Morning Poll: Did Pakistani Government Know Where Osama bin Laden Was “Hiding”

Osama bin Laden was shot and killed at a mansion he had built in an affluent Pakistani suburb just feet from what’s been described as Pakistan’s version of the West Point Military Academy. Yet the Pakistani government claims it had no idea he was living within its borders.

That would be like John Dillinger living 800 yards from the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Headquarters and the feds denying knowing where he was.

“Some in the U.S. press have suggested that Pakistan lacked vitality in its pursuit of terrorism, or worse yet that we were disingenuous and actually protected the terrorists we claimed to be pursuing. Such baseless speculation may make exciting cable news, but it doesn’t reflect fact,” Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari wrote in a column that appeared in the Washington Post yesterday.

Here’s what does “reflect fact”: Bin Laden was killed in a terror-friendly country living amongst retired generals in a fortified mansion that, from most accounts, dwarfed the majority of the other houses on the block. Authorities suspect he could have lived there for as long as six years. In that time, nobody bothered to ask, “Hey, who lives in the giant house protected by those 18-foot fences?”

If Pakistani officials didn’t know where Bin Laden was “hiding” its intelligence services are about as efficient as the Arizona Legislature.

But we want to know what you think: did the Pakistani government help hide Bin Laden?

Cast your vote below.