. whether or not its politically useful (for Americans) to admit openly but Pakistani military is pro American and is independent of our alleged "Iron brotherhood" with the CCP.
we handed it over promptly because we were unofficially onboard but begged Americans not to make it public. the American Chinook that came for relief came all the way to a Pakistani base near our capital to take the rest of the things back that couldn't be packed up in the surviving Black Hawk.
the Navy SEALs blew up the downed Blackhawk as an SOP but even if they didn't it would've been returned back. despite some misgivings and distrust we continue to work together, if you know Michael Scheuer (CIA) you might have come across his views about ISI, Gen Musharraf and the Pak military.
this relationship is justified, fast forward few years later the American resident "guests" at a particular Pakistani airforce base (holding the F-16 block 52 ) brought sweets with broad smiles on their faces when their American made F-16 downed the Russian top of the line fighter jet dubbed "Raptor of the East" by your new found chums
as those AMRAAMS came handy to deflate the inflated Vegetarian balloon.
the Chinook story is conveniently forgotten to ensure that the story holds about Pakistani leadership ignorance. but still that didn't help since the Pakistani Taliban took revenge on Pakistan (for its involvement in this operation) by killing 100+ Pakistanis almost every day for over a year including attacks on Pakistani military bases.
easy now. don't feel so butt hurt for Imran Khan. he is sorted and will make a deal with establishment through President or the electables still in his party.
Hmm....I would have thought that gotta have some political or military bargain chip for Pakistan, or at least China will pressure Pakistan to have them take a look before handing it back. I mean if this chopper went down in the UK, they would have us jump thru hoops before we get them back....
From the operational stand point, people know how this work will know this operation had not crew in the Pakistani because if they are, OPSEC aside (which dictate they told nobody but NTK people) the use of stealth chopper mean they need to get in and out undetected. Most of the time if they do direct action oversea, they will still notify the host at the last minute, they would have just use normal chinook or blackhawk for this, using stealth means they don't want anyone, like ANYONE to know. So it's illogical to inform the Pakistani if they are also using stealth. Whether or not is it because of OPSEC issue or other issue, I am not going to guess because I don't know.
Judging from what you and the other Pakistani said and my personal experience dealing with Pakistani and ISI, I think the situation is more or less like Philippine. The administration doesn't like us but the military really depends on the working relationship with the US military, when I was in Afghanistan, whenever we met with Pakistani official, they are always more accommodating than the others, but they don't want people to see them with us. One time I was asked to put on Civilian clothes because they said the area wasn't too keen on seeing American.
I do know Michael Scheuer is, and his view on ISI . Well, I can tell you this, if you are in intel, your hands are
ALWAYS dirty. Intelligence unit unlike normal regular unit, you don't really have a clear goal, nobody will tell you what to do, and you have to get there yourself, but with that, you also wasn't bound by any rules. Which mean you are more likely to play dirty to get to where you want to get to. For example, people ask me was Abu Ghraib real? Or do we really torture these people. Even people served or serving in the military ask me this. Because they really don't know how that side of intel works. Abu Ghraib is not normal, because they amplified what we do in term of field craft, if that camp was run by CIA or DIA operative instead of power-hungry MPs. Things are going to be a bit different. Abu Ghraib is a bunch of sick people enjoy torturing people because they do and simply, they can. That said, what they do is the SOP before we talk to the prisoner, Like put them in a stress position, or psychological "Enhancement" (ie playing Metal Music loud) or Sleep deprivation, those are all standard playbook for a CIA station technique. They just don't do it to them naked or have them acted sexually, that have no value at all other than humiliate the subject.
On the other hand, while I cannot tell you how this work, but politically, CIA operation don't just depends on one person, There is a group of people have numerous meeting to decide what to do in regard to an entire area. That group of people would have all sort of view on them, some would have close to Scheuer view, some would have opposite, and some will have more or less neutral. That's how operation was dictated. Let's just leave it at that.
