WASHINGTON - The United States suspects Pakistan retaliated for
the humiliating U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden by allowing the
Chinese military to view the wreckage of a radar-evading helicopter
used in the mission.
Pakistan suggested it would do just that within days of the raid May
2 that prompted celebrations in the United States but anger and
embarrassment in Islamabad.
Three senior U.S. defense officials and a counterterrorism official
stressed Monday that while they suspect Pakistan probably followed
through on the threat, they have no evidence confirming it.
A Pakistan official denied any technology was shared with China.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, the
official added that Pakistan was aware the United States had bin
Laden’s compound and the helicopter wreckage under round-the-clock
surveillance after the raid, so it would know if foreign technical
experts had been allowed to examine it.
The stealth rotor technology was not that revolutionary, the
Pakistan official said, adding that the only value of the helicopter
was the lightweight metal used in its construction.
The helicopter was one of two modified Black Hawks defense experts
said evidently used radar-evading technologies plus noise- and
heat-suppression devices to slip across the Afghan-Pakistan border,
avoid detection by Pakistani air defenses and deliver two dozen Navy
SEALs into the hiding place of the al-Qaida leader.
One of the choppers crash-landed during the mission. Before leaving
with bin Laden’s corpse, commandos blew up the main body of the
chopper, apparently to keep secret its stealth components.
Photos of the wreckage with the tail still visible flashed around
the world, drawing immediate chatter among defense experts who noticed
it appeared to have previously undisclosed technology.
Pakistan eventually allowed the United States to retrieve the
wreckage. But before that, Pakistan allowed Chinese military engineers
to photograph it and to take samples of the chopper’s special “stealth”
skin, the international business newspaper Financial Times reported
Sunday.
Though U.S. officials said Monday that’s not a certainty, two of
them said they have assumed for some time that Pakistan showed off the
technology, given Chinese overtures to Pakistan at the time and the
intense anger and humiliation Pakistan suffered over the raid.
The predawn raid was viewed by many Pakistanis as a severe national
embarrassment delivered by a deeply unpopular America and purposely
kept secret from Pakistanis, who had repeatedly denied bin Laden was
hiding in their territory. Pakistan has called the operation in its
northern city of Abbottabad a violation of its sovereignty, and it
threatened to retaliate if there are any similar operations in future.
Two weeks after the raid, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani visited China. Though officials said it was planned well in
advance, it highlighted warm relations with Beijing at a time his
country’s relations with the United States had been thrown into crisis.
Pakistan recently acceded to a U.S. demand to give dozens of CIA
officers extended visas to operate for the next year in the
counterterrorism campaign inside Pakistan. The visas were a
confidence-building measure and issued in part to renew
counterterrorism efforts damaged by the raid.
The CIA for the first time revealed all the names of the operatives
to the Pakistanis as part of the visa agreement, a bid to salvage
intelligence relations damaged by the raid and by the earlier incident
with CIA security contractor Ray Davis. He was held after killing two
armed Pakistanis he claimed were trying to rob him. AP
