it was fairly deep in to pakistani territory, and so the likelihood that the pakistanis would have given authorization for this kind of a military operation this far into pakistani territory was probably fairly low. and so, the president made a calculated decision that it was better to go after bin laden and kill or capture him than it was to risk any sort of failing of the cooperation with pakistan by prenotifying them. so this was an american operation, drawn up over time, and executed to perfection today. >> put this into perspective for us. when it comes to taking out osama bin laden, how does that affect al qaeda as a whole? >> well, folks have tended to dismiss the importance of bin laden, often referring to him merely as the figurehead of al qaeda. i think that diminishes his role a bit too much. he is the inspirational, symbolic leader of not just al qaeda but the broader sunni extremist and terrorist movement. he has led the ideological innovation for al qaeda, putting america as target number one for all of the terrorists around the world. and most importantly, this kill of bin

come in and carry out this operation without any visible pakistani corporation. he's voicing the opinion of a lot of people here. it remains to be seen tomorrow and the days to follow whether some violence does ensue. katie? >> couric: all right. liz palmer in islamabad tonight. thank you so much, liz. now, before he went on television to announce bin laden's death, president obama telephoned former presidents bill clinton and george w. bush to tell them. bush, who once said he wanted bin laden dead or alive, congratulated president obama as well as the u.s. military and intelligence communities and said america has sent an unmistakable message: no matter how long it takes, justice will be done. now, behind me you can see where the twin towers once stood. those footprints will be part of a memorial here at ground zero, still an open wound in the city. today's "daily news" captures the feelings of more than a few new yorkers. our chief national correspondent byron pitts reports bin laden's death was celebrated all across the country. >> reporter: today from coast

is it possible that the pakistani military or i.s.i. is that was actually behind nine eleven and no i don't think i think that's extremely unlikely just as there's a there's a ton of evidence and the nine eleven commission. found this definitively that nine eleven the nine eleven attacks were planned by. led by bin laden with khalid sheikh mohammed as the mastermind i think so how did i but instead it was behind that you know were the what's the deal with one hundred grand. i'm not an expert on that particular piece of information but there's no evidence that i've seen that suggests that pakistan's government or military was behind nine eleven it would be a disaster if that was it right so i don't think we're going to we're going to find out but there's a broader concern where pakistan is not a reliable partner with us and. we as a result have to do things unilaterally sometimes and that's why we've had to send our own intelligence and military forces into parts of pakistan at times as we as we just did and i think that's appropriate wi

but oddly enough, not the pakistani taliban. they're not waiting for that photographic evidence, diane. they're already vowing to keep his legacy alive with deadly violence. >> which has everyone here on high alert. thank you so much, jim. >>> and still ahead on "world news," as we said, we have learned that those navy s.e.a.l.s had a secret flying machine. only abc news has the story. >>> one week after the devastating tornadoes, a search ends in joy. >>> and, the americans who waged a war without violence, 50 years ago today. [ bob ] i'd love to build bird houses for the rest of my life. so i've got to take care of my heart. for me cheerios is a good place to start. [ male announcer ] to keep doing what you love, take care of your heart with cheerios. the whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. love your heart so you can do what you love. an everyday moment can turn romantic anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for dai

>> we didn't contact the pakistanis until after all of our people and aircraft were out of pakistani air space. at that time they were reacting to an incident they knew was taking place in abottabad and clearly we were concerned that if they decided to scramble jets or whatever else, they had no idea who was on the jets whether it was u.s. or somebody else, so we were watching and making sure that our people and aircraft were able to get out of the air space. thankfully, no engagement of the pakistani forces. this operation was designed to minimize the chances of engagement of pakistani forces. it was done very well, and thankfully no pakistani forces were engaged, and there were no other individuals who were killed aside from those in the compound. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you. can you talk to us about what documentation you may have found there? was it a bank vault worth of information and potentially able to get more leads out of the information? >> the people in the compound tooked a vange ad vavantage of there to acquire whatever material we thought was appropriate and what w

so this is an issue that's up front and center for pakistanis. oddly enough, more so than it is for us. so i'm going to counsel against using this as an opportunity to really separate ourselves away from pakistan. our security depends upon pakistan in so many myriad of ways. and it doesn't go away just because bin laden is dead. and we should also not confuse the kinds of assistance that pakistan needs towards its civilian institutions. that's absolutely important. and that should not be held hostage to decisions and debates surrounding the future of security assistance, which primarily goes to help the army and the intelligence agencies. >> do you agree with all that, brett? >> i agree with christine that it's incredibly complicated relationship. the pakistanis have a narrative. we have talked about it here before. they say the only thing worse than being an enemy of the united states, is being a friend. you're fickle, after your own interests, and they always talk about 1989. we were a close eye of pakistan, let's get the soviets out of afghani

from the pakistani military academy meaning it was highly unlikely that pakistani intelligence didn't know what was going on right under their noses which would explain why u.s. special forces swarmed the compound without notifying anyone within the pakistani government or the military meanwhile upon learning that bin laden was killed in pockets not in not afghanistan afghan president hamid karzai renewed his call for withdrawal of american troops miss country saying the war on terror is not in afghanistan osama was not an afghanistan they found him in pakistan the war in terror is not an afghan villages the war on terror is not in the houses of innocent afghans but in the safe havens of terrorism outside afghanistan so does this mean it's time to get out of afghanistan and go home and just how tenuous is the relationship now between pakistan and the united states for answers on these questions jordan thomas joins me now he's the truman national security project fellow and professor at american university's school of international service and author of the book terrorism and national

but oddly enough, not the pakistani taliban. they're not waiting for that photographic evidence, diane. they're already vowing to keep his legacy alive with deadly violence. >> which has everyone here on high alert. thank you so much, jim. reporting from islamabad tonight. >>> and still ahead on "world news," as we said, we have learned that those navy s.e.a.l.s had a secret flying machine. only abc news has the story. >>> one week after the devastating tornadoes, a search ends in joy. >>> and, the americans who waged a war without violence, 50 years ago today. [ bob ] i'd love to build bird houses for the rest of my life. so i've got to take care of my heart. for me cheerios is a good place to start. [ male announcer ] to keep doing what you love, take care of your heart with cheerios. the whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. love your heart so you can do what you love. an everyday moment can turn romantic anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with ci

were outside of pakistani airspace. week were concerned that if -- we were concerned that they did not have concerns about who was on there. we were concerned that our people and our aircraft would get out of the air space. frankly, there was no engagement with pakistani forces. this operation was designed to minimize the chances of engagement with pakistani forces. it was done well and no pakistani forces were engaged, and no other individuals were killed. >> can you talk to us about what documentation you may have found their? there was a big ball of information. where you able to get -- were you able to get information? >> people in the compound were careful to acquire whatever material we thought was appropriate and was needed. we are in the process now of looking at whatever might have been brought out. i will not go into details about what might happen acquired. we feel this is an important time to prosecute al qaeda and take advantage of today to continue to break the back of a qaeda. we are trying to determine t

>> smith: at best, pakistani pressure on the taliban has been selective. the military has left the haqqani network almost untouched in the tribal area of north waziristan.be us military sources told frontline the pakistanis are unwilling to take them on. >> there are hundreds of groups operating in that area. you know, we have to mobilize resources, maybe cool down the other places, stabilize other places, and then sort of get the forces together and then go for it. so that is not an issue. >> smith: for more than five years, the united states has been pressing the pakistanis to launch an offensive in north waziristan. in the meantime, the cia has taken matters into its own hands. remotely piloted drones have fired more than 200 hellfire missiles and bombs at targets in the tribal areas. officially, the cia does not speak about the drone war, but an agent who once ran the campaign agreed to talk to frontline. >> the calculus is really a very simple one: it's trying to kill people before they kill you. it's as simple as that. now, it may have the knock-on a

the pakistani military there so we aren't supposed to cross over into pakistani territory this is something that actually happened in october as well and after that we saw massive protests in pakistan we even saw them shut down our supply route into afghanistan do you think that it's going to go that far again i think it absolutely will i mean that's there's two things that happen first the pakistanis can shut it down themselves which they don't or the pakistani until services can just go to insurgents and let them blow up the takers you know they're going to us any number of times we don't publicize how much we actually lose you know all of the gear and supplies that we send through pakistan to the insurgents and to sabotage it's not a good thing so we get some of it through and they use that against the so that will happen again and there are going to be more border skirmishes probably more likely as they jockey for position and they obviously don't publicize that to congress who's approving the funding for our wars abroad either or the american people but that's why you know i think it's

tonight the pakistani government is feeling the heat. the question everyone's asking is how could osama bin laden have been hiding under their noses for so long? abbottabad, an upper middle-class tourist destination surrounded on three sides by mountains. pakistanis come here to escape the heat during the summer months. people here say they had no idea that osama bin laden had come here too. >> it's a very peaceful place. people around the country come here for a tour. >> reporter: it's a house set in an area that's still under development. surrounded by empty plots and half-built houses. there's no indication that behind these high concrete walls was one of the world's most notorious fugitives, living right in the heart of a garrison town, home to pakistan's retired as well as active army generals. >> i don't believe that osama bin laden can live here. it's all a restricted area by army. >> reporter: soldiers on the streets in vehicles and at checkpoints. then there's the elite kakun military academy. some call it pakistan's west point.

with the pakistani isi and the taliban were backed at that point. there's an interview conducted with the president of pakistan about a year and a half ago in which he admitted on american television and said, oh, come on, let's admit it, he said, you know the cia and isi both created them. you know, we both have to accept responsibility for this. this is, you know, this is the kind of thing that, you know, no one's ever leveled with the american people -- excuse me -- from the very beginning about the relationship of all of these things, where they came from, how it started. the problem is at this point though that the afghan people and the pakistani people continually are being forced as now the people in the middle east are forced to choose between islamic extremists or military dictators. where's the indigenous democracy these people are craving for? this is -- this is becoming a real problem for everyone. >> time for one more question. [inaudible] >> informing this governing counsel, jerga? >> jerga. >> jerga you called it. >> uh-huh. >> how is

officials, whatever happened in afghanistan, pakistani officials came to u.s. officials saying give us more defense money because of what's going on in afghanistan. they were always raising the issue over the russians involvement there or that the russians were stimulating rebellions for example. this continues to this day, so the fundamental issue, this problem could be defused if a serious effort was made to defuse the relationship between afghanistan -- between pakistan and india. >> that's critical. >> that's critical to this. >> one more point to the issue of pakistan and india. it is ironic that you have the civilian help, the money going to help build civil society from india. pakistan is basically focused on destroying any relationship that afghanistan has with india. i think pakistan would have more friends if they were trying to compete with india by helping to build civil society, and it's not doing that. >> i wanted to ask about the taliban. just about their background because i heard that they initially came from other countries than afghanistan, i

the cia has asked pakistani officials for access to the wives. especially to amal, bin laden's last and favorite wife. amal was known to be devoted to bin laden and was in the room when her husband died. amal has reportedly told interrogators that bin laden and his family had been living in the abbottabad compound for the past five years. and "the new york times" is reporting this morning that u.s. officials have demand pakistan identify some of its top intelligence operatives to see if they had any contact with bin laden in recent years. this as some officials in the united states have publicly questioned whether anyone here knew we was hiding and had helped to shield him. alex? >> ann curry in islamabad, thank you. >>> coming up at the half hour, i'll talk with new york democratic congressman elliott engel. we invite all of you to watch "meet the press" tomorrow. among the guests, white house national security adviser, tom donilon and rudy jewgiuliani, michael chertoff and michael hayden. >>> record water levels among the mighty mississippi. th

-pakistani operation. for years the pakistan ji intelligence service had said that osama bin laden was dead. now that he actually is dead, they want credit for killing him. after nearly ten years of hunting for osama bin laden, he was finally found and finally killed in a city just outside the capital city of pakistan. he was not in the mountainous border region of afghanistan. he was not in the lawless semiautonomous tribal areas. he was not in a cave. he was in a big, nice house in. a city where pakistani military officers go to retire. a hop, skip and a jump away from pakistani's version of west point. this probably should not surprise us as much as it did. so many of the other big al qaeda fish caught over the last decade have been caught in the same way as osama bin laden was. not just in pakistan, but specifically in pakistani cities. on the one-year anniversary of 9/11, this man was taken into custody. wlfs he caught? not in a cave. >> he helped plan the world trade center and pentagon attacks was t

investigation will only benefit the pakistanis we have to we have to understand that no matter what they say but the problem is this the rest the world's going to probably take an area the pakistanis come up with and run with it based on the fact that we've changed our story with us for so many times do you think that we should give the u.n. all of the details they're asked to do an investigation to see if this really was conducted illegally the obama administration is saying absolutely this was all within the legal realm lots of times before we heard it with their treatment bradley manning at quantico to the only that's all according to the military plan of military rules don't we just want to quell those very words by at least telling the u.n. giving them their investigation let me say something to shock your viewers we do things that the american government that are illegal and international law all the time no way i don't i don't it's a harsh fact but that's the truth and the truth is we violated the sovereignty of another country so i don't care how many times why when i spoke

>> smith: at best, pakistani pressure on the taliban has been selective. the military has left the haqqani network almost untouched in the tribal area of north waziristan. us military sources told frontline the pakistanis are unwilling to take them on. >> there are hundreds of groups operating in that area. you know, we have to mobilize resources, maybe cool down the other places, stabilize other places, and then sort of get the forces together and then go for it. so that is not an issue. >> smith: for more than five years, the united states has been pressing the pakistanis to launch an offensive in north waziristan. in the meantime, the cia has taken matters into its own hands. remotely piloted drones have fired more than 200 hellfire missiles and bombs at targets in the tribal areas. officially, the cia does not speak about the drone war, but an agent who once ran the campaign agreed to talk to frontline. >> the calculus is really a very simple one: it's trying to kill people before they kill you. it's as simple as that. now, it may have the knock-on and

not necessarily from the highest elements of the pakistani government but perhaps others within the pakistani intelligence or even military community. this will fuel some of those suspicions. we're told by u.s. officials the u.s. did not inform the pakistani government in advance of this military special operations force that was about to go in because this were too many concerns. it could be compromised, the u.s. military and intelligence personnel could be in danger. only later when they had to get out of there was the pakistani government directly informed, look, this is a covert u.s. operation, a hands-off -- you may be scrambling your jets, whatever, when you see the two american helicopter flying across pakistani airspace into neighboring afghanistan where they took bin laden's body and all the u.s. military and intelligence personnel eventually landed safely. but there were some moments there as you know, drew, that it was very, very touch and go. it could have gone in a very, very different direction. the good news is they got bin laden. they got him out, and all the americans got out

the pakistani military there so we aren't supposed to cross over into pakistani territory this is something that actually happened in october as well and acted out we saw massive protests in pakistan we even saw them shut down a supply route into afghanistan do you think that that is going to go that far again i think it absolutely will i mean that's there's two things that happen first the pakistanis can shut it down and so which they have done or the pakistani intelligence services can just go to insurgents and let them blow up the takers and they've done that to us any number of times we don't publicize how much we actually lose the gear and supplies that we send through pakistan to the insurgents and to sabotage it's not a good thing so we get some of it through and they use that against so that will happen again and there are going to be more border skirmishes probably more likely . they jockey for position and they obviously don't publicize that to congress who is approving the funding for our wars abroad either or the american people but that's why you know i think it's really intere

for more on this we're joined live by ahmed correction the senior fellow for you pakistani think tank project for the twenty first century good to have you with bin ladin is dead what's next what's next for the war on terror. well i think we are moving now very fast toward the end game in afghanistan i think if we just move beyond the death or the assassination of osama bin laden we can see that one way or the other the united states has been provided if they saving way to sort of say that now we can actually get out of afghanistan i think one reason why you're seeing the pakistani government quiet on the circumstances surrounding what happened last night is that apparently the pakistanis are all so happy in government i mean today morning knew for sure was statement that came out of the pakistani foreign ministry was very keen on giving full credit to those who work for the operation to the u.s. government and it was a strange because normally the pakistani government has been very careful not to get itself involved in anything that would involve u.s. military on blocks and soil but

as well where they have openly called to attack the pakistani state and the pakistani army so it doesn't make any sense for me to even consider the possibility that the pakistani state would be protecting a man who promotes attacking the pakistani state so you know it just it's sounds really ridiculous but. if i can stay with you i mean how do you how was it he was there a living in a compound i don't know how palatial it was i mean it looks like it was some reports it was a cost a million dollars i was very well protected i mean somebody knew he was there. see the thing is there's been various reports that have come in over the past few years about his location so it's obvious that he has been moving he has been on the run and if we're talking about the possibility of the pakistanis protecting him surely they would have picked a place which would make it give them some measure of deniability exam in case he was picked off and you know to avoid the kind of questions that are being asked now so i think he has he had been moving we i remember in the earlier days when i think preparing the

as well where they have openly called to attack the pakistani state and the pakistani army so it doesn't make any sense for me to even consider the possibility that the pakistani state would be protecting a man who promotes attacking the pakistani state so you know i just it's sounds really ridiculous but again if i help if i can say with you i mean how do you how is it that he was there a living in a compound i don't know how palatial it was i mean it looks like it was some reports it was a cost a million dollars i was very well protected i mean somebody knew he was there. so you think there's been various reports that have come in over the past few years about his location so it's obvious that he has been moving he has been on the run and if we're talking about the possibility of the pakistanis protecting him surely they would have picked a place which would make it give them some measure of deniability examiner in case he was picked up and you know to avoid the kind of questions that are being asked now so i think he has he had been moving we i remember in the earlier days when i thin

pakistani security services have trained and utilized terror groups in pursuit of pakistani interests, and it has come back to haunt them. host: josh, welcome. caller: i have a question about the long-term impact of the finding of osama bin laden will assist the united states in going forward with its goals. guest: yes, again, one of the things that -- the story that has not been told yet, but which i mentioned earlier, is the degree to which the intelligence or information that has been found on osama bin laden -- there have been hard drives are paper documents, anything that can be exploited going forward. this has the potential -- for all we know, osama bin laden was day-ured with the a few- old newspapers and hard drives with movies on them. but if there is detail on the hard drives that are captured, other documents that the taken from the scene in abbottabad, the effect on our planning process going forward to try to disrupt and dismantle al qaeda could be highly significant. again, as one intelligence official said, the united states has been pretty successful since september 1

. >> lehrer: and we examine the pakistani army's decision to review cooperation with the u.s. >> woodruff: then, jeffrey brown gets an update on a new round of budget negotiations and a looming debt deadline with lori montgomery of the "washington post." >> lehrer: we have the story of a california farm town, where a new prison may bring jobs and new troubles. >> that's not going to fly good in this community. there are so many undocumented workers. it's not going to be a popular thing. >> woodruff: and betty ann bowser visits the philadelphia museum of art for an exhibit of medical posters advertising cures for all kinds of ailments. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i want to know what the universe... >> looks like. >> feels like. >> from deep space. >> to a microbe. >> i can contribute to the world by pursuing my passion for science. >> it really is the key to the future. >> i want to design... >> a better solar cell. >> i want to know what's really possible. >> i want to be the first to cure cancer. >> people

knew. >> our security compound that pakistanis didn't know about. we were there for weeks and months. we kept that hidden. >> of course, it has nuclear weapons. >> and john boehner came out, doesn't look like this is going be a partisan issue, another case for that. pakistan's a critical partner and we break with them right now. >> we only have a minute or so left. but the political argument lrg remain the same. the same argument over torcher. did this come as a result of the waterboarding type techniques that have been banned by president obama, supported by president bush. there's lots of different way that has brought us together. >> what about the hope that this would tap into some sort of national unity that would carryover into the bigger argument -- or the big argument that we're going to have whether it's about the dead or afghanistan. i talked to a lot of people in congress and not very many people think it's going relate to that. those are domestic issues. these kinds of moment of unity typically is short lived. it will help the president'

are not willing to push it as far as the americans want to push it actually the pakistanis you know that their real proper real problem is on the indian border and not on the afghan border so. you know they. don't want the repercussions of what the americans want them to do and they try to walk amid a lot. of very bleak picture a picture of a stalemate in effect now being a historian often of course you are always looking to the past but of course part of your job is to look into the future so where is all this going to be resolved how's it going to be resolved when actually you know the story ends are very good question so i'm not sure how this is going to. sensually let's put it this way it's going to be resolved by the americans getting out of afghanistan that's how it's going to yourself and how will afghanistan fare from that once the americans leave just very briefly the future for afghanistan once the americans leave just briefly the taliban will come back or i will leave it there very interesting i want to talk to you more on this but sadly we are out of time dr lawrence dav

and the pakistani is the the financial aid from the americans. they have not done anything for that, they still need $3 billion annually, and so both countries will remn dependent. >> thank you for that update from washington. and thank you for joining us, as al qaeda confirms that osama bin laden it is dead and threatens more attacks against the west. this is dw-tv. thank you so much for staying with us. captioned by the national captioning institute www.ncicap.org--

and the pakistani is the the financial aid from the americans. they have not done anything for that, they still need $3 billion annually, and so both countries will remain dependent. >> thank you for that update from washington. and thank you for joining us, as al qaeda confirms that osama bin laden it is dead and threatens more attacks against the west. this is dw-tv. thank you so much for staying with us. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

they were with the pakistanis for a long time, so the pakistanis probably primed them for the interview and what not to say. and i don't know if there's any reason to believe they didn't love their husband and probably are not especially happy that we shot him down. >> normally, under most circumstances, you would separate the wives. you would want to interview them individually. you wouldn't want to have the pakistani service present with you. you'd ideally like to have a native-speaking woman do the questioning. we didn't get that luxury. so this was not horribly productive, but my understanding is, we're in the early going. and u.s. and pakistani officials can work again. >> you made a point, michael, a moment ago, about leaks, and you believe the leaks are endangering the lives of people. i want you to listen. we started this conversation last night. it's been an issue, of course, for the last 10, 11 days. but the defense secretary, robert gates, who happens to be a former cia director, during a conversation with marines at camp lejeune, north carolina, last night made clear that he

either the pakistani government is incompetent or in cahoots. we have to ask questions i believe in public settings as well as in classified settings. this may be an opportunity to reset our relationship with pakistan. we invest $3 billion in pakistan every year. i think the vice chairman of the intelligence committee senator chambliss would agree that pakistan is too big to fail. 180 million muslims. there have to be consequences. this was a very, very serious situation. thank god we finally saw that justice was served in pakistan on bin laden. >> ifill: senator udall, i believe, you were just in a meeting with c.i.a. director panetta. you got a briefing along with some other senators. i know senator chambliss has had his own briefing. did you feel like this administration is tackling those questions about pakistan? >> the administration is beginning to tackle those questions. i know on the senate side we will. we're going to hold some hearings and be briefed tomorrow. these are crucial questions. we went in to afghanistan to find bin laden, to

that's building pakistani civil society and democracy. on the military side, we should be much tougher. we have to realize they need us more than we need them. we can walk away. we can say to the indians, go and do what you want. that's not something the pakistanis want to hear. >> so we can ask them to eliminate the safe havens, for instance? >> are they willing to go into north waziristan? so far they have only gone after the bad guys who kill pakistanis. they need to start going after the bad guys who kill americans, otherwise it means they're maintaining this strategy of saying there are some good terrorists and there are some bad terrorists. and the good terrorists, whether intentionally or not, are the ones that kill americans. >> as always, fascinating stuff. thank you. >> pleasure. >>> coming up, was killing bin laden murder? i talk with two sometimes controversial scholars about the true meaning of the raid that took out the world's top terrorist. don't go away. ing... do you even have a name? well, it doesn't matter. because it'

make any sense for me to even consider the possibility that a pakistani state would be protecting a man who promotes attacking the pakistani state so you know it just it's sounds really ridiculous if you don't but again if i help you if i can stay with you i mean how do you how was it he was there a living in a compound i don't know how palatial it was i mean it looks like it was some reports it was a pastor a million dollars that was very well protected i mean somebody knew he was there. see the thing is there's been various reports that have come in over the past few years about his location so it's obvious that he has been moving he has been on the run and if we're talking about the possibility of the pakistanis protecting him surely they would have picked a place which would make it give them some measure of deniability exist in case he was picked up and you know to avoid the kind of questions that are being asked now so i think he has he had been moving we i remember in the earlier days when i think prepared musharraf repeatedly said that if there is actionable intelligence on

/pakistani relations since bin laden's death could come this week. pakistani intelligence is interrogating bin laden's three wives and four other women taken into custody at that compound. the u.s. has asked the pakistanis for whatever information they get from those interrogations be provided to u.s. intelligence. there has been no word yet on just how forthcoming they'll be, lester. >> jim miklaszewski in washington, thanks. >>> those behind the scenes bin laden clips are playing to a pretty tough audience in pakistan, bin laden's apparent home for the last several years. nbc's peter alexander has been sampling opinion in islamabad and has our report from there. >> reporter: the release of new video showing osama bin laden made headlines across pakistan. but did little to convince people here he had lived among them for years. >> we think this was a very big drama from the u.s. and other governments. >> reporter: most remain deeply skeptical, even suspicious, of the u.s.'s version of events. we showed the videos to a former head of pakistani intell

/pakistani relations since bin laden's death could come this week. pakistani intelligence is interrogating bin laden's three wives and four other women taken into custody at that compound. the u.s. has asked the pakistanis for whatever information they get from those interrogations be provided to u.s. intelligence. there has been no word yet on just how forthcoming they'll be, lester. >> jim miklaszewski in washington, thanks. >>> those behind the scene bin laden clips are playing to a pretty tough audience in pakistan, bin laden's apparent home for the last several years. peter alexander is in islamabad with a report from there. >> reporter: the release of new video showing osama bin laden made headlines across pakistan. but did little to convince people here he had lived among them for years. >> we think this was a very big drama from the u.s. government. >> reporter: most remain deeply skeptical, even suspicious, of the u.s.'s version of events. we showed the videos to a former head of pakistani intelligence who dismissed the clips as meaningless.

the pakistanis say they dropped the ball. they weren't focusing on this particular place, but clearly the americans were and this eventually seems to be how they tracked it down. when it came to this mission, which we now know was a kill mission, ordered directly from the president to take bin laden out, that does appear to be an entirely unilaterally american action, based upon intelligence provided to them, so say the pakistanis. >> nick paton walsh, thank you so much. >> so where does the war go from here? >> peter bergen interviewed osama bin laden back in 1997, paul crookshank is with us as well, and we have fran townsend with us. first, let's kick off and talk a little bit, peter bergen, about what this means. is osama bin laden, he's a figurehead, he was an inspiration. was he an operational impact at all? >> of course he was. i mean, to say that he wasn't in operational control of his network is to ignore the global communications revolution. since 9/11, bin laden's released at least 30 videotapes and audio tapes, man

the pakistanis are taking the second shift and going through what's left behind me. >> are pakistani and american authorities inside the compound? how does that work? >> reporter: the americans came in here undetected, dropped out of a helicopter, had a fire fight, took everything they could, put it back on the helicopter and flew out again before pakistani military could arrive. as far as they were concerned, this was an invasion from some hostile force. they didn't know americans were here. it is purely pakistani police and military securing the compound. we are not sure what they are doing. i am pretty sure they will be going through what the americans left behind trying to work out how long they were here. >> the initial number we got as far as the people inside, was 22. what happened to some of the other folks? we know some were killed in the raid. others were in custody, right? >> reporter: there is not a huge amount of parody as to the number of people killed. they said eight or nine children are in custody and two women were there, one of whom was supposed to have been the wi

one was to rack facilitation of the pakistani government or pakistani intelligence isn't it not. in fact, sunless raise the issue does the isi spend more time tracking down members of the cia than it does members of al qaeda quakes this is really a crossroads in our relationship with pakistan. the days are bad days of pakistan are essential to the success or war against situations where the most notorious terrorists mass murdering the world right into the nose of top pakistani government officials. so i look forward to the hearing today. i hope we can find a way forward with pakistan, but events of the last several days marked a definite crossroads of the relationship. let me thank all the witnesses for being here today. your time and expertise is very important. let me give a special thanks to dr. kagan what about a pleasure meeting with over the years. the first time back in 2007 when he was formulating his search policy in iraq which everyone said could never work and think of the president did the good work. i yield back to the chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. other memb

after the then laden mission, how could pakistanis be so complicitous? then we heard a response come out of pakistan which was encouraging within the first 24 hours, but then there was a an about face in pakistan, very anti-american rhetoric. i think our initial concern was whether pakistan shared our commitment to fight extremists, and that was our main concern. so i think we are now going through an evaluation, whether pakistan is our ally and friend, and if so, why they are feeling so much anti-american rhetoric and causing some concern about our working to root out extremists in pakistan in that region. if they are not our ally and friend, should we not be looking for alternative ways to deal with extremist in the region, and is worth the type of political and financial investment that america is currently making in pakistan? that is the dilemma that some of us are facing as to whether it is truly an ally or not an ally. i would appreciate your candid view here as to whether the united states -- obviously we want to be strategic friends with as many

war in afghanistan has brought a blow back here that's causing pakistani lives. >> how did pakistani officials respond to secretary clinton's visit? do they seem to be open to some of her suggestions? >> well, there's a difference between what is said publicly and what's said privately. first of all, a lot of money is put into pakistan and a lot of money is needed. in fact, this is a very stretched operation here. military is very stretched, has a very deep-rooted mill tansy here who are able to strike wherever and whenever they want. so to go after it they require a lot of mrn and that has been the lifeblood of this relationship, this transaction between the u.s. and pakistan. so publicly you will get these messages that, yes, they're committed to renewing this relationship and trying to do more, but there is a private side as well. and with so much pressure from the public here who point to their own government and say why are we doing the bidding of the united states when it only causes more problems for us here, when we are the ones who actually suffer from these attacks, and you