Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is acknowledging publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor provided key information to the US in advance of the successful Navy SEAL assault on Osama Bin Laden's compound last May. Panetta told CBS's “60 Minutes,” in a profile to be broadcast on Sunday, that Shakil Afridi helped provide intelligence for the raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence in the compound. He has since been charged by Pakistan with treason. Panetta said he is “very concerned” for the doctor. “I'm very concerned about what the Pakistanis did with this individual ... who in fact helped provide intelligence that was very helpful with regards to this operation,” Panetta said, according to excerpts of the interview. “He was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan,” the defense secretary said. “Pakistan and the United States have a common cause here against terrorism ... and for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part.” Panetta said he still believed someone in authority in Pakistan knew where bin Laden was hiding before US forces went in to find him. Intelligence reports found that Pakistani military helicopters had passed over the compound in Abbottabad, according to the interview. “I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound,” Panetta said. “Don't forget, this compound had 18-foot walls ... It was the largest compound in the area. “So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell's going on there?'” Panetta told CBS. The Pentagon chief said this concern contributed to Washington's decision not to give Pakistan advance warning of the impending raid.
