U.S. intelligence officials were said to be “moving with great dispatch” to study documents and information contained on DVDs and hard drives confiscated from the compound in Pakistan that sheltered al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Perhaps those and other items removed from the compound by U.S. Navy SEALS who carried out the successful operation against bin Laden might not only provide valuable direction about al-Qaida’s remaining leadership. Perhaps they also might provide evidence as to whether any high-ranking officials in the Pakistani government or inside that country’s security apparatus might have been in collusion with al-Qaida in providing bin Laden a safe, comfortable place to hide.

Photos of the compound raise the issue of how such a facility could have existed in a city with a strong Pakistani military presence without raising concerns.

It’s hard to fathom that no one in the Pakistani power structure had no knowledge or suspicions that it might be bin Laden who was in their midst. It had been rumored for years that bin Laden was hiding somewhere in that country.

Even the sometimes uncertain stability of the Pakistani government should have been the basis for arousing suspicions, even if no official or member of the country’s security apparatus was complicit in terms of ensuring safe passage by bin Laden to the compound.

As yet, the situation, based on what news reports have revealed about bin Laden’s existence in the years leading up to his death, doesn’t fully square with the denial by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that his country’s security forces — and maybe officials more important — might have had a role in sheltering bin Laden. Suspicions within Congress about a Pakistan government connection cannot be brushed aside.

Amid all of this, if the information gathered from the bin Laden compound leads U.S. intelligence officials to the hiding place of bin Laden’s right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, the U.S. should move to exact swift justice against him. Like bin Laden, Zawahri was a key planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in this country.

Pakistani leaders have good cause for embarrassment over the finding of bin Laden not at some remote hide-out but in a populated area in a facility about which they should have been knowledgeable.

Americans should watch for developments in Pakistan in the days ahead and how its leaders further deal with the facts that Sunday’s operation uncovered.