Today, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani formally denied his government had harbored Osama bin Laden.

Gilani said, “It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan, or any state institution, including the ISI, for being in cahoots with al-Qaeda.”

Well, it’s not like Gilani was going to stand up in the Pakistan National Assembly and say, “Yeah, you got us. We were hiding him all along.”

But let me raise this point. It is believed that bin Laden had been at the compound for five to six years. Gilani and President Zardari didn’t take office until 2008. Pervez Musharraf was both Pakistan’s President and Chief of Army Staff at the time bin Laden took refuge. Given the dictatorial power Musharraf possessed and given the proximity of the bin Laden compound to the Pakistan Military Academy, it is difficult to imagine how he did not know bin Laden was alive, well and living in Abbottabad.