Re: 'Some Sort of Support Network'

President Obama is obviously right that our government will need to bore through the intel recovered in the bin Laden raid for more insight into the nature of the relationship between bin Laden and the Pakistani government. But I do wish he wouldn't say things like "We don't know who or what [bin Laden's Pakistani] support network was. We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something we have to investigate[.]..." 

Our government has known for many months that bin Laden was in Pakistan, living in that Abbottabad compound. Several press reports indicate that the CIA had a safehouse nearby, conducted extensive surveillance, and even went to Congress late last year for additional funding for its spying on the al-Qaeda leader. The White House, the armed forces, the State Department, the intelligence community, and even the FBI (and perhaps other arms of law enforcement) have had regular contact with Pakistani counterparts throughout this time. They have to have been making an assessment about who inside Pakistan knew what -- who was lying to us, and who might have been helping us (but needs cover now for having done so).  

No doubt, we already have a very good idea of what bin Laden's support network was. No one should expect the president to announce that to the world. But I don't think it helps to say we don't know. It suggests either that we haven't competently done our homework these last months or that the president is misleading us. Personally, I suspect its the latter. Again, I'd cut Obama slack on not saying what he knows, but I wish he'd do that in a way that just indicates he's not going to tell us what he knows.