WASHINGTON - The U.S. suspects that Pakistan retaliated for the
humiliating American 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 U.S.
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 veiled
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 U.S. 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 that 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 U.S. 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 that Pakistan suffered over the raid.
The
pre-dawn 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 U.S. 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 U.S.-Pakistani 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
