Senator Feinstein releases info about bin Laden operation, says Pakistan is 'ground zero for terrorism'

The chair of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee says it was “very gutsy” of President Obama to go after Osama bin Laden.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California says “impressive” intelligence work – not interrogations of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay prison – led to the discovery of the bin Laden compound.

Feinstein wants to know what Pakistan knew about bin Laden's presence in the country. "It does cause one to question how this kind of facility which stood out, was close by a military academy, could exist for the length of time it did exist. And we now know bin Laden was there up to six years."

Feinstein wants to know whether it was "just benign indifference or was it indifference with a motive?"

Feinstein calls Pakistan “ground zero for terrorism." The Democrat says Pakistan has gone after some terrorists even as it's offered protection to a network that's closely tied to the Taliban.

But Feinstein says it’s premature to cut aid to that country. She says humanitarian assistance to Pakistan is more important than military aid, but cutting off all dollars would leave a void that a country like China might fill.

Feinstein says the fact that Pakistan belongs to the nuclear weapons club complicates its relationship with the United States.

She’ll get more information about Pakistan at an intelligence briefing tomorrow.

Senator Feinstein says to best of her knowledge, “harsh interrogation practices” did not get detainees in US custody to identify the courier that led the US to bin Laden’s Pakistan headquarters. Instead, she credits a change under the Obama administration in the way information is analyzed, something she calls “red teaming.” She says that means they "looked for reasons why what they had as a piece of intelligence might not be accurate. Or might indicate something else. And that’s a very good process. It’s a solid process because it exposes weaknesses in the intelligence."

Intelligence operatives used water-boarding and other rough tactics to get information from some detainees. Feinstein says “nothing justifies” that kind of interrogation.