posted on May, 6 2011 @ 05:17 PM
How it went down:
The below was relayed to me by a friend who hails from Pakistan and grew up in Abottabad, where the Osama hit occurred, and who still has family in
the area, as well as in the Pakistan military. It is what it is.
• April 14 - Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) contacted the CIA regarding a house that was occupied by people of interest.
• April 20 – Delivery of unusual foods like salted meat and dates, popular in Yemen and Saudi Arabia to said house raised eyebrows further.
• The ISI then set up surveillance of the house with agents disguised as fruit vendors with the intent to monitor the compound until August.
• It is unclear how it was decided, but the US had the ISI stand down and allow three US military helicopters to be deployed to Abottabad via
Afghanistan locations which were not monitored by Pakistani radar.
• Being a secret operation, the Pakistan Air force (PAF) and the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) were not informed in advance.
• When the helicopters arrived at the house, they were witnessed from the ground by members of the PMA who promptly shot down one helicopter and
called for air support from the PAF.
• It is unclear from where the PAF fighters were scrambled, but I am told they were based 148 nautical miles away from Abottabad, which is a 5
minute trip for the JS17 fighters, which take 7 minutes to scramble; however when they arrived on the scene 12 minutes after the initial sighting and
shoot down, the remaining US helicopters were already on the way back, indicating the speed and precision of the operation.
• The ISI was not given access to the data allegedly captured at the site.
What it could mean:
Speculation from within the Pakistan military has it that aside from playing well with the home crowd, the Osama hit provided the US with the pretense
to escalate operations in NW Waziristan; based on the implication that the Pakistan military cannot be trusted.
But from Pakistan’s perspective, after 34,000 casualties and 68 billion dollars lost since 2004, and with the US applying more and more pressure on
the Pakistani military to tame the tribal areas in NW Waziristan, which shares a porous border with Afghanistan, Pakistan is just as much a
beneficiary of the OBL hit as Washington was.
The more pressure the Pakistani military applied to NW Waziristan, the higher the rate of retaliation, resulting in more unmanned drone attacks, more
casualties, etc; therefore, it is not in Pakistan’s best interest to pursue Washington’s interests in NW Waziristan; in fact, it is in
Pakistan’s best interest to let Washington do it themselves; especially if it could be presented that the Pakistani military didn’t assist with
the OBL operation, and actually shot down a helicopter and scrambled some jets in an effort to stop them.
Time will tell.