4 ms·
I don't find his cover up story at all credible - Pakistan knew where Bin Laden was the whole time and kept it a secret from the U.S.? For what possible gain?
by Patient0 11y ago
I don't find his cover up story at all credible - Pakistan knew where Bin Laden was the whole time and kept it a secret from the U.S.? For what possible gain?
- nly 11y agoIn case they needed a trump card to make nice?
- CDRdude 11y agoThere has been a good amount of U.S. aid money going to Pakistan since the war on terror. Pakistan would have the incentive to prolong the war on terror, may have reasoned that a living Bin Laden was a cash cow.
- RaleyField 11y agoOr could risk total embargo from every NATO country and every country that can be coerced to enforce embargo. They could find themselves in situation way worse than that of North Korea.
- littletimmy 11y agoThis would never happen because nukes. Pakistan has 100+ nuclear warheads - the day they fall into the hands of terrorists is the day we're all toast. No one is ever going to embargo Pakistan completely even if their leaders are openly sponsoring terror - what's going to happen at worst is forced regime change.
- hugh4 11y agoThe same possible gain that motivates people to blow themselves up and crash planes into buildings and burn churches and synagogues. That is, no possible gain that a rational person would understand. But Islam is not a rational memeplex.
- dang 11y agoPlease don't start religious flamewars on HN.
- nyolfen 11y agoan ace in the hole, as well as a lot of saudi money (as reported by hersh)
- toyg 11y agoPakistani rulers play on different tables, not unlike the Saudis (and the US). They used Islamic extremists in Kashmir and in Afghanistan to pursue their own goals, so they wouldn't just drop them like a hat the day the US came knocking. There is ample literature on the mutual distrust between US and Pakistani security services during the "war on terror". In many ways, Pakistan is like Saudi Arabia or Turkey: countries the US cannot afford not to be allies, but with very different strategic interests, often conflicting with US ones. I don't find at all strange that they might have harbored Osama all along, just as another bit of leverage in the eternal game of foreign policy.
- littletimmy 11y agoI don't think you quite understanding how institutionalized statecraft works. Think of it in this way "Pakistan knew where OBL was and told the US - for what gain?"