sites were run by the Haqqani network, which is part of the Taliban, closely allied with Al Qaeda, and blamed for some of the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops and civilians in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan has long resisted attacking the Haqqani network, saying the group has never attacked the state of Pakistan.



While not confirming the number, a Pakistani official said any citizen who worked with the U.S. to spy on the raid had betrayed his or her country by failing to tip off the government that someone the Americans wanted was hiding in the compound. Such a tip, the official said, could have saved the Pakistani government the embarrassment of being surprised by the bin Laden raid.