Pakistan’s Amb. to the U.S. talks with Wolf Blitzer
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer spoke with Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani during the 6p.m. hour of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. A highlight is after the jump. Please visit the CNN.com/ThisJustIn blog for the latest news on Osama bin Laden’s death. A full transcript will be posted at CNN.com
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Some more now on the breaking news, the death of Osama bin Laden, killed by U.S. forces in a raid on a mansion just a few dozen miles north of the Pakistani capital. It’s raising lots of questions about the terror leader’s presence in Pakistan, what officials there knew. Let’s talk about it with Husain Haqqani, he’s the Pakistani ambassador to the United States.
Mr. Ambassador, thanks for coming in. John Brennan, the president’s counter terrorism advisor, says it’s inconceivable that bin Laden didn’t have some sort of support system in Pakistan. What happened?
HUSAIN HAQQANI, PAKISTAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Obviously, bin Laden did have a support system. The issue is was that support system within the government and the state of Pakistan or within the society of Pakistan.
We all know that there are people in Pakistan who share the same belief system as bin Laden and other extremists. People like myself have been fighting them. Binzi Gupta (ph) was a victim to them.
So that is a fact, that there are people who probably protected him. We will do a full inquiry into finding out why our intelligence services were not able to track him earlier.
BLITZER: This compound was a huge compound, bigger than all the other houses in the area, with a big wall around it. Didn’t anyone from the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service, or the military, the police go in there and see what was going on?
HAQQANI: Wolf, you can’t do that in Pakistan, where there are many houses which are larger than others and unless and until you have due cause. The reason you can’t enter them, if there had been intelligence, that would have happened. If you remember, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was found in a similar house in the city of Rawalpindi a few years ago, and the Pakistani government was responsible for arresting him at that time.
What I find incredulous is the notion that somehow, just because there is a private support network in Pakistan, the state, the government and the military of Pakistan should be blamed.
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