Kerry defends Pak in war on terror

Pak has not got “sufficient credit” for the intelligence cooperation it provided to the US that eventually helped the American special forces to zero in on al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, says senator John Kerry.

Pakistan has not got “sufficient credit” for the intelligence cooperation it provided to the US that eventually helped the American special forces to zero in on al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, says senator John Kerry, who has been nominated by US President Barack Obama to be his next secretary of state.

HT Image

“I don’t think the Pakistanis have, frankly, gotten credit sufficiently for the fact that they were helpful (in getting Osama bin Laden). It was their permissiveness in allowing our people to be there that helped us to be able to tie the knots that focused on that, not exclusively, obviously, but to some degree,” Kerry told senators at his confirmation hearing.

In the first term of the Obama administration, Kerry helped the US in resolving several key issues with Pakistan and has good relationship with top leadership in Islamabad.

When asked about the continued detention of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA in tracing bin Laden, Kerry said: “Like most Americans, I find it, as you do, incomprehensible if not repugnant that somebody who helped to find Osama bin Laden is in jail in Pakistan.”