Bergen’s claim: ‘Pakistan was not privy to OBL hiding’

Peter Bergen has clarified that he explicitly stated in his book that there was no evidence that implicated Pakistan.

KARACHI: Peter Bergen, author of the recently published book ‘Manhunt: From 9/11 to Abbottabad – The Ten Year Search for Osama Bin Laden’ has clarified that he has explicitly stated in his book that there was no evidence that implicated Pakistan in Bin Laden’s hiding.  Congressman Mike Rogers had said there were elements of both the [Pakistani] military and intelligence service who in some way provided some level of assistance to Osama bin Laden, but the author claimed in his book that Representative Rogers offered no proof for this assertion, and the US intelligence community’s assessment within weeks of the Abbottabad operation was that there was, in fact, no Pakistani official complicity in bin Laden’s sojourn in Abbottabad and nothing in the “treasure trove” of materials recovered from his compound provided any proof that bin Laden had support from Pakistani officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2012.