[American officials say the widows, as well as a review of the trove of documents and other data the Seals team collected from the raid, could reveal important details, not only about Bin Laden’s life and activities since he fled into Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2001, but also information about Qaeda plots, personnel and planning.]
By Eric Schmitt, Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger
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| L E Paneta |
WASHINGTON — President Obama insisted that the assault force hunting down Osama bin Laden last week be large enough to fight its way out of Pakistan if confronted by hostile local police officers and troops, senior administration and military officials said Monday.
In revealing additional details about planning for the mission, senior officials also said that two teams of specialists were on standby: One to bury Bin Laden if he was killed, and a second composed of lawyers, interrogators and translators in case he was captured alive. That team was set to meet aboard a Navy ship, mostly likely the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea.
Mr. Obama’s decision to increase the size of the force sent into Pakistan shows that he was willing to risk a military confrontation with a close ally in order to capture or kill the leader of Al Qaeda.
Such a fight would have set off an even larger breach with the Pakistanis than has taken place since officials in Islamabad learned that helicopters filled with members of a Navy Seals team had flown undetected into one of their cities, and burst into a compound where Bin Laden was hiding.
One senior Obama administration official, pressed on the rules of engagement for one of the riskiest clandestine operations attempted by the C.I.A. and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command in many years, said: “Their instructions were to avoid any confrontation if at all possible. But if they had to return fire to get out, they were authorized to do it.”
The planning also illustrates how little the administration trusted the Pakistanis as they set up their operation. They also rejected a proposal to bring the Pakistanis in on the mission.
Under the original plan, two assault helicopters were going to stay on the Afghanistan side of the border waiting for a call if they were needed. But the aircraft would have been about 90 minutes away from the Bin Laden compound.
About 10 days before the raid, Mr. Obama reviewed the plans and pressed his commanders as to whether they were taking along enough forces to fight their way out if the Pakistanis arrived on the scene and tried to interfere with the operation.
That resulted in the decision to send two more helicopters carrying additional troops. These followed the two lead Black Hawk helicopters that carried the actual assault team. While there was no confrontation with the Pakistanis, one of those backup helicopters was ultimately brought in to the scene of the raid when a Black Hawk was damaged while making a hard landing.
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| Lt. Gen. A S Pasha |
“Some people may have assumed we could talk our way out of a jam, but given our difficult relationship with Pakistan right now, the president did not want to leave anything to chance,” said one senior administration official, who like others would not be quoted by name describing details of the secret mission. “He wanted extra forces if they were necessary.”
With tensions between the United States and Pakistan escalating since the raid, American officials on Monday sought to tamp down the divisions and pointed to some encouraging developments.
A United States official said that American investigators would soon be allowed to interview Bin Laden’s three widows, now being held by Pakistani authorities, a demand that Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, made on television talk shows on Sunday.
American officials say the widows, as well as a review of the trove of documents and other data the Seals team collected from the raid, could reveal important details, not only about Bin Laden’s life and activities since he fled into Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2001, but also information about Qaeda plots, personnel and planning.
“We believe that it is very important to maintain the cooperative relationship with Pakistan precisely because it’s in our national security interest to do so,” said the White House spokesman, Jay Carney.
In an effort to help mend the latest rupture in relations, the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, will meet soon with his counterpart, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, “to discuss the way forward in the common fight against Al Qaeda,” an American official said.
On Sunday, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. “Mullen just wanted to check in with him,” said an American military official. “The conversation was civil, but sober, given the pressure that the general is under right now.”
In describing the mission, the officials said that American surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft were watching and listening to how Pakistan’s police forces and military responded to the raid. That determined how long the commandos could safely remain on the ground going through the compound collecting computer hard drives, thumb drives and documents.
American forces were under strict orders to avoid engaging with any Pakistani forces that responded to the commotion at the Bin Laden compound, senior administration officials said.
If a confrontation appeared imminent, there were contingency plans for senior American officials, including Admiral Mullen, to call their Pakistani counterparts to avert an armed clash.
But when he reviewed the plans, Mr. Obama voiced concern that this was not enough to protect the troops on the mission, administration officials said.
In planning for the possible capture of Bin Laden, officials decided they would take him aboard a Navy ship to preclude battles over jurisdiction.
The plan, officials said, was to do an initial interrogation for any information that might prevent a pending attack or identify the location of other Qaeda leaders.
“There was a heck of a lot of planning that went into this for almost any and all contingencies, including capture,” one senior administration official said.
In the end, the team organized to handle his death was called into duty. They did a quick forensics study of the body, washed it, and buried it at sea.
But the officials acknowledged that the mission always was weighted toward killing, given the possibility that Bin Laden would be armed or wearing an explosive vest.
This article is by Eric Schmitt, Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger.
Region in Revolt
DEATHS AND INJURIES REPORTED IN YEMENI PROTEST MARCH
[At least two other protesters were shot fatally over the weekend in Taiz, in the southwestern highlands, and one in the western port city Hodeidah, local doctors said. More than 130 protesters have been killed since the uprising began, according to Amnesty International.]
By Laura Kasinof
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| Antigovernment demonstrators blocked a road in Taiz, Yemen, after security forces began shooting at them, witnesses said. |
Protesters said that a large march was headed toward the municipal education offices in the center of the city when it came under fire. A doctor at a field hospital said that 88 others were wounded by gunshots, 13 remaining in critical condition.
At least two other protesters were shot fatally over the weekend in Taiz, in the southwestern highlands, and one in the western port city Hodeidah, local doctors said. More than 130 protesters have been killed since the uprising began, according to Amnesty International.
As the toll for demonstrators has risen, so have fears that they would become violent themselves; Yemen’s civilian population is one of the most heavily armed in the world. But during the three months of unrest, they have remained largely peaceful. In a few recent cases, however, protesters reportedly threw incendiary devices at security forces, a sign that at least some have begun resorting to violence when under attack.
YouTube videos posted from Taiz on Monday show stores shuttered along long stretches of the road in the center of the city that turned into a battleground between security forces and protesters. Residents said they heard gunshots starting at 6 a.m. that endured into the afternoon.
Ali al-Mamari, a Taiz resident and a Parliament member who resigned from the ruling party over violence used against protesters, called the situation in Taiz “tragic and dangerous.” Mr. Mamari said that Republican Guards — the division of the military commanded by Mr. Saleh’s son Ahmed — were “still chasing young activists in the streets” and “shooting randomly at houses.”
The unrest in Taiz, home to Yemen’s largest demonstrations, is emblematic of a larger breakdown in the country as stability decreases the longer the political crisis drags on.
The lack of control of the central state before the political crisis was a major reason that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni affiliate of the international terrorist network, was able to set up a base in the unruly countryside. The current chaos is therefore of particular concern to the United States.
American officials said last week that an American drone strike in Yemen last Thursday had failed to kill its target, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni cleric who is a popular propagandist for jihadis around the world. Mr. Awlaki is believed to be hiding out in the area of the strike, in the restive Shabwa Province in Yemen’s southeast.
News of the strike was largely drowned out by the political crisis. More than two weeks ago, Mr. Saleh said he agreed to a plan for him to step down brokered by Persian Gulf states. But he and the opposition have bickered over many details, including Mr. Saleh’s proper title and who from the large opposition coalition would be the signatories.
Sidelined by the political maneuvering between Mr. Saleh and the organized political opposition, young protesters in the capital, Sana, bolstered by thousands of tribesmen, have vowed to start an “escalation of activity,” according to a statement released online by one of the prominent student-led organizations. The young protesters “invite everyone to participate tomorrow in a march of millions through the streets of the capital,” the statement read.
