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Summary US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said that Osama had no direct connection with Pakistanis.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday regards Osama Bin Laden’s death as a great success and said that the world is much safer now than it was a year ago.Giving an interview to CBC TV, the defense secretary said Bin Laden was committed to “attacking the US, committed to attacking other countries.On the issue of keeping the raid on Osama bin Laden’s safe house in Abbottabad a secret, the Pentagon chief said that he did not provide information to Pakistan because he feared this could be leaked by them and would not be able to accomplish their mission.“The concern we had is that…we had provided intelligence to them with regards to other areas and unfortunately, for one way or another, it got leaked to the individuals we were trying to go after,” Panetta said.“So as a result of that we were concerned that if we were going to perform a sensitive mission like this, we had to do it on our own,” he added.Reiterating that he has not come across anything so far which reflects a direct link between the top Pakistani leadership and the safe hideout of bin Laden, Panetta expressed concern how a compound like this would not be known to them (Pakistani establishment).He said though he had not found direct link or evidence that involved a direct connection to the Pakistanis.
