Pakistanis may have shown Chinese downed US stealth copter
Pakistani army soldiers a crashed helicopter near the hideout of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after a ground operation by a U.S. Special Forces SEAL team in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011.
Pakistan's intelligence service probably allowed Chinese military engineers to examine the wreckage of the American Black Hawk "stealth" copter that crashed during the SEAL raid that targeted Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.
Despite a CIA request that no third country would be allowed to inspect wreckage of the helicopter, U.S. spy agencies have reportedly concluded that it is likely that Chinese engineers took detailed photographs of the aircraft's severed tail section, equipped with classified technology designed to elude radar.
An unnamed U.S. intelligence source told the Financial Times the engineers were even allowed to take a sample of the modified Black Hawk's stealth "skin" to examine further.
The a U.S. Special Forces SEAL team that conducted the raid had tried to destroy the helicopter after it crashed at bin Laden's compound, but the tail section remained largely intact.
American officials and others familiar with the classified intelligence assessments cautioned that they did not yet have definitive proof that the Chinese were allowed to visit Abbottabad before the tail section was shipped back to the U.S., the New York Times reports.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and Pak Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani denied the reports, RTT News reports.
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