The White House says President Barack Obama will visit the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency Friday to thank employees for their work in tracking Osama bin Laden.
Mr. Obama's trip to the CIA complex outside Washington in Langley, Virginia, comes more than two weeks after U.S. Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaida leader in a raid on his compound in Pakistan.
President Obama said Wednesday that every American can be proud of the "brave" military and intelligence personnel who he said made sure that bin Laden will never threaten the U.S. again.
Delivering the commencement address to this year's graduates of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, Mr. Obama said the hard work of protecting the United States goes on, and vowed never to waver in defense of the country.
Earlier this month, President Obama personally thanked some of the military personnel involved in the bin Laden raid during a visit to Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
The discovery of bin Laden in the Pakistani military town of Abbottabad has raised questions about whether he was being hidden by accomplices in Pakistan’s military or intelligence service.
U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein and several other Democratic senators have urged the Obama administration to assess Pakistan's commitment to combating terrorist groups before providing Pakistan with more security aid.
The lawmakers expressed their concern Tuesday in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
They said finding bin Laden in a military town less than 64 kilometers from the Pakistani capital "indicates, at a minimum, a lack of commitment by the Pakistani military to aggressive cooperation with the United States."
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has called allegations of Pakistani incompetence or complicity in hiding bin Laden "absurd."
Pakistan received a total of $2.7 billion in security-related assistance from the United States in the fiscal year that ended last October. It is the third-largest recipient of U.S. security aid and reimbursements after Afghanistan and Israel.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
