India: Amid the challenges, including the worry that Pakistan would mistake US operation for an attack by India, Obama lives up to his pledge

The Times of India

US feared Pak could mistake American raid to kill Osama bin Laden for India attack
By Chidanand Rajghatta

WASHINGTONl 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.

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