Somebody in Pakistan knew about bin Laden's presence: Gates

Washington, May 19: Reiterating that he hasn't seen any evidence so far which indicates that top Pakistani leadership knew about the presence of Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said his supposition is that somebody in that country knew about it.

"I have seen no evidence at all that the senior leadership knew. In fact, I have seen some evidence to the contrary. But we have no evidence yet with respect to anybody else. My supposition is: Somebody knew," Gates told reporters at a Pentagon news conference.

"The supposition is somebody. We don't know whether it was, you know, a retired people, whether it was low-level. We have pure supposition on our part. It is hard to go to them with an accusation when we have no proof that anybody knew," he said.

"So I just want to underscore, it's my supposition. I think it's a supposition shared by a number in this government that somebody had had to know, but we have no idea who, and we have no proof or no evidence," Gates asserted in response to a question.

"With the evaluation of the sensitive site material and exploitation that's going on, it's just going to take us a while to see if there's anything else," said Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the same news conference.

"I have seen no evidence that the top leadership knows," he said.

PTI