WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: Osama Bin Laden likely had “some sort” of a support network inside Pakistan, US President Barack Obama said in an interview aired Sunday, and he called on Pakistan's government to investigate. “We think there had to be some sort of support network for Bin Laden inside of Pakistan,” Obama said in an excerpt of an interview with CBS's “60 Minutes” program to be aired in full later Sunday. “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.” But the Obama administration took some heat off Pakistan Sunday, saying it had no evidence that Islamabad knew Bin Laden was living in the country before he was killed by US commandos in Abbottabad. Top administration officials and lawmakers also rebutted calls for a cut-off in American aid to Pakistan. They included Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and senior Republican on the committee, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to “take the nation into confidence” in parliament Monday, his first statement to the people more than a week after the attack. The US national security adviser, Tom Donilon, said while Bin Laden's residence for several years in a compound in Abbottabad “needs to be investigated,” there was nothing to suggest the government or security establishment knew he was there. Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, told ABC's “This Week” his government would act on the results of the investigation. “And heads will roll, once the investigation has been completed. Now, if those heads are rolled on account of incompetence, we will share that information with you. And if, God forbid, somebody's complicity is discovered, there will be zero tolerance for that, as well.” The ambassador said Pakistan had “many jihadi has-beens from the 1980s who are still alive and well and kicking, and some of them could have been helping them, but they are not in the state or government of Pakistan today.” Donilon said Pakistani officials also needed to provide US authorities with intelligence they had gathered from the compound where Bin Laden was killed, and access to his three wives who are in Pakistani custody. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that government officials were still holding the wives and children for questioning. Pakistani security officials reacted with skepticism to a US assertion that Bin Laden was actively engaged in directing his far-flung network from his compound in Abbottabad where he was killed on May 2.
