After Panetta,Gates repeats Pak terror link

The Pakistan intelligence breach has only fuelled unease in the US,where officials worry about links between the intelligence service there and some militant groups.

A US official said Monday that after telling Pakistani intelligence about the location of the two compounds,US drones and satellite feeds showed the militants clearing out the contents at both sites. We dont know the specifics of what happened, said Gates. There are suspicions and there are questions,but I think there was clearly disappointment on our part.

The official said the assumption was that the Pakistanis had tipped off the Haqqanis. Daniel Benjamin,the State Departments counterterrorism coordinator,said Tuesday that Osama bin Laden,killed in a US raid in garrison town of Abbottabad,obviously benefited from a support network in Pakistan.

Gates,suspicions come after CIA director Leon Panetta made similar observations on a trip to Pakistan last week. Panetta gave evidence that showed militants suddenly disappearing from the facilities used to make explosives after CIA passed intelligence to Pakistan.

Meanwhile,on Tuesday,the US Senate Armed Services Committee approved Panetta on Tuesday as the next Pentagon chief.