CIA to get access to bin Laden house

WASHINGTON — The CIA will get the opportunity to further search the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden lived before he was killed by Navy SEALs, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Thursday. The CIA will look for fingerprints and other clues.

It’s part of confidence-building measures to restore trust between the U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies. Pakistan agreed to the search after a meeting between Pakistani intelligence chief Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha and CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell last week in Islamabad, a Pakistani official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

Relations between the two spy agencies were already fractious prior to the May 2 bin Laden raid, which came after the arrest and detention of CIA security contractor Raymond Davis in January. Davis had shot and killed two Pakistanis he said were trying to rob him. The CIA initially denied Davis was its employee, saying he was a diplomat.

The Pakistani intelligence service helped secure his release, but the day after his departure, the CIA launched a drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal areas that the Pakistanis say killed more than two dozen civilians. Another drone strike followed a high-level summit between CIA director Leon Panetta and Pakistani chief Pasha.

The bin Laden compound is in the northwest Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. It includes a three-story house where the al-Qaida chief is believed to have lived for at least five years.

It was not clear exactly when the CIA would visit the facility.