ISLAMABAD – Chinese intelligence has been given access to a secret US helicopter which crashed during the raid in Pakistan in which Osama bin Laden was killed, the Financial Timesreported yesterday.
Pakistan gave China access to the previously unknown “stealth” helicopter despite explicit CIA requests not to, it reported.
The news, if confirmed, is likely to further shake the US-Pakistan relationship, which has been improving after hitting its lowest point in decades after the May raid.
During the raid, one of two modified Blackhawk helicopters, believed to employ unknown stealth capability, malfunctioned and crashed, forcing its abandonment. “The US now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad,” the paper quoted a person “in intelligence circles” as saying. Pakistan allowed Chinese intelligence officials take pictures of the aircraft and take samples of its special “skin” that allowed the US raid to evade Pakistani radar, the paper said. – (Reuters)