Leon Panetta

"LandepNews"

Leon Panetta

The American Defense Ministry is trying to make sure that the ties between the United States and Pakistan do not deteriorate again following the comments made by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who said a few months ago in an interview broadcasted by CBS on Sunday that “someone, somewhere” in the government of Pakistan had to know about the fact that Osama bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad.

Since last May, when a raid of the Navy SEALs killed the number one terrorist of the world, the American authorities have voiced the suspicion that someone in the security establishment of Pakistan must have known about bin Laden living across the street from a military academy.

Leon Panetta is said to have voiced the suspicion of many American officials, which they had developed after the operation in May. On Sunday, the Pentagon Press Secretary George Little clarified what the minister had said.

Little said through the American embassy in Islamabad that the defense secretary made clear in an interview that Osama bin Laden might have had some help in Pakistan. He added that the secretary had made it very clear that he had no hard evidence that this was the case.

Since last May, Leon Panetta and the members of the U.S. government have been working to improve the ties with Pakistan, which have touched a freezing point last fall, as the Pakistani secret services were said to have cooperated with insurgents in the bombing of the American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

In the same interview, Leon Panetta expressed concern over the fate of the doctor that helped the Navy SEALs establish where bin Laden was.

Shakil Afridi was under investigation in Pakistan for treason for pretending that he was promoting a vaccine only to get a blood sample from someone in the bin Laden family. The sample was checked and confirmed, and that was the way the SEALs knew where the al-Qaeda leader was.

The United States has demanded that the man be released, saying that eventually the regime in Islamabad will have no choice but to set him free.

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