deaf exis . it s time to clear the air. and one of the most disturbing revelations over the last two days is that osama bin laden had been living close to a military training center and one of pakistan s biggest cities for something like six years and nobody appears to have noticed. the compound itself was about eight times the size of other houses in the area. and was protected by large walls and razor wire. clear signs that someone was protecting himself inside the property. this has raised the suspicion that pakistani authorities were even entirely incompetent or were involved with providing the terrorist with support systems that protected him from capture for almost a decade. now there are some who are saying that america s financial assistance to pakistan, which over the last 10 years amounts to well over $20 billion, should be slashed immediately and not reinstated until that nation s government can be trusted. but before we react too quickly,