U.S. and Pakistan Try to Ease Tensions

U.S. and Pakistani governments sent conflicting signals about their increasingly rocky ties Tuesday, as each sought to minimize mounting domestic backlashes two days after Navy commandos killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.

The White House on Tuesday affirmed its partnership with Pakistan, moving to contain tensions it fears will jeopardize billions of dollars of American aid to Islamabad and a relationship with a Pakistani government still seen as vital in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

Washington's official embrace of Islamabad came as leading U.S. lawmakers said Congress will review, and potentially suspend, $1.5 billion in annual assistance to Pakistan. That could happen, they say, if its government can't explain how the man who headed the group that launched attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, managed to live unmolested, apparently for years, just 40 miles from Pakistan's capital.

U.S. officials have posed similar questions. "Either they're involved or incompetent," Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta told lawmakers in a classified briefing on Tuesday when asked about possible Pakistani involvement, according to officials briefed on the exchange.

Islamabad, meanwhile, hardened its position against the U.S. raid that killed the al Qaeda leader deep inside Pakistan without giving warning or seeking permission. Pakistan's foreign ministry expressed "concerns and reservations" about Washington's decision. "This event of unauthorized unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule," it said in a statement.