did the americans in actuality (not the carpfest this thing was) order the pakistani jets away or be fired upon - in pakistani airspace? that would be an undeniable act of war right? possibly enough causing enough illwill to allow the pakistanis to openly help al.q
shareI doubt there was a fire-upon threat, but there is a source where Pakistani jets DID fly over to Abbottabad:
"The Pakistani Air Force "scrambled its jets within minutes" after receiving reports of helicopters over Abbottabad, as was confirmed by US counterterrorism chief John Brennan. But the Pakistani statement did not explain why Pakistani jets did not intercept and engage the helicopters, which were on station over bin Laden's mansion for 40 minutes."
Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2011/05/pakistan_expresses_d.php#ixzz2CcdpTNQt
well the pakistani leaders are pertty much in american pockets... they would not have done anything if the jets were scrambled... it is their intelligence agency aka ISI which americans think is slightly against american interests in the area and might or does support terrorists in the area to achieve that target...
Look inside yourself and understand the universe
there hasn't been any hard reporting on this issue and nothing has been released... but they were on the ground a total of about 30 minutes... it's unlikely that:
- people reported it to police
- police recognized it was a military action and reported it to the military
- the military chain of command digested the info and issued a scramble order
- the F16s were manned, started, checked, taxied, took off
- then flew approximately 15 minutes to Abottabad
- made the decision to attack
- were warned off by the US military
all within 30 minutes
more likely as soon as the operation was discovered, the US either a- warned Pakistan not to intervene and their govt never released that info to avoid looking weak or b- air cover warned approaching jets ....
it's highly likely there was some type of air cover for the helos... and because they stealthed the whole op... it was probably F-22s and one day years from now it will become public that this was one of the first F-22 operational actions
The Pakistani jets were 500 miles away when they were "scrambled." That's roughly an hour flight to the scene. They were older, F-16's as well, with pilots who had no real experience flying at night, and certainly not flying at night looking for a helicopter or three. That would have been like finding a needle in a haystack.
Air Force General Brad Webb (who can be seen in the popular White House photo during the raid) was an accomplished aviator, and he said that even the best American pilots would have had a hard time finding those helicopters, and certainly wouldn't have been able to do it before they made it back to Afghanistan airspace.
There was, it appears, little to no threat of being intercepted by Pakistani fighters.
Finally! Someone said something meaningful! Good post, Spartan_10!