Barack Obama and his national security team opted for the second option to attack Abbottabad
Washington:
Barack Obama said he ruled out involving Pakistan in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s hiding place because it was an “open secret” that certain elements of the Pakistani military, and in particular its services. intelligence, maintained ties with the Taliban and possibly even al-Qaeda, sometimes using them as strategic assets against Afghanistan and India.
Giving a detailed account of the Abbottabad raid by US commandos that killed the world‘s most wanted terrorist on May 2, 2011 in his latest book “A Promised Land”, the former US president said the operation top secret was opposed by then Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his former Vice President Joe Biden, now President-elect.
In the book that hit the galleries around the world on Tuesday, America’s first black president outlined the various options for killing bin Laden once it became increasingly clear that the elusive leader of al Qaeda was alive. in a safe hiding place on the outskirts of a Pakistani military cantonment in Abbottabad. .
“Based on what I had heard, I decided we had enough information to start developing options for an attack on the compound. While the CIA team continued to work on identifying the Pacer, I asked Tom Donilon and John Brennan to explore what a raid is. would look like, ”Obama wrote in his memoir.
The need for secrecy added to the challenge; if the slightest hint of our lead over Bin Laden leaked, we knew our opportunity would be lost. As a result, only a handful of people across the federal government were read into the planning phase of the operation, he said.
“We had another constraint: whatever option we chose, we couldn’t involve the Pakistanis,” he wrote.
Although the Pakistani government has cooperated with us in a series of counterterrorism operations and provided a vital supply route for our forces in Afghanistan, it was an open secret that some elements in the interior of the country’s military, and in particular its intelligence services, maintained ties with the Taliban and perhaps even al-Qaeda, sometimes using them as strategic assets to ensure that the Afghan government remains weak and unable to align with Pakistan’s main rival, India, ”Obama revealed.
“The fact that the Abbottabad compound is a few miles from the Pakistani military equivalent of West Point has only increased the possibility that anything we say to the Pakistanis could end up deflecting our target.
“Whatever we choose to do in Abbottabad, then, would involve violating the territory of a putative ally in the most blatant manner possible, unless the war raises both diplomatic issues and operational complexities,” he wrote.
In the final stages, they were discussing two options. The first was to demolish it with an air strike. The second option was to authorize a special operations mission, in which a selected team would secretly fly to Pakistan by helicopter, attack the compound, and exit before the Pakistani police or military had time to react. .
Despite all the risks involved, Obama and his national security team opted for the second option, but not before multiple rounds of talks and intensive planning.
The day before he gave final approval for the raid, in a situation room meeting Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State, said it was a 51-49 call.
“Gates recommended not to raid even though he was open to considering the option of strike,” he said.
Joe (Biden) also weighed in against the raid, saying that given the huge consequences of failure, I should postpone any decision until the intelligence community is more certain that bin Laden was in the compound.
“As had been the case with all of the important decisions I had made as President, I appreciated Joe’s willingness to turn the prevailing mood around and ask tough questions, often in the best interests of me. give the space I needed for my own internal deliberations, ”Obama wrote. .
After the successful Abbottabad raid, Obama made a number of domestic and international calls, the most difficult of which he expected to be the one with then-Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, a. -he writes.
“I expected my most difficult appeal to be with besieged Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who would surely face a backlash at home due to our violation of Pakistani sovereignty. fallout, ”he said,“ this is very good news ”.
“He showed real emotion, recalling how his wife, Benazir Bhutto, had been killed by extremists with suspected links to al-Qaeda,” Obama wrote.
“ Mike Mullen had called Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and although the conversation was polite, Kayani had requested that we be clear about the raid and its target as quickly as possible in order to help. his people to manage the reaction of the Pakistani public, ”he said.
Laden, the world‘s most wanted terrorist, was the al-Qaeda leader who carried out the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City, killing nearly 3,000 people. He was killed in a secret raid by a US Navy SEAL team at his Abbottabad compound in Pakistan.
