Best laid plans of mice and men

Well I hoped to be home by Saturday but the bus needed another repair.  Right rear CV joint and axle was NFG so that cost me a day in Madison, WI.  Found a great group of guys at Kelly Moss Motorsports who were able get me up & running, even coming in on Saturday morning to finish the job as the parts weren't there until then.

Ran into some great people along the way at the KOA Campgrounds I stayed at and had a good time but like anything else, the trip was longer than I wanted.  Time to be home and start working on the next adventure.....Had enough of being away from home. Really.

In AFGHANISTAN, " It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over "

The great Yogi Berra once said, " It ain't over 'til it's over "
That seems to be the mantra for all things Afghanistan....

IF the enclosed news story isn't the surest sign that the 2014 "yap-yap" about Afghanistan is as worthless as any other promise made by a Politician, I'll be shocked.  There are lies and then there are damned lies. 

If the POLS would just be straight up about things, it would be so much less painful for all involved.

We need to be here  in Afghanistan for the Afghan people, our own defense interests and as a stabilizing force in the region.

No my dear friends, this game is going into extra innings....and then some.

U.S., Pakistan sign deal to allow supply routes through 2015
By Richard Leiby, Tuesday, July 31, WASHINGTON POST

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan will allow NATO supply convoys to cross its territory into Afghanistan until the end of 2015, one year beyond the deadline for withdrawal of U.S. combat forces there, under an agreement signed on Tuesday by U.S. and Pakistani officials.

The pact seems to close, for now, one of the most contentious chapters in the long-turbulent relationship between Washington and Islamabad, cementing cooperation by Pakistan in winding down the war in Afghanistan at least in terms of logistical assistance. Washington also has urged Islamabad to step up its participation in the peace process by bringing to the negotiating table militant groups that shelter in Pakistani’s tribal belt and regularly cross the border to attack NATO troops.

The so-called “memorandum of understanding” signed on Tuesday also provides the option for both sides to extend the deal in one-year intervals beyond Dec. 31, 2015. And it would apply to other NATO nations if they sign separate pacts with Pakistan.

Although Pakistan ended its seven-month blockade of NATO supplies earlier this month, the pact formalizes some key details, including a ban on transporting lethal supplies. And it lays out security arrangements Pakistan will provide for the thousands of container trucks and oil tankers whose routes originate at the port of Karachi.

Last week, after the war-provisioning convoys began rolling in significant numbers, Pakistan once again shut down the routes when a trucker was fatally shot in an attack attributed to the Pakistani Taliban, which has vowed to kill anyone who drives for NATO.

Pakistani officials said Tuesday that the convoys would resume only after the routes – which span hundreds of miles -- are suitably protected. Under the new arrangement, police in cities and towns would handle security until the convoys reach the restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where nation’s paramilitary Frontier Corps would take over.

The pact was signed in a ceremony at Rawalpindi by a senior Pakistani defense ministry official, Rear Admiral Farrokh Ahmed, and the U.S. Embassy Chargé d'Affaires, Richard Hoagland.
The agreement formalizes the verbal agreements that the United States reached in the past with Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s most recent military ruler, who was forced into exile in 2008 after civilians took power.

Musharraf was able to set foreign policy and forge alliances as he saw fit. The deal he struck in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was a quid pro quo: Pakistan would cooperate in the war against terrorism, including allow the U.S. supply routes, in exchange for billions in aid.

The U.S. eventually designated Pakistan a “major non-NATO ally,” but that alliance, severely tested by the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, essentially collapsed after a U.S. airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at Afghan border posts last November.

The signed agreement is significant in that it appears to have been reached with the absence of overt Pakistani military involvement, U.S. officials have said the Pakistani generals stood back to allow civilian leaders to negotiate the pact, which proved to be a slow, politicized and unwieldy process.

Some Pakistani officials have described the NATO route agreement as a watershed moment, signaling that the “one phone call” days of Washington-Islamabad relations are over, and a sign that civilian rulers, for all their struggles in solving the nation’s social and economic ills, now have a voice in foreign policy.

Hard to Believe...He taught Constitutional Law in College ? Really ?

Something President Obama needs to review:

The Oath of Office:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Based on the way he is acting, he is in violation of the oath he took and has decided to treat the US Constitution the way he has treated the will of the people; with disdain and a condescending attitude. The DEMS used to howl about how they felt that President Bush mistreating the law as President, but Barry from Chicago gets a free pass from his own party.

It is hard to believe this man taught Constitutional Law in college. This poser has got to go. 11 months until election day and not soon enough until the American voters can deliver a strong message to the "Lecturer in Chief" and his attitudinal spouse.

Time to Go Mr. President. You have embarrassed our country enough.


Acting Like A King Isn't Among The President's Duties
Investros Business Daily
01/04/2012

Leadership: A spokesman says the president "can't wait for Congress to act" and promised that he's "going to take action." This is the president who was "ready to rule" in 2008. Is he an elected chief executive or an emperor?

In November 2008, shortly after Barack Obama was elected president, Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of his transition team, appeared on "Meet the Press." She told host Tom Brokaw that "Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one."

Shouldn't someone who had reached the political heights that Jarrett had reached know that kings rule but presidents are elected to serve and are accountable to Congress, the courts and the voters?

One would think that she and the rest of the administration are aware of a president's legal limitations, but simply aren't interested in respecting them.

A little more than three years after Jarrett declared Obama's majesty, his spokesman Jay Carney warned on the day of the Iowa caucuses that "if Republicans choose the path of obstruction rather than cooperation, then the president is not going to sit here . .. he's going to take the actions that he can take using his executive authority."

Within a day, Obama made good on the threat. On Wednesday, he bypassed the congressional approval process and named Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The appointment, made while the Senate is in a pro forma session and not in recess, came after that chamber blocked Cordray's confirmation last month.

Not only is Obama trampling precedent that says recess appointments are to be done only after the Senate has been out of session for 10 days or more, he's also trying to circumvent legislation.

As noted by Mark Calabria of the Cato Institute, the Dodd-Frank bill that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requires the CFPB's authority to remain with the Treasury secretary until the CFPB director is "confirmed by the Senate." Cordray still lacks that confirmation.

Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast Apparently feeling like a gambler on a roll, Obama followed up the Cordray appointment by placing Sharon Block, Terence Flynn and Richard Griffin on the National Labor Relations Board. Of little concern to Obama are the wishes of the Senate Republicans, who had blocked these appointments, which they have the right to do within our system.

Clearly our American arrangement of checks and balances written into the Constitution is an impediment to this president. Before Carney made his statement Tuesday, Obama himself said in October that "we can no longer wait for Congress to do its job. ... So where Congress won't act, I will."

He, of course, is talking more about the House, which voters turned over to the Republicans in 2010, than the Senate, which is still in Democrats' hands.

The president might not like it that he no longer has a Democratic majority in the House to help him ram through legislation. But he should stay within the constitutional obstructions that the opposition party is expected to place in front of him.

In Wednesday's Cleveland speech when he announced the CFPB and NLRB appointments, Obama said anyone who "plays by the rules can get ahead." Yet the president is playing outside the rules and pretending he's doing it as a favor for the country. His motives, though, are clear. He wants to wield power that exceeds what the Constitution delegated to the president.

Maybe First Lady Michelle Obama wasn't acting when she said on a kids television sitcom that she enjoyed being called "your excellency." Maybe she was speaking for her husband, too.

Iran needs to get a grip

Really Iran ? Really ? As if the US Navy would stop traveling through the Straits of Hormuz just because you said not to....Iran needs to get a Grip.

These fools need a reality check. Iran is not in the position to dictate where the US Navy travels. Old Beady Eyes and the Mullahs must be smoking some pretty powerful stuff if they think this type of "warning" will amount to a change in tactics from the US Navy.

UPDATE - The Pentagon on Tuesday pushed back on Iranian warnings against returning a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf.

"The deployment of U.S. military assets in the Persian Gulf region will continue as it has for decades," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said in a statement sent to Yahoo News Tuesday. "These are regularly scheduled movements in accordance with our longstanding commitments to the security and stability of the region and in support of ongoing operations."

"The U.S. Navy operates under international maritime conventions to maintain a constant state of high vigilance in order to ensure the continued, safe flow of maritime traffic in waterways critical to global commerce," Little's statement continued. "We are committed to protecting maritime freedoms that are the basis for global prosperity; this is one of the main reasons our military forces operate in the region."

Bravo Zulu to our US Navy - To Iran, pound sand.


At end of drill, Iran army chief warns US aircraft carrier not to return to Persian Gulf

By Associated Press,Tuesday, January 3

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s army chief on Tuesday warned an American aircraft carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf in Tehran’s latest tough rhetoric over the strategic waterway.

Gen. Ataollah Salehi spoke as a 10-day Iranian naval exercise ended near the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf. The drill was a show of strength at a time when Iranian officials have warned they could try to shut down the vital oil passage if the United States enacts tough new sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.

“We recommend to the American warship that passed through the Strait of Hormuz and went to Gulf of Oman not to return to the Persian Gulf,” Salehi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

Motives behind Salehi’s statement were not immediately clear.

He said Iran’s enemies have understood the message of the naval exercises, saying, “We have no plan to begin any irrational act but we are ready against any threat.”

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet has said that USS John C. Stennis and another vessel headed out from the Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz last Tuesday, after a visit to Dubai’s Jebel Ali port. The Fleet did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Salehi’s comments.

On Thursday Iran said its surveillance planes and vessels recorded video and photographed a U.S. aircraft carrier during Iran’s ongoing navy drill near a strategic waterway in the Persian Gulf.

Gen. Shahrokh Shahram, an air defense commander, said Iranian forces had warned off several foreign aircraft that he claimed entered Iranian airspace during the drill. He said the craft left the airspace after warnings from Iranian air defense units. He did not say which country the aircraft belonged to.

Iran had said the sea maneuvers would cover a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch of water beyond the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, as well as parts of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

A leading Iranian lawmaker said Sunday the maneuvers served as practice for closing the strait if the West enacts sanctions blocking Iranian oil sales. Top Iranian officials made the same threat last week.

SLICK MITT ROMNEY anoints himself the GOP Nominee w/o a single vote being cast.....REALLY ???? Hey MITT ! Get over yourself.

Without a single vote cast or counted, SLICK MITT ROMNEY has already anointed himself the Republican Nominee and has started to act like the White House is his for the taking.

Don't get me wrong, I admire "ego strength" in a capable and well disciplined candidate but are you F&%king kidding me? DUDE, catch a clue, you can't just decide for yourself that based on polls more than 5 months out that you can appoint yourself the nominee.....This is one more in a long line of bizarre behaviors that shows why we don't need this feckless POL anymore than we need the empty suit that is in the White House.

The PRESIDENCY of the UNITED STATES requires the best person, the most qualified, the soundest of judgments, and someone who makes others feel like they are being listened to. Mitt Romney only hears the sound of his own voice, just like the delusional fool we have as President right now. WHY in God's sake would we elect a Republican version of the same thing we have now ??

We have to let the process work itself through the primaries and let the PEOPLE have a say on who they want to run against Obama, not decide it based on who has the most $$$$ and can get an early lead established by pandering to well heeled lobbyists.

We should reject the stupidity of anyone who acts like SLICK MITT as it is not the sign of leadership but of self delusion. We have one delusional lightweight in the White House - The last thing we need is Slick Mitt and Mrs. Slick Mitt for 4 years after we kick out the "Lecturer in Chief" and his Cow of a wife. Really, I am begging you....Let's return the decision power to the people where it belongs.


Mitt Romney's Measuring His White House Drapes
Elspeth Reeve Jul 27, 2011 - The Atlantic

Mitt Romney told donors in Virginia Beach Tuesday night that three guys are on his short list for vice president: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Bearing Drift reports. Aside from the amusing thought of the Tea Partying Rubio being No. 2 for Romney--whose state's overhaul was a model for President Obama's--the list feels like one more instance of Romney counting his chickens before they're hatched, NBC News' First Read observes--"he’s acting like someone who’s already wrapped up the GOP nomination, or even the White House."

Romney told New Hampshire voters that he'd be back in four years--with Secret Service in tow. As he did Tuesday night, he's visiting swing states that don't have early primary elections--Pennsylvania, California, and Virginia. Politico's Alexander Burns reports he'll be hitting Obama on jobs in Ohio on Wednesday, after securing the endorsement of former Sen. George Voinovich and more than a dozen state Republicans. First Read writes, "Romney is starting to resemble a gambler who's up $500 at the blackjack table and is already counting the ways he's going to spend his earnings--but before he walks away from the table."

.... The New York Times' Nate Silver should give him pause. When poll numbers are adjusted for name recognition--how many of the respondents have actually heard of the guy--Romney is merely a co-frontrunner with still-undeclared Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

An average of the seven most recent polls of Republican voters ... finds Mr. Romney with the lead, with an average of 22 percent of the vote. After that, there's essentially a four-way tie between Ms. Bachmann (13 percent), Sarah Palin (13 percent), Mr. Perry (12 percent) and Rudolph W. Giuliani (11 percent in the polls in which he is included). ...

The results tighten up a bit, however, once we adjust for name recognition based on the latest Gallup numbers. (Dividing a candidate's polling average by his name recognition can somewhat improve the predictive power of early-stage polls.) In particular, Mr. Perry is recognized by only slightly more than half of Republican voters. Of those who recognize his name, 21 percent list him as their first choice, just slightly behind Mr. Romney at 25 percent.

Perry hasn't yet had to endure the scrutiny that comes after a politician officially declares his candidacy--look at what happened to Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman, for example. Still, Silver writes, if Perry's "roll-out goes well... the Republican campaign could well develop into a heavyweight battle between the two rather than the Lord-of-the-Flies scenario that had seemed more likely before."

A pair of feckless Pols who haven't got a clue.....

Yoda: Always two there are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice.

At times like this, it is hard to decide whether Master Yoda was speaking about The Sith or Politics in Washington DC and Beacon Hill in Boston.

The Feckless POL who sits in the White House taking temper tantrums because the world refuses to recognize his "alledged greatness" got another in a long line of "reality checks" as the unemployment figures from June show that the majority of states saw an increase in their unemployment rates, with the 2nd largest group having their rates remain unchanged.....Pain & misery for all those who are seeking jobs and/or losing homes, amounting to further evidence that this idiot who was elected by those who bought into his "hopey changey" BS is as shallow as piss on a flat rock.

To think that you could have the unmitigated gall to try for a 2nd term when your first term is so marked with incompetence....His Presidency is a new high-water mark in political train wrecks and he & his feckless comrades want to try to bull-shite their way into 4 more years of this drivel.....it defies all common sense.


States see unemployment rates rise
UPI July 23, 2011

WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) -- Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia saw their unemployment rates increase in June, the U.S. Labor Department said.

In June, 14 states saw no change in their unemployment rates, while eight states recorded decreases, the department said in report released Friday.

The number of jobs rose in 26 states and the District of Columbia, while 24 states saw the number of jobs decline.

Texas added the most non-farm jobs in June, gaining by 32,000. California added 28,800 jobs in the month -- having lost 29,200 in the previous month -- while Michigan added 18,000 jobs in June.

The largest declines were posted by Tennessee, which lost 16,900 jobs. Missouri lost the second largest number, down 15,700. In Virginia, 14,600 jobs were lost in the month.

The unemployment rate is highest in Nevada, where the rate jumped from 12.1 percent in May to 12.4 percent. California's unemployment rate, second highest in the nation, is 11.8 percent.

North Dakota, on the other end of the spectrum, has an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, the lowest in the country, but a sharp jump from the 3.2 percent unemployment rate for the state in May.

The national unemployment rate was 9.2 percent in June


And then there's this....It seems that Governor "Spend-it-all" Deval Patrick needs to learn that " Denial " is not just a river in Egypt.....what a putz.


Gov. Deval Patrick doubts high jobless rate will cost Obama his job
By Thomas Grillo
Friday, July 22, 2011 - Boston Herald

While touting Massachusetts’ success at putting people back to work, Gov. Deval Patrick predicted yesterday that his pal President Obama won’t lose his job because of the nation’s high unemployment rate.

“I don’t think that any economic indicator will determine who the next president is,” Patrick told the Herald. “I think the economy is incredibly important, but I think it’s most important that people realize that this president has a plan for investing in our growth.”

Nate Little, executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party, said Patrick’s comments show that the governor is out of touch.

“Isn’t the oldest saying in the book people vote with their pocketbooks?” Little said. “And I have no doubt that they’re going to next November. ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ still holds true.”

Patrick, who won re-election last year despite a high jobless rate and has pledged not to run again, frequently boasts that the Bay State’s unemployment rate — which remained unchanged at 7.6 percent in June — is better than the 9.2 percent national average, which has increased in recent months.

“We have an unemployment rate which is well below the national average,” said Patrick yesterday. “We have been growing jobs here in the Commonwealth faster than 46 other states and that’s not by accident. We have a strategy based on investing in education and innovation and infrastructure and it’s working. But at 7.6 percent here in the Commonwealth, we still have a lot of people out of work so we have to keep going and I’m determined to do that until everybody who seeks work can find it.”In fact, 263,800 Bay State residents remain unemployed and major employers continue to move high-paying jobs out of state.

“They are dealing with growing pains and economic adjustments like everyone else,” Patrick said of companies that are moving jobs out of Massachusetts. “I’m obviously concerned about any individual whose life and family has been disrupted because of some of the decisions of those firms, but we are doing everything we can in every sector to expand opportunity and we are playing a long game here.”

While the state lost 4,100 jobs in May, the Patrick administration reported that Massachusetts added 10,400 jobs in June, which is astonishingly more than half the new jobs created in the entire United States — a meager 18,000 — last month. The state unemployment rate is based on a monthly sample of households, while the job estimates are derived from a monthly sample survey of employers, which is why the two statistics for June exhibit different trends

Well, DUH ! - Study results show Women dig dudes driving hot cars

REALLY ?? Like we needed a study to tell us this info?? Any guy who has owned a Chevy Camaro, Corvette or one of 100 other hot rides has proven this postulation a hundred times over.....And glad we always got the same results by providing the young ladies what they were looking for....ahem.

Next thing they'll be telling us is that Men enjoy watching sports, drinking beer with the guys and going out for the regular " Guys night out "....along with finding a winning lottery ticket.

Seems like even a 48 year old Willys Jeep can attract a few New England Patriots Cheerleaders...maybe my Navy Jeep needs to be added to the list of "hot cars"...hmmmmm.

Study: Women dig dudes driving hot cars
By Jim Forsyth Jim Forsyth – Tue Jun 21

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – A recent study by Texas researchers proves what single men have known for a long time: Chicks dig hot cars.

Men who wear expensive clothes and drive flashy cars are more successful at having flings and staying single than their financially conservative counterparts, researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio said.

And while it's not exactly groundbreaking information that some women are more likely to go from the bar with a guy in a Porsche rather than a Geo, the project found the phenomenon is less about gold-digging and more about "signals," University of Texas at San Antonio marketing professor Dr. Jill Sundie told Reuters on Monday.

By engaging in splashy personal spending, men are sending a signal to women that they want a "short term relationship," much like peacocks trying to woo a mating partner using "wasteful, elaborate displays," Sundie said.

"Basically, they're just trying to convince a female that, 'Hey, if all you're looking for is genes, I have the best genes, so you should choose me,'" she said.

Women, pick up on that signal and respond to it -- positively if she's into that kind of thing, or negatively if she is looking for marriage material.

"Women seem to understand that when they see a man who has chosen to spend money conspicuously, they think he would be more interesting as a date," Sundie said.

That is, if all they want is a one-nighter or something temporary. When it comes to the long term, Sundie said, flashing the cash becomes a turn-off for women.

"If you ask them to think of these men instead as a long term partner, how good is this guy as a marriage partner, the flashy spending doesn't help him at all," she said.

The same is not true for women, the study shows.

Researchers surveyed nearly 1,000 men and women in four separate studies to determine the signals sent by conspicuous consumption and how it is viewed by the opposite sex. Their findings were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Sundie stressed that not all men who spend conspicuously do so in hopes of having a fling, and women who date these types of men are not all interested simply in flings.

But the signals are clear, even if the intentions are not.

"It appears to be a behavior that is much more likely to occur if the guy is seeking short-term relationships, and he is thinking about a situation where he might be able to get one of those short-term relationships," she said. "When they think about women, they spend lots of money."

(Editing by Karen Brooks and Greg McCune)

Whacky - Pakis slams ‘unauthorized’ US raid on bin Laden.....REALLY ?? REALLY PAKISTAN???

“From some quarters, there is anger at the United States conducting a mission inside Pakistan.”

REALLY ? Really Pakistan ?? You are lucky we just don’t decide to send MORE missions into your country......like what would you do to stop us ?? Have some more angry demonstrations in Islamabad ? It would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Let's load up the drones and turn the Whacki-Pakis on to the REAL potential for what can happen when you piss us off. The bases in Afghanistan are starting to show their full potential to take on these idiots in Pakistan who were likely assisting in hiding OBL.

Get over yourself before we re-think the $4 Billion in aid we provide you and any other form of assistance.

BRAVO ZULU to the US NAVY SEALS - Beers on me next time I see any of my Navy Seal Brothers.


Pakistan slams ‘unauthorized’ US raid on bin Laden

By Associated Press Tuesday, May 3, 2011
http://www.bostonherald.com Asia Pacific

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan criticized the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden as an "unauthorized unilateral action," laying bare the strains the operation has put on an already rocky alliance.

U.S. legislators along with the leaders of Britain and France questioned how the Pakistani government could not have known the al-Qaida leader was living in a garrison town less than a two-hour drive from the capital and had apparently lived there for years.

"I find it hard to believe that the presence of a person or individual such as bin Laden in a large compound in a relatively small town ... could go completely unnoticed," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters in Paris.

British Prime Minister David Cameron also demanded that Pakistani leaders explain how bin Laden had lived undetected in Abbottabad. But in a nod to the complexities of dealing with a nuclear-armed, unstable country that is crucial to success in the war in Afghanistan, Cameron said having "a massive row" with Islamabad over the issue would not be in Britain’s interest.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. is committed to cooperating with Pakistan.

"We don’t know who if anybody in the government was aware that bin Laden or a high-value target was living in the compound. It’s logical to assume he had a supporting network. What constituted that network remains to be seen," Carney said.

"It’s a big country and a big government and we have to be very focused and careful about how we do this because it is an important relationship."

A day after U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida leader following a 10-year manhunt, new details emerged today from Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency and bin Laden’s neighbors in Abbottabad.

Residents said they sensed something was odd about the walled three-story house, even though bin Laden and his family rarely ventured outside and most neighbors were not aware that foreigners were living there.

"That house was obviously a suspicious one," said Jahangir Khan, who was buying a newspaper in Abbottabad. "Either it was a complete failure of our intelligence agencies or they were involved in this affair."

Neighbors said two men would routinely emerge from the compound to run errands or occasionally attend a neighborhood gathering, such as a funeral. Both men were tall, fair skinned and bearded.

"People were skeptical in this neighborhood about this place and these guys," said Mashood Khan, a 45-year-old farmer. "They used to gossip, say they were smugglers or drug dealers. People would complain that even with such a big house they didn’t invite the poor or distribute charity."

U.S. officials have suggested Pakistani officials may have known where bin Laden was living and members of Congress have seized on those suspicions to call for the U.S. to consider cutting billions of aid to Pakistan if it turns out to be true.

Western officials have long regarded Pakistani security forces with suspicion, especially when it comes to links with militants fighting in Afghanistan. Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton publicly said she suspected that some members of Pakistan’s government knew where bin Laden was hiding.

However, within Pakistan criticism has been focused on the U.S. breaching the country’s sovereignty. The Obama administration has said it did not inform the Pakistanis in advance of the operation against bin Laden, for fear they would tip off the targets.

A strongly worded Pakistani government statement warned the U.S. not to launch similar operations in the future. It rejected suggestions that officials knew where bin Laden was.

Still, there were other revelations that pointed to prior knowledge that the compound was linked to al-Qaida.

Pakistani intelligence agencies hunting for a top al-Qaida operative raided the house in 2003, according to a senior officer, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the spy agency’s policy.

The house was just being built at the time of the raid by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, and Abu Faraj al-Libi, al-Qaida’s No. 3, was not there, said the officer.

U.S. officials have said al-Libi once lived in the house and that information from him played a role in tracking the al-Qaida chief down. Al-Libi was arrested by Pakistani police after a shootout in 2005 and he was later handed over to U.S. authorities.

The Pakistani officer said he didn’t know why bin Laden would choose a house that already had been compromised.

He also insisted the ISI would have captured bin Laden if it had known he was there, and pushed back at international criticism of the agency.

"Look at our track record given the issues we have faced, the lack of funds. We have killed or captured hundreds" of extremists), said the officer. "All of a sudden one failure makes us incompetent and 10 years of effort is overlooked."

Al-Qaida has been responsible for score of bloody attacks inside Pakistan, so on the face of it would seem strange for Islamabad to be sheltering bin Laden. Critics of Pakistan say that by keeping him on the run, Islamabad was ensuring that U.S. aid and weapons to the country kept flowing.

The Pakistani government said that since 2009 the ISI has shared information about the compound with the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies, and that intelligence indicating foreigners were in the Abbottabad area continued until mid-April.

In an essay published Tuesday by The Washington Post, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied suggestions his country’s security forces may have sheltered bin Laden, and said their cooperation with the United States helped pinpoint him.

The raid followed months of deteriorating relations between the CIA and Pakistan’s intelligence service. Those strains came to a head in late January after a CIA contractor shot and killed two Pakistanis in what Washington said was self-defense.

In a statement, the Pakistani government said "this event of unauthorized unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule."

"The government of Pakistan further affirms that such an event shall not serve as a future precedent for any state, including the U.S.," it said, calling such actions a "threat to international peace and security."

The statement may be partly motivated by domestic concerns. The government and army has come under criticism following the raid by those who have accused the government of allowing Washington to violate the country’s sovereignty. Islamabad has also been angered at the suspicions it had been sheltering bin Laden.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/asia_pacific/view.bg?articleid=1335247