On May 2, U.S. Navy Seals raided a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 2001 terror attacks. While Americans hailed the Al Qaeda leader's death, some Pakistanis and Americans, including members of Congress, saw it as yet another betrayal in the rocky alliance between the two nations. Pakistanis considered the U.S. raid as a clear violation of their country's sovereignty; Americans say that bin Laden's ability to take refuge in a major Pakistani city -- perhaps for as long as five years -- reflected the country's duplicity. Some in Congress have called for ending aid to Pakistan -- nearly $5 billion in fiscal 2010 -- on the grounds that Pakistan has undermined the U.S. fight against terrorism; But others warn that halting aid could push nuclear-armed Pakistan further into chaos, thus opening a power vacuum that militants could fill.

Marcia Clemmitt is a veteran social-policy reporter who joined CQ Researcher after serving as editor in chief of Medicine and Health, a Washington-based industry newsletter, and staff writer for The Scientist. She has also been a high school math and physics teacher. She holds a bachelor's degree in arts and sciences from St. Johns College, Annapolis, and a masters degree in English from Georgetown University.