Alleged Pakistani support for Osama bin Laden

These claims have been made both before and after Osama was found living in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and was killed by a team of United States Navy SEALs on 2 May 2011.

[2] "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan", Obama said in a 60 Minutes interview with CBS News.

"[2][3] In addition to this, in an interview with Time magazine, CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that US-officials did not alert Pakistani counterparts to the raid because they feared the terrorist leader would be warned.

[6] David Ignatius in The Washington Post referred to the claim of the former ISI chief General Ziauddin Butt that the Abbottabad compound was used by the Intelligence Bureau and noted that a report in the Pakistani press in December had quoted him as saying that Osama's stay at Abbottabad was arranged by Brigadier (retired) Ijaz Shah, senior ISI officer and the head of the Intelligence Bureau during 2004–2008, on Pervez Musharraf's orders.

Alleged US-government files leaked by WikiLeaks disclosed that American diplomats were told that Pakistani security services were tipping off bin Laden every time US-forces approached.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) also helped smuggle al Qaeda militants into Afghanistan to fight NATO troops.

According to the leaked files, in December 2009, the government of Tajikistan had told US-officials that many in Pakistan were aware of bin Laden's whereabouts.

[12]Talking about the support network Panetta stated that some "lower rank" officers in the military knew where Bin Laden was hiding.

[15]A Pakistani official, speaking anonymously, said "We assisted only in terms of authorization of the helicopter flights in our airspace" and that "we did not want anything to do with such an operation in case something went wrong.

Senator Dianne Feinstein said that "it's hard for me to understand how the Pakistanis ... would not know what was going on inside the compound", and that top Pakistan officials may be "walking both sides of the street."

[17] He said Pakistan's intelligence and army have "got a lot of explaining to do," given that bin Laden was holed up in such a large house with surrounding buildings, the fact that its residents took the unusual step of burning their garbage and avoiding any trash collection.

"[18] After the raid, the US asked that Pakistan identify its top intelligence operatives as it tried to establish if any of them had contact with bin Laden in the last few years.

[23] The Globe and Mail reported local police saying that the compound belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant group supported by ISI which is fighting Indian forces in Kashmir.

[26] In December 2017, former USA President Barack Obama said: "We had no evidence that Pakistani government was aware of Osama bin Laden's presence there but that is something obviously we looked at.

"[27] In a 2005 interview, the then-president Musharraf emphatically denied bin Laden was in Pakistan, stating "One thing is very sure, let me assure you, that we are not going to hide him for a rainy day and then release him to take advantage.

The Pakistani foreign office issued a statement that "categorically denies" media reports that Pakistan's leadership, "civil as well as military, had any prior knowledge of the US operation against Osama bin Laden.

[38] The 336-page Abbottabad Commission Report, obtained in July 2013 by Al Jazeera, blasted Pakistan's civilian and military leadership for "gross incompetence" over the bin Laden affair.

Lack of knowledge of a CIA support network without Pakistan being aware was "a case of collective and sustained dereliction of duty by the political, military, and intelligence leadership."

In an interview with Fox News aired on November 18, Trump accused Pakistan of helping to hide Osama bin Laden.

[4] Steve Coll confirms that as of 2019 no direct evidence showing Pakistani knowledge of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad has been found, and that captured documents from the Abbottabad compound suggest bin Laden was wary of contact with Pakistani intelligence and police, especially in light of Pakistan's role in the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.