Obama ponders OBL final moments

Clinton: Pak knew location

Five years after US special forces killed Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama says he hopes that in his last moments the terror mastermind realised Americans had not forgotten about 9/11.

In an interview with CNN broadcast on Monday, Mr Obama marked the anniversary of what many see as one of his presidency’s greatest achievements: ending the long hunt for the illusive Saudi-born Al Qaeda boss. US special forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.

“Hopefully, at that moment, he understood that the American people hadn’t forgotten the some 3,000 people who he killed,” Mr Obama said.

Mr Obama discussed his decision to carry out the raid despite imperfect intelligence.

“It was clear to me that this was going to be our best chance to get bin Laden,” Mr Obama said.

“If in fact we did not take the action, that he might slip away and (it) might be years before he resurfaced.

“We knew it was going to cause some significant blowback within Pakistan and if it wasn’t bin Laden, the costs would outweigh the benefits,” the President continued. “Having weighed all that, I thought about the 9/11 families and their continuing pain and sense that it was important for us to bring him to justice.”

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton said senior Pakistani leadership knew that Bin Laden was hiding at a compound in Abbottabad but US has not been able to get any proof of it so far. In an interview to the CNN broadcast Sunday, she said it was “just too much of a coincidence... That unusual-looking house would be built in that community near the military academy, surrounded by retired military professionals even though we could not prove it.

Former CIA director Leon Panetta said Mr Obama had decided the US would go alone in the raid that killed Osama because Pakistan’s trustworthiness was questionable due to its “close relationship” with various terrorist networks. “Pakistan was difficult because they had a close relationship to various terrorist networks, and you were never quite sure just exactly where their loyalties would lie,” he said.