The Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama Bin Laden early last month was a success in part thanks to Pakistanis who helped the Central Intelligence Agency ensure they had their man and that things went smoothly. The Pakistani government, though, always a halfhearted ally on combating terrorism, has responded by arresting these informants, adding them to the list of 35 or so others being held in the government’s investigation of the U.S. incursion:
Pakistan’s detention of five C.I.A. informants, including a Pakistani Army major who officials said copied the license plates of cars visiting Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in the weeks before the raid, is the latest evidence of the fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan. It comes at a time when the Obama administration is seeking Pakistan’s support in brokering an endgame in the war in neighboring Afghanistan. [NYT]
