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Facts
This is misleading.
President Trump's tweet on Monday continued his weekend attacks against Pakistan and William H. McRaven, a retired naval admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.
Mr. McRaven described in 2017 the President's attacks on the news media as "the biggest threat of my life to democracy". This weekend, when asked about this comment in an interview for "Fox News Sunday," Trump called Mr. McRaven is a "supporter of Hillary Clinton." He also lamented that the former Special Operations commander did not demolish Bin Laden earlier, adding that "everyone in Pakistan knew that he was there."
A few hours later, Mr. McRaven said that he did not support Mrs. Clinton or whoever in the 2016 election reiterated his previous comment about Mr. Trump's attacks on the press. And on Monday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan described Trump's remarks as "tirade" inaccurate and Pakistan's participation in the war on terror – and the economic and human losses he had suffered.
Mr. Trump's assertion that he issued a presumptuous warning about Bin Laden is hyperbolic. His book, "The America We Deserve," published in January 2000, contains a reference to Bin Laden on 304 pages:
"One day, we are all assured that Iraq is under control, the US inspectors have done their job, everything is fine, do not worry. The next day, the bombing begins. One day we are told that a mysterious character with no fixed address, called Osama bin Laden, is the number one public enemy, and that American jet fighters are devastating his camp in Afghanistan. He escapes under a rock and, a few cycles later, he faces a new enemy and a new crisis.
Mr. Trump continued:
Dealing with many different countries at once may require many different strategies. But there is no excuse for the random nature of our foreign policy. We do not have to reinvent the wheel for every new conflict. "
This ephemeral mention of Bin Laden was not really ahead of his time.
The Qaeda leader had for years been associated with many terrorist plots and was considered one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. As Mr. Trump noted in his tweet and book, bin Laden was the target of an unsuccessful missile strike in 1998. CNN reported in 1999 that US officials feared that bin Laden is planning a attack against the United States. States; He was named as a co-conspirator not charged in the bombing of US destroyer Cole in Yemen who killed 17 US soldiers a year later.
Whether or not the Pakistani government knew that bin Laden was there was disputed. Senior Pakistani officials have denied it. But some US officials and analysts have been much more skeptical.
"It is inconceivable that Bin Laden does not have a support system in the country allowing him to stay there for a long time," said John O. Brennan, Supreme Advisor to President Barack Obama at the fight against terrorism, said at a press conference the 2011 raid that killed the Qaeda leader.
An information from the Pakistani government, leaked in 2013, revealed that the country had not caught bin Laden because of "collective incompetence and negligence". But he noted that the possibility that some officials have helped bin Laden "can not be totally ruled out".
Pakistan was one of the largest recipients of US foreign aid in the years following the 9/11 attacks, with more than $ 20 billion in almost 15 years. It will receive more than $ 335 million in foreign assistance in fiscal 2019 and more than $ 337 million in fiscal 2018. year.
The Trump administration froze almost all the security help in Pakistan in January.
Sources: "Fox News Sunday," "The America We Deserve," CNN, The Guardian, Congressional Research Service, The New York Times, ForeignAssistance.gov.
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