Pervez Musharraf

Pakistan's former president appeared on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°" on Monday evening, offering a curious, if not contradictory account of his views on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts in recent years. A key ally in the U.S. war on terror until his ouster in 2008, Musharraf said he’d always known that bin Laden was in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. That remark drew protests from host Anderson Cooper who insisted that Musharraf always denied that his country was harboring the terrorist.

“Anyone who said (bin Laden’s) in Pakistan also didn't have the intelligence (to prove it)," Musharraf said. “(Bin Laden being in Pakistan) was not based on any intelligence. It was guesswork."

Musharraf then blamed intelligence sources for the fact that bin Laden was in an urban area, so close to the Pakistan Military Academy and the capital of Islamabad - not in an Afghan cave, as many had speculated. Second-guessing Pakistan’s cooperation in the war on terror only destroys trust between Pakistan and the U.S., he said.

Musharraf finished the interview by saying that while eliminating bin Laden is a good thing for "peace-loving people," having the U.S. military enter Pakistan doesn’t go “with Pakistan's sensitivities.”

“We cannot indicate in any form that we are willing to compromise on our sovereignty like that,” he said.

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