Pakistani girl shot by Taliban honored at Harvard

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A Pakistani girl who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban has been honored as Harvard University's humanitarian of the year.

Malala Yousafzai, an outspoken proponent for girls' education, was at Harvard on Friday to accept the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award. Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust said she was pleased to welcome Malala because of their shared interest in education.

Malala was shot in the head last October. Militants said she was attacked because she was critical of the Taliban, not because of her views on education.

The 16-year-old Malala said she hopes to become a politician because politicians can have influence on a broad scale.

She spoke nostalgically about her home region, the Swat Valley, and said she hopes to return someday. She called it a "paradise" but described a dangerous area where militants blew up dozens of schools and sought to discourage girls from going to school by snatching pens from their hands. Students, she said, reacted by hiding their books under their shawls so people wouldn't know they were going to school.

"The so-called Taliban were afraid of women's power and were afraid of the power of education," she told hundreds of students, faculty members and well-wishers who packed Harvard's ornate Sanders Theater for the award ceremony.

Malala highlighted the fact that very few people spoke out against what was happening in her home region.

"Although few people spoke, but the voice for peace and education was powerful," she said.

Malala also described waking up in a United Kingdom hospital, where she was taken for emergency treatment following the assassination attempt in Pakistan.

"And when I was in Birmingham, I didn't know where I was, I didn't know where my parents are, I didn't know who has shot me and I had no idea what was happening," she said. "But I thank God that I'm alive."

The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, paid a special tribute to Malala in a message read publicly during her award ceremony.

"Your courage," Jagland said in the tribute, "is sending a strong message to women to stand up for their rights, which constitutes a precondition for peace."

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Arrest of Pakistani officer raises fears

File photo of Hizb ut-Tahrir activists shouting anti-government slogans during a protest in Karachi on April 17.Khan is the most senior officer to face such allegations since 1995Abbas: Efforts were underway to arrest members of Hizb ut-Tahrir Hizb ut-Tahrir has urged soldiers to rebel against the military hierarchyThe group was banned in 2004 but a Pakistani court overturned it

(CNN) -- Brigadier General Ali Khan was close to retiring at the end of a distinguished career in the Pakistani Army when he was detained early in May -- and accused of links with an outlawed Islamist group.

His arrest, which became public Tuesday, shocked fellow officers at army headquarters and again raises the specter that senior ranks of the Pakistani officer corps may be infiltrated by Islamist militants.

Brigadier Khan is the most senior officer to face such allegations since 1995, according to a CNN analysis of previous cases.

Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said Khan was believed linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation). He said efforts were underway to arrest members of the group who had been in contact with Khan.

"The military has zero tolerance for any such activity and strict disciplinary action will be taken against those involved," said Major General Abbas.

Pakistani officials say Brigadier General Khan, who is 59, had an administrative role at army headquarters in Rawalpindi. His work did not involve counterterrorism and he did not command any unit. But he would have seen plenty of sensitive information.

Khan comes from a military family stretching back three generations, and has a son in the armed forces. Pakistani media report that one of his brothers is a colonel with the intelligence service.

Reuters news agency quoted Khan's wife as dismissing the allegations as "rubbish," saying her husband was "an intellectual, an honest, patriotic and ideological person."

"It's a fashion here that whosoever offers prayers and practices religion is dubbed as Taliban and militant," Reuters quoted her as saying.

One of his brothers, Bashir Khan, told the Pakistani television network Aaj that the brigadier had been in the army for 25 years - serving with UN peacekeepers in Bosnia and spending time in the United States. In 2008, Khan received the highest honor available to soldiers of his rank.

Khan's detention comes amid heightened concern about religious extremism within Pakistan's armed forces.

Hizb ut-Tahrir says it is committed to non-violence but has urged soldiers to rebel against the military hierarchy and its goal it to establish a global Islamic Caliphate.

Pakistani sources tell CNN that in the aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, it produced pamphlets urging soldiers to turn against their commanders.

The group was outlawed by General Pervez Musharraf in 2004 but a Pakistani court subsequently overturned the ban. It is also active in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Simon Valentine, a British researcher who has studied extremism in the Pakistani armed forces, said that while Hizb ut-Tahrir doesn't advocate violence "a cardinal element of its ideology and modus operandi is to infilitrate the armed forces and, once gaining sufficient support, cause a military coup."

"Despite claims of zero tolerance of HuT within the Army," he said, "militant Islam, including the HuT, has much support from the grass roots to the highest level within all branches of the armed forces."

Valentine, who has researched Hizb ut-Tahrir in depth, said its views enjoy widespread support throughout Pakistani society.

"Such militancy as seen in the HuT is fuelled by an increasing anti-Americanism which is rife throughout Pakistan," he told CNN.

Hassan Abbas, a scholar at Columbia University who has written extensively about Pakistani military intelligence, the ISI, told CNN he suspected there was more to the case than any alleged contacts with Hizb ul-Tahrir.

"Association with such a group would not be enough to hold him for six weeks," especially as Khan was weeks away from retirement, he said.

Abbas, author of "Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America's War on Terror," said there is an alarming trend that includes Pakistani pilots refusing to bomb militant strongholds, and units surrendering to militant groups rather than fire on them.

Last month, Pakistani Taliban insurgents stormed the Naval Air Station in Karachi, apparently armed with inside information on its layout and security. They destroyed two U.S. supplied surveillance aircraft.

Days before he was abducted and murdered, Pakistani journalist Syed Shahzad described that attack as "the violent beginning of an internal ideological struggle between Islamist elements in the Pakistani armed forces and their secular and liberal top brass."

He went on to quote unnamed sources in the ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence service, as saying: "It was shown several months ago that the Pakistan navy is vulnerable to Islamists when a marine commando unit official was arrested.....Now, they (intelligence) realize how the organization (navy) is riddled and vulnerable to the influence of militant organizations."

Last year two serving officers -- including a colonel - and two former officers were indicted in a court martial for allegedly planning a terrorist attack on the Shamsi airbase.

Shamsi -- in Balochistan province -- is a remote base reportedly used by the United States drone program. The four were alleged to have been in contact with Hizb ut-Tahrir. They have pled not guilty.

And in 2004, several lower-ranking air force personnel were convicted in connection with assassination attempts against Pakistan's leader at the time, General Pervez Musharraf.

One of them, Abdul Islam Siddiqui, was hanged but maintained he was innocent of involvement. Other soldiers said they had been tortured into implicating him.

Valentine, who is a regular visitor to Pakistan, said Khan's arrest may be "part of an attempt to bolster the army's reputation amid accusations that it is pro-militant," in the wake of the raid by U.S. special forces that killed bin Laden.

But Hassan Abbas believes the military had no desire for the Khan case to become public. "The military is in deep crisis in the aftermath of Abbottabad," he says. "They would have preferred to hush this up."

CNN

Pakistani official responds to report on CIA informants' arrest

The five CIA informants were reported to have copied license plates of cars visiting bin Laden's compound before the May raid.NEW: A U.S. official confirms that the CIA director discussed the arrests with Pakistani top brassSuspected CIA informants were arrested after the bin Laden raid, an official saysThe official does not know the exact number of people heldThe arrests could be another blow to the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's intelligence agency has arrested a person who rented a safe house to the CIA before American special forces killed Osama bin Laden, as well as suspected CIA informants, a source familiar with the arrests told CNN Wednesday

A second official confirmed that Pakistan had detained informants who gave information to the CIA before the raid but said he did not know the exact number of people arrested or when it happened.

The revelations, first reported by The New York Times, are likely to further strain what has become a rocky relationship between the two countries.

CIA Director Leon Panetta discussed the arrests Friday with Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, Pakistan's head of military intelligence, the official said. A United States official confirmed that the discussion had taken place but would not give details about the arrests.

The first Pakistani official did not say whether the owner of the safe house was suspected of being a CIA informant. He asked not to be named discussing sensitive internal matters.

The second Pakistani official asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Panetta visited Pakistan last week, just over a month after Navy SEALs entered Pakistan secretly and killed bin Laden, further heightening tensions between Washington and Islamabad.

A Pakistani military spokesman confirmed that there were "a number of people arrested in Abbottabad after the raid on the Osama bin Laden compound," but said he could not say if the people were CIA officers.

Some were seized at "a house in Abbottabad that was used to monitor the bin Laden compound activities," said Syed Azmat Ali, the military spokesman. "They could have been Pakistanis who were informants to the CIA."

Ali said those arrests were made by Pakistan's powerful military intelligence agency, the ISI, "immediately after the raid, so this is not a new piece of information."

He and the intelligence official who asked not to be named were responding to reports in the New York Times that Pakistan had arrested five CIA informants who gave information to the United States before the raid on bin Laden's hideout.

The newspaper attributed the report to "American officials" without naming them.

It said one of those arrested was a Pakistani army major who kept records of license plate numbers on cars that visited the bin Laden hideout. Ali, the Pakistani military spokesman said that was "categorically" not true.

It also cited a damning assessment of Pakistan's cooperation with American counter-terror efforts by a top CIA official.

Deputy CIA director Michael J. Morell rated Pakistan's help at a three on a scale of one to 10, the Times said, quoting "officials familiar with the exchange."

Asked Wednesday by CNN to rate the Pakistani spy agency's relationship with the CIA from a scale of one to 10, military spokesman Ali said four.

Panetta, who has been nominated to be secretary of defense, told Congress in confirmation hearings last week that, "The relationship with Pakistan is at the same time one of the most critical and yet one of the most complicated and frustrating relationships that we have."

The relationship between the two countries has been in a downward spiral over disputes about how to pursue counterterrorism efforts.

The United States believes Pakistan is not doing enough to go after al Qaeda and other extremists, while the Pakistanis are upset with what they consider to be unilateral steps taken by the United States within their borders.

The United States is suspected of carrying out regular strikes by unmanned aircraft targeting suspected terrorists in Pakistan -- a suspected strike on Wednesday, killing 10 suspected militants, two Pakistani officials said.

Pakistani officials believe there were more than 100 American drone strikes in their country in 2010, a record, according to CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen. They think most of the casualties were foot soldiers or civilians, not high-value terror targets, he said.

The New America Foundation in Washington, which maintains an independent count of reported drone strikes, says there were 118 in 2010, killing between 600 and 1,000 people.

Public opinion polling shows that nine out of 10 Pakistanis have an unfavorable view of the drone strikes.

Pakistanis were also angered by the case of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who was charged with killing two Pakistani men, then released after compensation was paid to their families.

Davis described the two men as attackers and said he shot them in self-defense. Lahore Police Chief Aslam Tareen, however, said the case was "clear-cut murder."

According to Davis, the shooting occurred January 27 after two men attacked him as he drove through a busy Lahore neighborhood, the U.S. Embassy has said.

U.S. officials originally said Davis was a diplomat and tried to claim diplomatic immunity, then later revealed that he was a CIA contractor.

CIA chief Panetta's unannounced visit last week was the latest in a series by U.S. officials -- including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and Sen. John Kerry -- in efforts to smooth things over after bin Laden was killed in the SEALs raid.

CNN's Nasir Habib, Aliza Kassim and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

CNN

34 killed in blasts at Pakistani market

Pakistani security officials examine the site of twin bomb blasts in Peshawar early Sunday.NEW: Peshawar and the region have experienced a wave of violenceSuicide bomber set off explosives after first blastOne of the explosions occurred in a restaurant restroomThe blasts went off within minutes of each other, officials say

(CNN) -- At least 34 people were killed and 94 injured after twin explosions rocked a market in the Sadar area of Peshawar, Pakistan, authorities said early Sunday.

The first blast, relatively small, went off in the restroom of a restaurant in the crowded Khyber Super Market, according to Shafqat Malik, chief of bomb disposal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

People gathered at the scene and many were casualties after a suicide bomber on a motorbike arrived at the restaurant minutes later and set off explosives, Malik told CNN.

Muhammad Ejaz Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar, said about 10 kilograms of explosives were used in the second blast.

The neighborhood is a residential area popular with single professionals and students. It features hotels and shops.

Saif Ul Islam Saifi, president of the press club in Peshawar, said one journalist was killed and nine others were hurt. A provincial minister said two journalists died. There are several media offices in the area.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Peshawar and the surrounding region have been swamped by a wave of violence in recent months.

Just a week ago, on June 5, at least 19 people were killed and dozens wounded at a bakery in the town of Nowshera, about 26 miles (42 kilometers) east of Peshawar.

That same day, three women and a child were among those killed in an explosion at a bus stand in Matni, 13 miles (22 kilometers) from Peshawar.

On May 25, a suicide bomber rammed a police station in Peshawar, killing at least seven police officers. Officials said about 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of explosives were packed into a minitruck.

More than 60 militants attacked a security checkpoint near Peshawar on May 18. Ten militants and at least two security personnel were killed in the ensuing gun battle.

A roadside bomb was planted near the Peshawar home of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province's agriculture minister on May 8. It detonated as guests were leaving the minister's house, injuring at least four people.

A 12-year-old boy died in a suicide blast April 1 in a town about 34 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Peshawar.

On March 9, at least 37 people were killed in a suicide attack on the funeral of the wife of a pro-government militia member. A suicide bomber detonated explosives during a funeral procession on the outskirts of Peshawar.

Eight girls were injured on March 1 when militants on motorbikes threw grenades into a girls' school in Mardan, nearly 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Peshawar.

More than two dozen militants wielding automatic weapons attacked NATO oil tankers on February 25, at a terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar. Four people were killed and explosive devices were planted under a dozen tankers.

On February 10, a teenage suicide bomber killed at least 27 army recruits in Mardan. The suicide bomber was about 14 and was wearing a school uniform when he detonated his explosives in a military training center.

A powerful car bomb rocked a neighborhood on the outskirts of Peshawar on February 2. At least nine people were killed and 21 injured.

Police were the target of a double attack in Peshawar on January 31. A bomber walked in front of a marked police van and blew himself up, killing at least four. Another police officer was killed by a bomb while on patrol hours later.

A remote-controlled bomb exploded near a school in Peshawar on January 19. At least two people were killed and 10 wounded.

Another school bus was hit by a remote-controlled bomb on the outskirts of Peshawar on January 12. The bus was carrying female teachers and students. Two teachers were killed and seven students wounded.

Journalist Lehaz Ali contributed to this report.

CNN

Over 70 militants attack Pakistani security post, 17 dead (Reuters)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – More than 70 militants armed with rockets and mortars attacked a security post on the outskirts of Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, the latest in an upsurge of violence since Osama bin Laden was killed in the country this month.

Two members of the security forces and at least 15 insurgents were killed in a four-hour gunbattle that erupted following two successive attacks on the security post set up to defend Peshawar, the gateway to the troubled northwest region.

"They were well-armed. They had heavy weapons, rockets, mortars everything. The fighting lasted for about four and a half hours," Ejaz Khan, a city police officer, said.

The attack took place near Khyber, part of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, which is regarded as a global hub of militants, including al Qaeda and the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban movements.

Two members of the security forces were killed and five wounded, Khan said. At least 15 insurgents were killed.

Security forces repulsed the first attack by the militants which was carried out just before midnight, officials said.

"Then they carried out a big attack early in the morning. We also called in reinforcements to counter the attack and we did it," a Peshawar security official said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban have stepped up attacks in Pakistan after the killing of bin Laden in A military town by U.S. special forces on May 2.

The Pakistani Taliban, who are close to al Qaeda, have vowed to avenge bin Laden's death and said their suicide bombers killed 80 people last week at a paramilitary academy in the northwestern town of Charsadda.

In a suspected sectarian attack on Wednesday, two men on a motorbike fired on a vehicle and killed four Shi'ite Muslims and wounded four others on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta.

Pro-Taliban Sunni militants groups, many of whom are linked to al Qaeda, are trying to foment conflict among Pakistan's religious sects in an attempt to destabilize the government just as it faces pressure from the United States and the West to crack down on militant groups, analysts say.

Pakistan has come under renewed pressure to prove it is serious about tackling militancy since bin Laden was discovered after apparently spending at least five years in the South Asian nation about a two hour drive from the headquarters of the country's intelligence service.

(Reporting by Faris Ali and Zeeshan Haider; Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Michael Georgy and Sanjeev Miglani)

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Pakistani officials: NATO attacks army post (AP)

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Pakistani intelligence officials say a NATO helicopter has attacked a Pakistani army post on the border with Afghanistan, injuring two Pakistani soldiers.

The attack, if confirmed, could further strain relations between the U.S. and Pakistan that were already frayed by the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.

The officials say the helicopter attack took place Tuesday morning in the Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan tribal region. Pakistani troops responded with machine gun fire and deployed two helicopters over the post, but the NATO helicopter had already left.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

NATO did not immediately comment on the reported incident.

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U.S. imams arrested, accused of Pakistani Taliban links

Miami (CNN) -- Two South Florida imams and a third family member were arrested Saturday on charges of providing support to the Pakistani Taliban, the Justice Department said.

In addition, three others in Pakistan were also indicted on the same charges.

FBI agents arrested Hafiz Khan and his son Izhar Khan in South Florida, the department said. They are expected to make their initial court appearance in federal court Monday.

Another of Hafiz Khan's sons, Irfan Khan, was arrested in Los Angeles and will appear in court there.

Also charged are three Pakistani residents: Ali Rehman, Alam Zeb and Amina Khan. Amina Khan is Hafiz Khan's daughter, and Zeb is his grandson.

The four-count indictment alleges that all six defendants conspired to provide material support to a conspiracy to kill, injure and kidnap people abroad, and that they provided support to the Pakistani Taliban.

Hafiz Khan is the imam at Flagler Mosque in Miami. Izhar Khan is an imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen Mosque in Margate, Florida.

The indictment and arrests were not linked to the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, two U.S. officials said. The charges relate to alleged crimes committed between 2008 and 2010.

"Despite being an imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace. Instead, as today's charges show, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming," U.S. Attorney Wilfredo A. Ferrer said. "But for law enforcement intervention, these defendants would have continued to transfer funds to Pakistan to finance the Pakistani Taliban, including its purchase of guns."

The charges were the result of a three-and-a-half-year investigation, and federal authorities became suspicious by the number of financial transactions between the United States and Pakistan, authorities said.

"They went out of their way to disguise their transactions," Ferrer said.

Authorities said their investigation focused on the mosque leadership.

The indictment describes a number of occasions where Hafiz Khan transferred money to Pakistan, and where money was withdrawn once there.

"Khan solicited and distributed funds for the Pakistani Taliban, both personally and on behalf of others, and worked with the co-defendants and others to support the Pakistani Taliban's jihad," the indictment states.

The court documents also list several conversations between Hafiz Khan and the other defendants where he calls for attacks against the Pakistani government and inquires whether money had been delivered to the Pakistani Taliban.

The elder Khan also built a madrassa in Pakistan's Swat Valley that provided shelter for the terrorist group, the indictment states.

"The main defendant Khan operated and controlled a madrassa to shelter members of the Pakistan Taliban and to train children to become military fighters for the mujahideen," Ferrer said.

He said authorities are aware of several unindicted co-conspirators in the United States and Pakistan.

"You can purchase in Pakistan a gun for as little as $10. He had money coming from all sources," Ferrer said. "More evidence will come forth as the investigation continues."

Yazid Ali, president of the Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen Mosque in Margate, Florida, said his worshippers were shocked by the news. They are cooperating with authorities, he said.

"I would like everyone to know that Masjid Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen does not support terrorism, for this is forbidden in Islam. The Quran clearly tells us do not spread corruption on earth," Ali said. Masjid is Arabic for mosque.

He added that the mosque has received threats, prompting a police car to be stationed in the parking lot.

Nezar Hamze, executive director of Florida's Council on American-Islamic Relations, told CNN that he is concerned about possible fears the charges might stir in the community, even though authorities emphasized their investigation had nothing to do with Islam or the mosques themselves.

"The teaching of Islam in any way shape or form does not financially support terrorism," Hamze said. "These allegations would be completely against Islam."

He said he has been to the two mosques in question and that he's listened to the imams at the services. "You never hear anything being preached like what's being reflected in these charges," Hamze told CNN.

Outside Khan's Miami mosque on Saturday, one worshipper, Obeid Akhtar, expressed suprised to hear the news of the indictment.

"We never heard anything about this," he told CNN. "We are shocked."

The Pakistani Taliban represent a confederation of Taliban groups in northwestern Pakistan, where they are based, said Bill Roggio, military affairs analyst who is managing editor of The Long War Journal.

Those fighters attack targets in Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.

The group, which is headquartered in Quetta, is different from the Afghan Taliban, which has been focused on re-establishing the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan.

Both groups swear allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and have close ties to al Qaeda, he said.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Susan Candiotti, Rich Phillips and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.

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Pakistani PM: End 'blame game' over bin Laden

Abbottabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan will allow the United States to question or take into custody the apparent wives of Osama bin Laden only if their "country of origin has been asked for permission," a senior Pakistani intelligence source told CNN on Monday.

One of bin Laden's wives is from Yemen, the official said.

Pakistani officials have said bin Laden's family members will be repatriated to their home countries after initial interrogations are completed.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday delivered his first address to the lower house of Parliament since the killing of bin Laden, rejecting accusations that his government had failed to adequately pursue the world's most wanted terrorist.

While calling bin Laden's death "justice done," Gilani repeatedly assailed U.S. violation of Pakistani "sovereignty" in conducting the operation without Pakistan's knowledge or involvement.

"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," Gilani said, referring to suggestions by some U.S. officials that there may be some within the Pakistani government or military who were helping shield bin Laden or failing to look for him. "We emphatically reject such accusations. Speculative narratives in the public domain are meant to create despondency. We will not allow our detractors to succeed in offloading their own shortcomings and errors of omission and commission in a blame game that stigmatizes Pakistan."

Bin Laden was found in a compound in Abbottabad, a city with a heavy military presence a few hours drive from Islamabad -- rather than in the remote mountains and caves that Pakistani and U.S. officials often said were his hiding place.

Gilani also insisted that Pakistan's response to the sudden arrival of U.S. forces in the nighttime operation deserves praise. "The Air Force was ordered to scramble. Ground units arrived at the scene quickly. Our response demonstrates that our armed forces reacted, as was expected of them." Still, he added, "there is no denying the U.S. technological ability to evade our radars."

"Any attack against Pakistan's strategic assets whether overt or covert will find a matching response," Gilani said. "Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force. No one should underestimate the resolve and capability of our nation and armed forces to defend our sacred homeland."

"Unilateralism runs the inherent risk of serious consequences," Gilani said, in a fiery speech frequently interrupted by applause from some lawmakers. "Suppose the operation had gone wrong."

Still, Gilani said, "Pakistan attaches high importance to its relations with the U.S. We have a strategic partnership which we believe serves our mutual interests. It is based on mutual respect and mutual trust." And recent discussions with the United States "have been good, productive and straightforward," he said.

Gilani also noted that an investigation is under way into bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad.

The speech came amid reports suggesting the possible leak of a CIA agent's name in Pakistan. Pakistani news outlets named a man they identified as the CIA station chief. But a senior Pakistani intelligence official said the name was inaccurate and he did not know where it came from. "If we were going to release the name, we would release the right one," the official said.

A U.S. official said there is "no current plan to bring home the current chief of station" in Pakistan.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's chief of army staff, said Monday that he has requested that Gilani convene a joint session of Parliament for a "briefing on security issues as related to Abbottabad incident," according to a statement from the Pakistani military. Kayani requested "a consensus on important security issues including war on terror" and a response to be articulated through the Parliament as "the most effective way to let the world know the historic achievements of Pakistan against al Qaeda and its terror affiliates."

U.S. President Barack Obama said he thinks bin Laden likely had a group of supporters within Pakistan helping to keep the al Qaeda leader secure for years, despite the U.S.-led international manhunt that extended for nearly a decade with Islamabad's ostensible support.

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night, Obama said, "We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don't know who or what that support network was."

The president said U.S. officials "don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government (or) people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate."

"More importantly," he added, "the Pakistani government has to investigate."

In the interview, Obama also said sending U.S. troops on a dangerous mission to get bin Laden was worth the risks, even though it was not certain bin Laden was in the compound.

"Obviously, we're going into the sovereign territory of another country and landing helicopters and conducting a military operation," he said. "And so, if it turns out that it's a wealthy, you know, prince from Dubai who's in this compound and, you know, we've sent special forces in, we've got problems."

Top U.S. officials insist Pakistan remains a critical U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism, but are demanding answers to troubling questions about bin Laden's presence in that country over the past six years.

Last week, CIA Director Leon Panetta -- nominated by Obama to succeed Robert Gates as defense secretary -- told House members during a closed-door briefing that Pakistan was "either involved or incompetent," according to two sources in attendance.

Pakistani armed forces chiefs issued a statement last week admitting "shortcomings in developing intelligence" on the terrorist leader's presence in the country.

Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon, said he has not seen any information to indicate Pakistani officials knew bin Laden was living in Abbottabad.

But if evidence is discovered that is "highly disturbing, we'll certainly press that," he said.

There have been no decisions on reducing the number of U.S. military personnel in Pakistan or halting key supply lines to the war in Afghanistan, despite tensions between the United States and Pakistan, the Pentagon said Monday.

"I couldn't tell you whether there have been discussions. I can tell you there have been no decisions about either of those," Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said.

"We have routine discussions with the Pakistanis, so I would presume there are discussions along these lines, but I have been told there are no decisions about reducing our number of forces or changing our lines of communications through Pakistan," Lapan said.

There are some 300 American military personnel in Pakistan. Overland routes through Pakistan are important for supplying the war effort in Afghanistan.

Lapan refused to answer questions about the downed U.S. helicopter left behind when U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden, including whether the United States is asking Pakistan to return the pieces of what is considered a highly advanced and -- until now -- secret, stealthy design. "We're not talking about it," Lapan said.

The U.S. operation collected a trove of material from the compound -- including 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices, such as disks and thumb drives, a senior U.S. official told CNN.

Investigators are poring over the items for intelligence. In recent days, the materials taken from bin Laden's compound revealed details about a possible attack on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

The material suggests that al Qaeda was particularly interested in striking Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. authorities have found that al Qaeda appeared especially interested in striking on significant dates like July 4, Christmas and the opening day of the United Nations.

As early as February 2010, al Qaeda members discussed a plan to derail trains in the United States by placing obstructions on tracks over bridges and valleys, an alert said, according to one law enforcement official.

Dozens of people in Abbottabad have been arrested because of their suspected connections to the compound where bin Laden was shot and killed, a Pakistani intelligence official said last week. Investigators want to know whether any of the people are al Qaeda members or sympathizers.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, Charley Keyes, and Samson Desta contributed to this report.

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Pakistani town shocked by bin Laden find

After almost a decade of pursuit, the world's greatest manhunt ended with Osama bin Laden cornered not in a cave but in a mansion on the edges of a leafy city near Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan army soldiers and police officers patrol past a house where it is believed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

By Anjum Naveed, AP

Pakistan army soldiers and police officers patrol past a house where it is believed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

He was hiding, in a sense, in plain sight.

"It is a big surprise for me that bin Laden was actually there," said Sadik Aale Mohammad, who lives a mile from bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, a middle-class Pakistani city an hour's drive north of Islamabad.

"We are in disbelief that this happened in Pakistan and Abbottabad, which is such a peaceful place," he said.

Situated in the Orash Valley, Abbottabad is circled by forested hills cut by the Karakoram Highway, once part of the fabled Silk Road. Tourists come here in the summers for its pleasant weather.

Abbottabad is also home to a large military base, and a prominent Pakistani Army academy. Soldiers are everywhere.

That U.S. intelligence agents and special operations forces tracked bin Laden there, and that he appeared to have been with family and aides for considerable time, has raised questions about the role and veracity of Pakistan's government, a nuclear power and nominal ally of the United States in its war against Taliban in Afghanistan.

It casts doubt on the degree to which Pakistan was complicit in hiding and protecting bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda and mastermind of the terrorist attacks on the United States that killed thousands of Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. Some experts say the find potentially shakes the future of U.S.-Pakistani relations by suggesting terrorists are operating more freely here than previously assumed.

"The question of where Pakistan stands in this whole effort has come to the fore," said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and former State Department official. "This long, flawed and difficult relationship will be entering another difficult phase."

Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, interviewed in Dubai by Bloomberg TV, insisted Pakistan had cooperated fully with the U.S. government and said that he had never known bin Laden's location.

"No, never," Musharraf said. "That really surprises me."

The implications for Pakistan were immediately clear to its own citizens.

"What was he doing in Pakistan?" asked Umair Ejaz, a businessman in Lahore, which has been the scene of Islamist violence. He said his country's image has been damaged because it "implies Pakistan had given him free accommodation."

"The blowback from this is going to be huge," Ejaz said.

Pakistan has seen rising levels of violence linked to terrorists operating in the country, which has been a base for extremist Taliban fighting against U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

Bin Laden's refuge in a large compound in a Pakistani military town "is evidence that bin Laden was protected by Islamic elements in the Pakistani army," said Walid Phares, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Even so, Phares doubted Pakistan policy leaders knew bin Laden was there — reasoning "they would never put him in a Club Med situation. They would put him in the Kush mountains."

Stephen Tankel, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said bin Laden's compound, bigger and more secure and secretive than others in the area, could not have been built without Pakistani officials knowing someone important was there. His presence there, and the support he may have been receiving from accomplices in the country, point to a growing jihadi threat in Pakistan, Tankel said.

House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers said that of the known 20 top al-Qaeda leaders, at least 10 to 12 "we believe to be traveling around Pakistan someplace."

He said the U.S. government will press tough questions of the Pakistani government, a recipient of substantial U.S. financial aid, and its ISI security agency. But, Rogers added, U.S. reaction must be tempered with the knowledge of delicate internal political considerations for the country's rulers.

"It is incredibly important for us that we maintain a relationship, so that we can pursue those targets that we know are posing a threat to the United States," he said.

Only two interpretations could explain bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, an old British military garrison town now occupied by active and retired Pakistani military officials, says Andrew Wilder, director of Afghanistan and Pakistan programs at the United States Institute of Peace, a Washington think tank.

"One is that they (Pakistani security officials) didn't know, which is pretty bad news," Wilder says. "And one, that they did know, which is worse news."

It's hard not to conclude that some aspects of the Pakistani military establishment were aware of bin Laden's whereabouts, which "has disturbing implications for U.S. relations in the country," he says. "Yesterday's events will further weaken an already weak partnership."

Wilder said he did not think Pakistan is about to implode or be overtaken by Islamist extremists. The military there is protecting its own interests and is not at war with the state, and every new al-Qaeda attack in Pakistan turns more of the public and the military against it, he said.

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