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Gates: No Proof, But 'Somebody' In Pakistan 'Had To Know' About Bin Laden

The discussion over who in Pakistan knew what about the fact that Osama bin Laden was living in a city north of Islamabad continues.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates had this to say to reporters earlier today:

"If the leadership doesn't know ... you know, I've done as much about accountability here as perhaps anybody, but I never fired anybody because they didn't know about a problem. I fired them because once they found out about a problem, they didn't take it seriously.

"So if the senior leadership in Pakistan didn't know, it's hard to hold them accountable for it. ...

"But we don't — I mean, the supposition is somebody [knew]. We don't know whether it was, you know, a retired — retired people, whether it was low-level. We — you have pure supposition on our part. ...

"So I just want to underscore, it's my supposition — I think it's a supposition shared by a number in this government — that somebody had ... to know, but we have no idea who, and we have no proof or no evidence."

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.