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Donilon, echoing comments by other administration officials, said the Pakistanis need to demonstrate persuasively their commitment to cooperating with the U.S. "We need to work with them to investigate what's happened, and how Osama bin Laden came to this place as his home for the last
-- for the last six years," Donilon told CNN's "State of the Union." Skeptical lawmakers in key posts will have to be convinced as well. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls the foreign operations budget, has proposed suspending direct government-to-government assistance to Pakistan. "My opposition to the program has only been heightened by the discovery of the most notorious terrorist in the world living hundreds of yards from a Pakistani military installation for more than five years," Granger wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "This reinforces my greater concern that the government may be incapable of distributing U.S. funds in a transparent manner that allows proper oversight of taxpayer dollars." Granger's spokesman, Matt Leffingwell, said Locke Lord representatives have not met with the congresswoman or her staff. Rep. Howard Berman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a letter to Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that he has "deep and ongoing concerns regarding the impact of U.S. security assistance to Pakistan
-- concerns that have been exacerbated by the discovery of Osama bin Laden's lair in Abbottabad." Berman's spokeswoman, Gabby Adler, said it "is our policy to not discuss the private meetings Mr. Berman and members of our staff take." Pakistan has supporters, however. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, underscored the complexity of the relationship during a committee hearing. More senior al-Qaida operatives have been caught or killed in Pakistan than in any other country, Kerry said, and keeping thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan "depends on an enormous supply train that requires the daily cooperation of the Pakistani state." But Kerry also expressed the views of many in Washington seeking answers, saying: "What did Pakistani's military and intelligence services know and when did they know it? Who did they think was living behind those 15-foot walls?" Frederick Jones, Kerry's spokesman, said a member of the committee staff met Thursday with a Locke Lord representative, but said the meeting had no bearing on Kerry's statements.
[Associated
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