Abbottabad

Washington's decision to hold back $800 million in military aid to Pakistan probably won't prod Islamabad into clamping down on militancy, and instead could imperil a fragile alliance at a time when the United States needs Pakistan's cooperation in securing a peaceful end to the war in Afghanistan, experts said Monday. The decision to suspend the funding, more than a third of the $2 billion in yearly aid to Pakistan's military, comes amid growing frustration in Washington over Islamabad's refusal to pursue Afghan Taliban militants who launch attacks on U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan from strongholds in Pakistan.

It turns out that killing Osama bin Laden was the easy part. Dealing with the political fallout from the May 2 raid on the Al Qaeda leader's Pakistan compound is proving trickier. And Congress isn't helping. President Obama evidently made a calculated decision not to inform Pakistani leaders in advance of the raid, which was probably the right move from a military standpoint but extraordinarily provocative diplomatically. With relations already seriously frayed because of civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes and the killing of two Pakistanis by a CIA contractor in January, the raid was seen by Pakistanis as a humiliating violation of national sovereignty.

Osama bin Laden's hide-out was probably known to "somebody" in Pakistan before the U.S. raid that killed him, but there is no sign that senior Pakistani officials were aware of the Al Qaeda leader's location, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Wednesday. In fact, since the operation, the U.S. has seen some indications that top Pakistani officials were unaware that Bin Laden was hiding in the town of Abbottabad until after a team of U.S. Navy SEALs killed him in his bedroom May 2. "I have seen no evidence at all that the senior leadership knew.

Facing domestic political pressure, Pakistan's government escalated the war of words with the United States, with its defense minister repeating calls for the U.S. to stop using a remote air base for drone strikes and to vacate the base. Relations between the two uneasy allies have been on a downward slide for months, but deteriorated after the May 2 raid by U.S. SEALs in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden's presence in a military town less than a kilometer from Pakistan's version of West Point reinforced suspicion in the United States that elements of Pakistan's security establishment may have helped hide him. Wednesday's remarks by Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar that the U.S. had been asked to vacate Shamsi Air Base, in the remote southwest part of the country, was the latest salvo as the two countries tussle over their interests in an Afghanistan settlement and the Pakistani government seeks to publicly distance itself from Washington.

Two American citizens were charged with illegally lobbying the U.S. government about the territorial dispute over Kashmir without disclosing that they were secretly working for Pakistan's government and being paid by Pakistan's spy service. Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, 62, who lives in Fairfax, Va., was arrested Tuesday. Authorities were seeking Zaheer Ahmad, 63, who is believed to live in Pakistan. Charged with failing to register as foreign agents, the men could face five years in prison if convicted.

Pakistani officials warned Friday that they could jettison the United States as an ally if American officials continued to accuse Islamabad's intelligence agency of assisting a leading Afghan Taliban group in recent attacks in Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar cautioned the U.S. against airing allegations such as the blunt charge of collusion between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as ISI, and the militant Haqqani network made Thursday by Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

President Obama: Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children. It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of Sept. 11 are seared into our national memory — hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the twin towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa., where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction.

James L. Jones, former national security advisor to President Obama, was long gone from the White House when U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2. But Jones well remembers when he first heard about a promising lead on Bin Laden's whereabouts. The retired Marine Corps general, speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, told reporters that a "small group" of White House officials was briefed last year about the compound where Bin Laden was later found.

U.S. intelligence agencies are racing to exploit a trove of documents and computer files that U.S. Navy SEALs collected from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan before other Al Qaeda groups or leaders can change their communication methods or move their safe houses. Many of the files are written in multiple languages, and some appear in code, U.S. officials said. "At first blush, there appears to be some value," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of House Intelligence Committee, who was briefed on the effort Wednesday.

The Obama administration Sunday pressed Pakistan to grant the United States access to Osama bin Laden's three widows as part of an investigation into the Al Qaeda leader's life leading up to his killing by American forces inside a compound in the garrison city of Abbottabad a week ago. President Obama's national security advisor Tom Donilon said the U.S. seeks to speak with the women and review materials taken from the compound after the U.S. raid....