Senator Kerry has some difficult questions for Pakistan in anger

ISLAMABAD- U.S. Senator John Kerry will push the Pakistani leaders Monday to explain how Osama bin Laden could hide in their country for years, without further feeding Pakistani anger on the U.S. raid that killed the Chief of al-Qaeda.

Compounding the reputation of Pakistan as an unstable Muslim countries infested by activists, men armed on motorcycles shot and killed a Saudi in the city of Karachi diplomat as he was driving to work.

Linked to Al-Qaeda militant Pakistani Taliban, who have promised to strike for the murder of Saudi-born bin Laden, claimed responsibility.

Us special forces flew from Afghanistan on an undercover operation to find and kill bin Laden on 2 may, 10 years after he orchestrated the attacks of September 11 in the United States.

Its discovery hidden in comfortable garrison of Abbottabad city, only 50 km (30 miles) from the Pakistani capital, has revived the suspicion that ally U.S. Pakistan knew where he was and was a double game.

Pakistan which dismissed as absurd. He commended for the killing of Osama bin Laden as an important step in the fight against militancy, but objected on left on the raid to get him in the dark.

Parliament condemned the raid Saturday as a violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan and called for a review of the links.

He also said that the Government should consider cutting U.S. supply lines by Pakistan for American forces in Afghanistan in the event of another aggression "unilateral".

Kerry arrived in Pakistan on Sunday of the Afghanistan, where he said to journalists that some United States wanted Pakistan to be a true ally in the fight against militancy.

Kerry, a Democrat close to the administration of the Obama and who is the President of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met the powerful army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani, at the headquarters of the army later Sunday and was due to meet with other leaders Monday.

While Kerry has some difficult questions for Pakistan, the military can be expected to convey his anger on the aggression of U.S. on bin Laden, who, according to the military authorities caused a breakdown in trust and cast a shadow on security cooperation.

"... Informed Kayani the dignitary visits the intense feelings of rank of the Pakistani army on the incident of Abbottabad," the army said Monday, referring to the operation for the bin Ladens.

There no details but said Kerry would hold detailed discussions on relations with the heads of Government Monday.

"DISENCHANTED AND DISMAYED."

The journal of the Nation, which generally reflects the thinking of the military establishment, said Kerry mission is to pressure Pakistan to accept all U.S. applications, even at the cost of national interests of Pakistan.

"To the United States may have episode post-Osama of serious issues, but Pakistan is totally disenchanted and dismayed," the paper said in an editorial.

The Government should stick to the position set out by Parliament the weekend, he said.

"There should be no compromise on the sovereignty and national interests at all costs."

The US administration has not accused Pakistan of complicity in hiding of bin Laden, but said that he must have had some sort of support network, he wants to discover.

Secretary of State American Hillary Clinton spoke Sunday to President Asif Ali Zardari by telephone of the situation since the death of bin Laden, Office of Zardari said, adding that Zardari said Clinton on the concerns of Parliament.

"Both have agreed to resolve the issues in dispute settlement and to move forward", said the Office of the President.

Police in the South of the commercial centre of Karachi said gunmen on motorcycles killed the Saudi diplomat. The attack came days after the attackers launched two grenades in hand at the Saudi Consulate in Pakistan's commercial hub. No one was injured in the attack.

Al-Qaeda is violently opposed to the Saudi Government, which is a close ally of Pakistan and has promised to avenge the assassination of its leader. Their allies, the Pakistani Taliban, said that they killed the diplomat.

"We take responsibility", a Taliban spokesman said by telephone from an undisclosed location, referring to the assassination of diplomat earlier in the day.

"" America stops, al-Qaeda and stops drone strikes that we will keep carrying out such attacks ", he said, referring to the U.S. attacks with planes without a pilot on the militants in northwestern Pakistan.".

Questions accompany drug suspect to the Venezuela

CARACAS  - extradition of alleged cocaine kingpin Colombia Walid Makled Venezuelan a, ask questions about the money he claims to have been close friends of President Hugo Chavez and opposition leaders demand answers.

The persistent allegations of doubts and inquiries about $ million intended payments have been pries officers and officials prompted the independent media in his nickname "Deep Gorge of the Venezuela."

Opposition leaders are asking if Chavez was aware of reports alleged dirty how Makled has amassed a fortune estimated at around 1 billion dollars in a decade, if investigators will try to answer the questions and whether officials will never stand trial.

Other Venezuelans want to know if Makled, who denies any wrongdoing, is authorized to speak publicly of his case. The alleged drug trafficker has asked repeatedly that his televised trial and expressed their interest to speak to the Venezuelan journalists the allegations against him.

All officials Venezuelans appointed by Makled as having taken his money deny his charges. Wages claimed were no doubt leave Makled drugs leave the country, although he never said this explicitly.

Chavez appeared on television Monday night, but does not mention the case of Makled.

Lawyer Fermin Marmol, a critic of the President, asked if Makled will be isolated, or if the authorities to grant access to the media, legislators and leaders of the opposition. Or perhaps Makled will be clam, possibly under pressure from the Government or Solicitors for pro-Chávez, Marmol said.

"Makled arrives with an attitude of silence or sometimes with the same attitude to speak and to express his points of view?" It is of course big puzzle next two weeks, "Marmol said in an interview.

Colombia extradited Makled, a man, the White House called a pivot of the drug to the Venezuela under strict security and secret police of escorted Venezuela quickly him Caracas airport at the headquarters of the intelligence of the Venezuela service.

He faces charges of murder and drug smuggling to the Venezuela. Miguel Angel Ramirez, his counsel for the defence in Colombia, said by telephone that Makled plans to plead not guilty.

Makled said in several interviews that he paid civilian and military officials to the Venezuela for favors from the Government, including a concession major warehouse in the port of Puerto Cabello, who is also a key conduit for shipments of drugs by sea.

According to Makled, he delivered to about $ 1 million, in bankers monthly to approximately 40 Venezuelan military responsible for political, including generals, colonels and majors.

Makled said in a recent interview for the TV that he had videos showing the ruling elite of the Venezuela is deeply involved in cocaine trafficking. He said that he would disclose only to U.S. attorneys, videos and other "conclusive evidence" of corruption of the drug in the entourage of Mr Chavez.

Makled would have its first hearing within 24 hours, and his legal rights will be guaranteed, said Nestor Reverol, a Deputy Minister of justice.

"It will be have the opportunity to be heard, and if anyone is in question, whatever it is, the weight of the law will be applied," Reverol told journalists.

Makled was captured in August in the Colombian city of Cucuta, on the border with the Venezuela.

Venezuela and the United States requested his extradition. President Colombian Juan Manuel Santos decided him during the turn at the Venezuela, saying that Caracas made its first request. Santos also noted Makled was charged with serious crimes - to the Venezuela not only the traffic which US authorities have accused him, but also two counts of murder of the drug.

Makled, who is the son of a Syrian immigrant, quickly accumulated a fortune in the Venezuela and was an owner of port mogul and air transport.

There then went into hiding in November 2008, after that her three brothers were arrested at a family ranch on charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering. Authorities said they found about 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of cocaine on the property. Makled claimed that the drugs were planted it y to trap him.

A Venezuelan journalist Orel Sambrano had been the publication of articles suggesting Makled brothers could have links with the assassins, and he was shot in 2009.

The Venezuelan authorities have accused Makled in this murder and the murder of a veterinarian, Francisco Larrazabal, say they assisted the family ranch drug raid.

Makled denies any involvement in the murders.

Lair of luxury of Osama bin Laden raises questions (AP)

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan – Osama bin Laden made his final stand in a small Pakistani city where three army regiments with thousands of soldiers are based not far from the capital — a location that is increasing suspicions in Washington that Islamabad may have been sheltering him.

The U.S. acted alone in Monday's helicopter raid, did not inform Pakistan until it was over and pointedly did not thank Pakistan at the end of a wildly successful operation. All this suggests more strain ahead in a relationship that was already suffering because of U.S. accusations that the Pakistanis are supporting Afghan militants and Pakistani anger over American drone attacks and spy activity.

Pakistani intelligence agencies are normally very sharp in sniffing out the presence of foreigners in small cities.

For years, Western intelligence had said bin Laden was most likely holed up in a cave along the Pakistan-Afghan border, a remote region of soaring mountains and thick forests where the Pakistan army has little presence. But the 10-year hunt for the world's most-wanted man ended in a whitewashed, three-story house in a middle-class area of Abbottabad, a leafy resort city of 400,000 people nestled in pine-forested hills less than 35 miles from the national capital, Islamabad.

Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said bin Laden's location meant Pakistan had "a lot of explaining to do."

"I think this tells us once again that unfortunately Pakistan at times is playing a double game," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Armed Services Committee.

A senior Pakistan intelligence official dismissed speculation that bin Laden was being protected.

"We don't explain it. We just did not know — period," he said, on condition his name not be released to the media.

Extra security forces swarmed the city on Monday, adding to Abbottabad's already massive military presence. Heavily armed trucks rumbled through, and police shooed children away from around the fortress-like compound.

Associated Press reporters saw the wreckage of one of the American helicopters that malfunctioned and had to be destroyed during the operation. Residents described the sounds of bullets, the clatter of chopper blades and two large explosions as the raid went down.

Hours after the operation, a soldier armed with a gun could be seen walking on the compound's roof, as tense crowds of onlookers suddenly swelled in the narrow street leading away from the site.

It was unclear how long bin Laden had been holed up in the house with members of his family. From the outside, the house resembled many others in Pakistan and even had a flag flying from a pole in the garden, apparently a Pakistani one. It had high, barbed-wire topped walls, few windows and was located in a neighborhood of smaller houses, shops, dusty litter-lined streets and empty plots used for growing vegetables.

Neighbors said large Landcruisers and other expensive cars were seen driving into the compound, but they had no indication that foreigners were living inside. Salman Riaz, a film actor, said that five months ago he and a crew tried to do some filming next to the house, but were told to stop by two men who came out.

"They told me that this is haram (forbidden in Islam)," he said.

A video aired by ABC News that purported to show the inside of the compound included footage of disheveled bedrooms with floors stained with large pools of blood and littered with clothes and paper. It also showed a dirt road outside the compound with large white walls on one side and a green agricultural field on the other.

After nightfall on Monday, a single light shone from inside the compound.

Some residents were alarmed. "We're very concerned for this town. It was a very safe place. Now there could be al-Qaida everywhere," said Naeem Munir.

The compound, which an Obama administration official said was "custom built to hide someone of significance," was about a half-mile (one kilometer) away from the Kakul Military Academy, one of several military installations in the bustling, hill-ringed town.

"Personally I feel that he must have thought it was the safest area," said Asad Munir, a former station chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, in the northwest. "Abbottabad is a place no one would expect him to live."

Suspicions that Pakistan harbors militants have been a major source of mistrust between the CIA and Pakistan's ISI, though the two agencies have cooperated in the arrests of al-Qaida leaders since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, including several in towns and cities outside the border area.

"Why had Pakistan not spotted he is living in a nice tourist resort just outside Islamabad?" asked Gareth Price, a researcher at Chatham House think-tank in London. "It seems he was being protected by Pakistan. If that is the case, this will be hard for the two sides to carry on working together. Unless Pakistan can explain why they didn't know, it makes relations difficult."

Relations between Pakistan's main intelligence agency and the CIA had been very strained in recent months after a CIA contractor shot and killed two Pakistanis in January, bringing Pakistani grievances out into the open. Since then, a Pakistani official has said that joint operations had been stopped, and that the agency was demanding the Americans cut down on drone strikes in the border area.

The U.S. has fired hundreds of drones into the border regions since 2008, taking out senior al-Qaida leaders in a tactic seen by many in Washington as vital to keeping the militant network and allied groups living in safe havens on the back foot.

While tensions may run high, it is unlikely that either nation could afford to sever the link completely. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and the U.S. needs Islamabad to begin its withdrawal from Afghanistan this year as planned. Pakistan relies heavily on the United States for military and civilian aid.

Some of the strongest allegations about ISI involvement in sheltering bin Laden were made in Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly said that more of the American focus should be across the border in Pakistan.

"For years we have said that the fight against terrorism is not in Afghan villages and houses," said Karzai. "It is in safe havens, and today that was shown to be true."

There was no evidence of direct ISI collusion, and American officials did not make any such allegations.

"There are a lot of people within the Pakistan government, and I am not going to speculate about who, or if any of them had foreknowledge about bin Laden being in Abbottabad but certainly its location there outside of the capital raises questions," said White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan.

Some analysts suggested that Pakistan would have little interest in sheltering bin Laden. They contrasted the al-Qaida leader with Afghan Taliban leaders, whom Pakistan views as useful allies in Afghanistan once America withdraws. Al-Qaida has carried out scores of attacks inside Pakistan in recent years.

Last month, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, accused Pakistan's military-run spy service of maintaining links with the Haqqani network, a major Afghan Taliban faction.

Hours later, a Pakistani army statement rejected what it called "negative propaganda" by the United States, while army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said his troops' multiple offensives against insurgent groups in the northwest are evidence of Pakistan's resolve to defeat terrorism.

Kayani also told graduating cadets at the Kakul academy that their force had "broken the backbone" of the militants.

But Pakistan's government and army are very sensitive to concerns that they are working under the orders of America and allowing U.S. forces to operate here. One Islamist party staged a protest against bin Laden's killing, but there was no sign of a major reaction on the Pakistani street.

"Down with America! Down with Obama!" shouted more than 100 people in the southwestern city of Quetta. "Jihad, jihad the only treatment for America!"

The Pakistani Taliban, an al-Qaida-allied group behind scores of bloody attacks in Pakistan and the failed bombing in New York's Times Square, vowed revenge.

"Let me make it very clear that we will avenge the martyrdom of Osama bin Laden, and we will do it by carrying out attacks in Pakistan and America," Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told The Associated Press by phone. "We will teach them an exemplary lesson."

The U.S. closed its embassy in Islamabad and its consulates in the cities of Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar on Monday for fear of unrest.

Many Pakistanis doubted the U.S. account of the raid, with some refusing to believe that bin Laden was dead.

"It is not possible. Like other incidents, I think this is faked," said Mohammad Bashir, a 45-year-old cab driver in Abbottabad. "It seems that in the coming days, suddenly Osama will come out with a statement."

Pakistan faces tough questions on Ben Laden (Reuters)

WASHINGTON/ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan faced embarrassing questions from the United States on Monday over how al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was able to hide there in plain view before he was killed by a secret U.S. assault team.

The revelation that bin Laden had been holed up in a compound near Islamabad threatened to exacerbate U.S. tensions with nuclear-armed Pakistan, which had not been told of the raid in advance.

The body of the world's most powerful symbol of Islamist militancy was buried at sea after he was shot in the head and chest by U.S. special forces who were dropped inside his luxury compound by Blackhawk helicopters.

Irate U.S. lawmakers wondered how it was possible for bin Laden to live in a populated area without anyone of authority knowing about it or sanctioning his presence, possibly for years. They said it was time to review the billions in aid the United States provides Pakistan.

"I think we need to talk about that. Our government is in fiscal distress. To make contributions to a country that isn't going to be fully supportive is a problem for many," said Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein.

The White House acknowledged there was good reason for U.S. lawmakers, already doubtful of Pakistan's cooperation against al Qaeda, to demand to know whether bin Laden had been "hiding in plain sight" and to raise questions about continued U.S. aid to Islamabad.

Bin Laden's hideaway, built in 2005, was about eight times larger than other homes nearby. With its 12- to 18-foot walls topped with barbed wire, internal walls for extra privacy, and access controlled through two security gates, it looked like a strongman's compound.

White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said it was "inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time."

President Barack Obama was given a standing ovation by Democratic and Republican lawmakers at a White House dinner.

He told the group the operation was a reminder that "there is pride in what this nation stands for and what we can achieve that runs far deeper than party, far deeper than politics."

But the euphoria that drew flag-waving crowds to "Ground Zero" of the September 11, 2001, attack in New York was tempered by calls for vigilance against retaliation by his followers.

Obama planned to travel to New York on Thursday to visit Ground Zero and meet families of September 11 victims.

Bin Laden, 54, was given a sea burial after Muslim funeral rites on a U.S. aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson. His shrouded body was placed in a weighted bag and eased into the north Arabian Sea, the U.S. military said.

The Obama administration was weighing whether to release a photo of bin Laden's body as proof that he had been killed. There is also a video of the sea burial but it was not clear if it would be released, a U.S. official said.

NIGHT RAID NEAR ISLAMABAD

Americans clamored for details about the secret U.S. military mission.

A small U.S. strike team, dropped by helicopter to bin Laden's hide-out near the Pakistani capital Islamabad under the cover of night, shot the al Qaeda leader to death with a bullet to the head. He did not return fire.

Bin Laden's wife, originally thought killed, was only wounded. Another woman was killed in the raid, along with one of bin Laden's sons, in the tense 40 minutes of fighting. She had not been used as a human shield as first thought.

Television pictures from inside the house showed bloodstains smeared across a floor next to a large bed.

Obama and his staff followed the raid minute-by-minute via a live video feed in the White House situation room, and there was relief when the commandos, including members of the Navy's elite Seals unit, stormed the compound.

"We got him," the president said, according to Brennan, after the mission was accomplished.

National Journal said U.S. authorities used intelligence about the compound to build a replica of it and use it for trial runs in early April.

Mindful of possible suspicion in the Muslim world, a U.S. official said DNA testing showed a "virtually 100 percent" match with the al Qaeda leader. His DNA was matched with that of several relatives, a U.S. official said.

Under bin Laden, al Qaeda militants struck targets from Indonesia to the European capitals of Madrid and London.

But it was the September 11 attacks, in which al Qaeda militants used hijacked planes to strike at economic and military symbols of American might and killed nearly 3,000 people, that helped bin Laden achieve global infamy.

Obama, whose popularity has suffered from continuing U.S. economic woes, will likely see a short-term bounce in his approval ratings. At the same time, he may face more pressure from Americans to speed the planned withdrawal this July of some U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

However, bin Laden's death is unlikely to have any impact on the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, where U.S. forces are facing record violence by a resurgent Taliban.

Many analysts see bin Laden's death as largely symbolic since he was no longer believed to have been issuing operational orders to the many autonomous al Qaeda affiliates.

"There are a lot of al Qaeda look-alike cells," said Steve Clemons, a Middle East analyst at the New America Foundation. "Bin Laden was an animating force but there are other ways these groups get oxygen and can remain a threat."

U.S. stocks and oil prices closed modestly lower on Monday as investors concluded Osama bin Laden's death will do little to ease global economic and political risks.

The U.S. dollar erased early gains and the euro hit a 17-month high against the greenback on bets euro-zone interest rates will keep rising to fend off inflation.

BURIED AT SEA, WARNINGS OF REVENGE

Analysts warned that objections from some Muslim clerics to the sea burial could stoke anti-American sentiment. The clerics questioned whether the United States followed proper Islamic tradition, saying Muslims should not be buried at sea unless they died during a voyage.

The United States issued security warnings to Americans worldwide. CIA Director Leon Panetta said al Qaeda would "almost certainly" try to avenge bin Laden's death.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the killing as a coup in the fight against terrorism, but he, too, warned it did not spell al Qaeda's demise. British Prime Minister David Cameron said the West should be "particularly vigilant."

Vows to avenge bin Laden's death appeared quickly in Islamist militant forums, a key means by which al Qaeda leaders have passed on information. "God's revenge on you, you Roman dog, God's revenge on you crusaders," one forum member wrote.

It was the biggest national security victory for the president since he took office in early 2009 and will make it difficult for Republicans to portray Democrats as weak on security as he seeks re-election in 2012.

Republicans were eager to express appreciation for the role Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, played in the search for bin Laden, but Obama supporters saw it another way:

"It took Obama to get Osama," said a tee shirt vendor in Washington selling shirts with that slogan emblazoned on them.

In Saudi Arabia, bin Laden's native land, there was a mood of disbelief and sorrow among many. The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas mourned bin Laden as an "Arab holy warrior."

But many in the Arab world felt his death was long overdue. For many Arabs, inspired by the popular upheavals in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere over the past few months, the news of bin Laden's death had less significance than it once might have.