Despite Pakistan’s warnings that it would not tolerate another US raid, the US has made clear that it would go after the al Qaeda leadership anywhere in the world. “We’ve made it clear to people around the world that if we locate someone who has been part of the al Qaeda leadership, then you get him or we will get him,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with CBS News.
Asked if she would recommend more unilateral US raids if Washington was aware of the whereabouts of other key al Qaeda figures in Pakistan after the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, she declined to comment on such hypothetical situations. “But I think it should be sufficient to say that the US has made it clear from the very moment we were attacked that we would go after those who had attacked us. Bin Laden was our primary target. The president made a gutsy decision. We were very pleased that the operation succeeded,” Clinton said.
Asked what the US was going to do about Pakistan, Clinton said as Defence Secretary Robert Gates had noted “we believe that it was not proven that anybody at the top of the government in Pakistan knew where bin Laden was, bu t it seems likely that somebody did know”. Clinton recalled that she had told the Pakistanis, “It’s hard to believe that somebody in your government somewhere – and it could be some very low-level person – doesn’t know where he is.”