Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D-CA) said on Tuesday that the Pakistani government may have lost the
paperwork that would explain how a compound was bought and built in Abbotabad
to house Osama bin Laden for over five
years.
Feinstein, the head of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, is being more careful lately not to spill classified intelligence
when talking in committee meetings or with reporters. But in a brief Tuesday
interview with The Cable in the hallways
of the Capitol building, she said she was very suspicious of "rumors" that Pakistan
had misplaced the records regarding the bin Laden safe house.
Asked by The Cable
if she had seen any evidence that senior Pakistani government officials had
been involved in the hiding of bin Laden, Feinstein paused, thought for a
moment, and then gave a very careful response.
"I don't understand how somebody could buy the land for
$48,000, get the building permits, get a contractor, build for a period of time
what is essentially the largest home compound in the area, where somebody lives
for five years, and nobody asks who's there or finds out who's there," she
said.
Then she offered this fascinating tidbit:
"I understand it's very difficult to go back and find the
records, that they suddenly disappeared. That's not a positive sign either,"
she said.
Pressed by The Cable
on how she knew that the bin Laden files had been lost, she said, "That's what
the rumor is... I didn't hear this from [the] intel [community]."
Feinstein also criticized Pakistan for reportedly
arresting five CIA informants who helped set up the bin Laden raid, and said
it was problematic that Pakistan seems to be warning militants that U.S.
strikes are coming.
"According to the Army
Times, at least four mutually agreed upon targets, the Pakistani side has
alerted the target, and the target has cleared out," she said, again attributing
the information to open sources. "Put together, those are not hopeful signs."
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