The well-reputed diplomat had succeeded Richard Holbrooke as the Obama administration’s point man for the two troubled countries. Ten days earlier US Special Forces had killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, a Pakistani garrison town that was home to the Pakistan Military Academy. In response, a wave of anger directed at the Americans swept over Pakistan. The view in Islamabad was that the United States had violated Pakistani sovereignty. As an ally, Pakistanis thought, the United States should have conducted the Abbottabad raid jointly with Pakistani troops. Grossman spoke softly, as he always did, but his message was unmistakably tough. He was in Islamabad soon after the bin Laden raid and found the atmosphere there “surrealistic.” He said that explaining to Americans how the world’s most wanted terrorist could be hiding in as important a city as Abbottabad was difficult. According to Grossman, “Some forces in Pakistan” were still not willing to confront the fact that bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan.
