Osama bin Laden had assistance from a support network established within Pakistan, President Obama said in an in-depth interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday raising questions about the trustworthiness of one of America’s key anti-terror allies in the region.
In a more than 30 minute interview, Obama said the conspicuousness of bin Laden’s Pakistan safe house raised questions about how much was known, and by whom, within Pakistan. And, Obama said, both the U.S. and Pakistan had some investigating to do to root out the source.
“We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan,” Obama said. “But we don’t know who or what that support network was.”
“We don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that’s something that we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate,” Obama added.
Obama also said he and his national scurity team were surprised when a lead brought them to the fortified suburban compound just a half mile away from Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point.
“I think we were surprised when we learned that this compound had been there for five or six years, and that it was in an area in which you would think that potentially he would attract some attention,” Obama said. “So yes, the answer is that we were surprised that he could maintain a compound like that for that long without there being a tip off.”
Watch the complete interview below:
