Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan speaks to the press after President Barack Obama made a statement in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington October 29, 2010. 
 
 WASHINGTON A top White House official said it was "inconceivable" Osama bin Laden had not had a support system to help him inside Pakistan, but he declined to speculate if there had been any official Pakistani aid. 
 
 John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counter terrorism adviser, also told reporters that the U.S. commandos on the raid had been ready to take the al Qaeda leader alive if that had been possible. 
 
 (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Alister Bull, editing by Sandra Maler) ||||| Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin and other senior senators sharply questioned Monday whether the Pakistani military and intelligence community had protected Osama bin Laden before Navy SEALs killed the terrorist leader in a Sunday night raid. 
 
 Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, the Michigan Democrat suggested that the national security arms of the Pakistani government may have been aware since last summer that bin Laden was living in a compound in the country’s Abbottabad Valley. 
 
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 “I think the Pakistani army and intelligence have a lot of questions to answer – the location, the length of time and the apparent fact that this facility was actually built for bin Laden and it’s close to the central location of the Pakistani army,” Levin said, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) standing by his side. “I think the army and the intelligence of Pakistan – there are plenty of questions that they should be answering … hopefully they are being asked by the Pakistani government.” 
 
 Levin said President Asif Ali Zardari issued a “very reassuring statement” hailing the death of bin Laden, but he said the civilian leader has to ask “some very tough questions of his own military and his own intelligence.” 
 
 “They have got a lot of explaining to do,” Levin said. 
 
 Other top senators echoed Levin’s skepticism on Monday, including Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), the leaders of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. 
 
 Collins said that it was “very difficult” for her to understand how bin Laden’s compound did not raise suspicions among Pakistani officials, noting that there were no phone or Internet lines attached to the residence, the waste was incinerated and that there was barbed wire surrounding the unit. 
 
 “I think this tells us once again that unfortunately Pakistan is playing a double game and that’s very troubling to me,” she said.
– Pakistan is going to have to answer some tough questions about whether members of its military and intelligence services knew where Osama bin Laden was, warns Sen. Carl Levin. The Democrat, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, suggested that the security arms of the Pakistani government may have known where bin Laden was living since last summer, Politico reports. The location, the length of time bin Laden was there, and the fact that the Abbotabad compound was built specifically for bin Laden all raise suspicions, Levin said. Levin's sentiments were echoed by other top senators including Joe Lieberman, who noted that Pakistani officials had insisted for years that bin Laden was not in their country. John Brennan, President Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, said it was "inconceivable" for bin Laden not to have had a support network inside Pakistan, but he declined to comment specifically on whether he believed the government was involved in any way, reports Reuters. Analysts predict that tensions between the US and Pakistan are set to rise. Click here for that story.