Clinton shakes Pakistani leadership over al-Qaida hunt in the country!

ISLAMABAD - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham ClintonHillary Rodham Clinton chided Pakistani officials Thursday for failing to press the hunt for al-Qaida inside their borders, suggesting they know where the terrorist leaders are hiding.

American officials have long said that al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden and senior lieutenants of the network accused in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks operate out of the rugged terrain along the border with Afghanistan.

But Clinton's unusually blunt comments went further in asserting that Pakistan's government has done too little about it.

"I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to," Clinton said in an interview with Pakistani journalists in Lahore. "Maybe that's the case. Maybe they're not gettable. I don't know."

There was no immediate reaction from Pakistani officials, but the thrust of Clinton's comments were startling, coming after months of lavish public comments from her and other American officials portraying Pakistan's leaders as finally receptive to the war against militants inside their own country.

As a political spouse, career public official and recently as a diplomat, Clinton has long showed a tendency toward bluntness, sometimes followed by a softening of her comments. But her remarks about Pakistan's lack of action against al-Qaida comes at a particularly sensitive moment — amid a major Pakistani offensive against militants and a deadly spate of insurgent violence.

With Pakistan reeling from Wednesday's devastating bombing that killed more than 100 people in Peshawar, Clinton also engaged in an intense give-and-take with students at the Government College of Lahore. She insisted that inaction by the government would have ceded ground to terrorists.

"If you want to see your territory shrink, that's your choice," she said, adding that she believed it would be a bad choice.