Obama risked an Indo-Pak war.

[rkjindal91]

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US feared Pak could mistake American
raid to kill Osama bin Laden for India
attack May 3, 2011, 05.51pm IST TNN [ Chidanand Rajghatta ] WASHINGTON: US President
Obama and his national
security team spent hairy
moments in the White
House Situation Room on
Sunday worrying among other things that Pakistan
would mistake the Osama-
specific American
commando raid on
Abbottabad for an Indian
attack. In fact, a top US official disclosed in a
briefing on Monday that the Pakistanis
even scrambled their jets when they
realized something was afoot in
Abbottabad, but the US commandos
finished their operation in 40 minutes and were out of there before the
Pakistanis acted. ''The Pakistanis were reacting to an
incident that they knew was taking place
in Abbottabad. Therefore, they were
scrambling some of their assets,'' US
counterterrorism czar John Brennan
revealed while providing some operational details of the mission. It was
not clear if the ''assets'' Brennan referred
to included just fighter jets or other
options ranging from anti-aircraft fire to
missiles. Brennan disclosed that the US was
''concerned that if the Pakistanis decided
to scramble jets or whatever else... They
had no idea about who might have been
in there, whether it be US or somebody
else,'' in what was an implicit reference to India. ''So we were watching and
making sure that our people and our
aircraft were able to get out of Pakistani
airspace. And thankfully, there was no
engagement with Pakistani forces," he
added. Washington did not keep any country,
including India and much less Pakistan, in
the loop about the operation. Brennan also addressed one of the key
questions that arose from the episode:
Why didn’t the US use a Drone attack, as it does in Waziristan, instead of opting
for a more dangerous commando ingress
deep inside Pakistan and so close to its
capital? The answer it turns out is that President
Obama wanted to be absolutely sure it
was Osama bin Laden they were getting.
A Drone attack or a heavy duty bombing
raid would have reduced the compound to
rubble, but there would be no way of knowing if it was bin Laden who died in
the attack. Such a raid would also give
Pakistan a chance to cover up its tracks. Besides, Brennan said, the US had even
hoped to capture bin Laden alive if
possible. ''If we had the opportunity to
take bin Laden alive, if he didn’t present any threat, the individuals involved were
able and prepared to do that. We had
discussed that extensively in a number of
meetings in the White House and with
the President,'' Brennan said. ''The
concern was that bin Laden would oppose any type of capture operation. Indeed, he
did. He, therefore, was killed in that
firefight.'' While Brennan and other officials
provided some sketchy operational facts,
they chose to keep much of it under
wraps so as to not fully disclose American
capabilities. For instance, questions about
whether the US fully paralysed Pakistani air space during the nearly four-hour long
operation from the time of the helicopter
ingress into Pakistan to its safe exit,
remained unanswered. While US sources said the Navy Seals
team took off from Jalalabad in
Afghanistan, some 200 kms from
Abbottabad, the Pakistani media insisted
a team came from Ghazi Air Force Base
near the village of Tarbela Ghazi in Pakistan, where the US is said to
maintain a small team of special ops
trainers. Ghazi also serves as the main
logistics hub for US aid missions to
Pakistan. The Obama administration appears keen
on not letting it be known that it has
significant capabilities inside Pakistan
(which the Pakistani military and ISI is
now trying to whittle down), and not to
jeopardize its civilian outreach there, just as Islamabad is anxious not to let on that
it has given up operation discretion to the
Americans and its talk of sovereignty is
just lip service. It is possible that the US teams came
from both places with Seals from
Jalalabad being supported by CIA
operatives from Ghazi. The estimates for
what President Obama initially described
as a ''small team'' now ranges from 24 Navy Seals who took part in the actual
assault, to a larger estimate of 79,
including those who provided the
logistical support and air cover. However one dices the operation, it was a
daring ingress deep inside Pakistan that
made mockery of its military’s pledge that it will not tolerate foreign operations
inside its territory even as it restored
American pride in its capabiliteis. As for President Obama, the US, White
House spokesman Jay Carney prefaced
Brennan’s briefing by reading his (Obama’s) campaign promise: ''If we have actionable intelligence about high-value
terrorist targets and President Musharraf
won't act, we will. We must make it clear
that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we
will take out high-level terrorist targets
like bin Laden if we have them in our sights.'' He lived up to his pledge.

[GORKHALI]

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