Navy SEALs Were Ready if Pakistan Failed to Free Family Held as Hostages

[ziaulislam]

There are about 2000 border posts now right on the border, which means that helicopters attempting to penetrate are very likely to be detected. Not the case in 2011.

Also unlike 2011, the area was near a big airbase (two actually) which means it already has RADAR coverage on approaches.

lets not kid our self, even civilians knew about the US helicopters and army dint know...if they didn't than they should be fired whats the point if you cant here a helicopter buzzing from 10s of miles near your army base

military and civilian leadership was simply bribed, it didn't happen this time as bribes are off, so military wanted to please usa to get the bribe running again

ask your thousands of posts to detect a drone and shot it down

sow e can detect an iraninan drone and shoot it down but we cant detect a US drone?, even tali were better in detecting foreign drones

 

[tarrar]

I have only one thing to say "BULLSH!T"

 

[Dr Shaheryar]

Taliban would have kicked their asses in Afghanistan like they always do, that is why Pakistan was involved to do the operation. Osama case was different in the sense that Obama was to be re elected for President and he had to had some credible event behind him to be re elected. Therefore Pakistan was asked to cooperate and they were rewarded accordingly.

 

[gambit]

Yes...Absolutely. US Navy SEALs are a bunch of incompetent rednecks. Even the lowliest of Pakistan's army recruit is better than the entirety of the SEALs.

 

[Arsalan]

and monkeys can fly!

 

[El_Swordsmen]

Navy SEALs Were Ready if Pakistan Failed to Free Family Held as Hostages

• 
  
• operation that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, conducted by the same elite Navy SEAL commandos well into Pakistan without its government’s knowledge. And a failure to act would underscore American officials’ belief that the Pakistani government gives safe haven to the Taliban-linked Haqqani network that had kidnapped the family.
  
  
  Pakistani officials said they acted within hours. With assistance from American intelligence, they located the vehicle and rescued the family last week in a dramatic confrontation with its captors. Inside the car were Caitlan Coleman, 31; Joshua Boyle, 34, her Canadian husband; and their three children.
  
  
  The rescue ended an intensive effort by American intelligence officials to locate the couple — who had been taken hostage in October 2012 — and their children. When she and Mr. Boyle were kidnapped, Ms. Coleman was seven months pregnant; she gave birth four times in captivity.
  
  The C.I.A. declined to comment. Trump administration officials cast the rescue as a win for Pakistan without publicly acknowledging that officials there had to be pressured into conducting the operation.
  
  “This is a positive moment for our country’s relationship with Pakistan,” President Trump said in a statement.
  
  Efforts to free the family had stalled repeatedly, and the family’s time as hostages was harsh. Mr. Boyle has said that his wife was raped and that the Taliban killed one of their children shortly after birth, an allegation the militants have denied.
  
  In January 2016, the United States thought a deal had been struck with the Haqqanis, with help from Qatar, to release hostages. The F.B.I. and Army Rangers picked up Colin Rutherford, a Canadian being held by the Haqqanis, and American officials were hopeful that Ms. Coleman and her family might be next.
  
  
  But the Haqqanis freed no one else. American officials said communications with the Haqqani network had gotten garbled, causing confusion, and the death of the leader of the Taliban, killed by a United States drone strike last year, also set back efforts to rescue the hostages. The diapers that F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan had bought for Ms. Coleman’s children would go unused.
  
  Not only were hostages kept in captivity, the militants were also not done kidnapping. In August 2016, they seized an Australian, Timothy Weeks, and an American, Kevin King, 61, both teachers at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul. Navy SEALs launched a rescue operation but came up empty; a tip about where the men were being held turned out to be outdated.
  
  
  But last month, the American intelligence community caught a break. The C.I.A. had positioned the drone over a Haqqani encampment in the Kurram Valley, a region near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. It spotted the woman believed to be Ms. Coleman among the armed fighters.
  
  The commandos of SEAL Team 6, tapped to rescue the family, started rehearsing. The raid was to take place not far from where the C.I.A. had originally spotted the family, according to one military official.
  
  But the risky operation planned on Pakistani soil was called off because some in the United States government were not certain that the people spotted by the drones were Ms. Coleman, Mr. Boyle and their children, according to the officials. Others voiced worries about the difficult terrain and the moon — it was too bright for a nighttime airborne raid.
  
  Why the Haqqanis decided to move the family is not clear. But on Oct. 11, as they headed toward Kohat, a city farther inside Pakistan, American intelligence officials realized they could not let the opportunity to save the family slip by — the United States had to act.
  
  American officials formed a plan to press the Pakistani government. Mr. Trump was briefed, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson both backed the idea that should the Pakistani government decline to try to rescue the family, the Navy SEALs would go in.Officials said that as Mr. Hale, the ambassador, conveyed the Trump administration’s demands, other senior officials, including Gen. Joseph L. Votel, who oversees American military operations in the Middle East and southwest Asia as head of the United States Central Command, were also applying pressure.
  
  
  The push worked. American officials said the Pakistanis acted quickly, intercepting the vehicle with Ms. Coleman and her family. According to Pakistani security officials, they were able to shoot out the tires of the vehicle, but the captors manage to flee.
  
  Mr. Boyle has said a gun battle ensued before he and his family were freed, but American officials remained skeptical and a Pakistani military spokesman has said only that the vehicle’s tires were blown out.
  
  In an interview after he was freed, Mr. Boyle praised the Pakistanis: “Our gratitude is boundless.”
  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/...tan-navy-seals.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

why the SEALS didn't rescued them in Afghanistan ... weren't seals ready there ?
BS

There's no video footage of famous Navy Seal operation, yet people believe that.

those people who believe Osama was in Pakistan might also believe that tooth fairies exist

 

[sparten]

SEALs were going to go in 12 hours after their "surprise raid" was announced to Pakistan and all border units were alerted?

 

[The Eagle]

Yes...Absolutely. US Navy SEALs are a bunch of incompetent rednecks. Even the lowliest of Pakistan's army recruit is better than the entirety of the SEALs.

Is NYT trolling Trump sarcastically like this and deliberately putting SEALS into such situation that story may have nothing to do with situation handled well.

 

[Mugwop]

Here are some things to keep in mind
The couple's plea for help mention both obama and trump
The US claims it tipped the Pakistanis about the couple's where abouts
The family refused to fly back on an American plane

 

[MastanKhan]

LoL, for five years, the Americans didn't have clue on the whereabouts of the hostages but they were ready at the last minute.....who they trying to kid.

Hi,

That is a strange comment---. All special forces train and train and then train some more for all different kinds of scenarios to be ready instantly for any operation on the run.

 

[Imran Khan]

THEY were ready since last 5 years

 

[sparten]

Hi,

That is a strange comment---. All special forces train and train and then train some more for all different kinds of scenarios to be ready instantly for any operation on the run.

If Spec ops are being run on the fly, means something has gone very wrong.

 

[Taimoor Khan]

The more I read about this, more I am inclined in believing that it was a crude attempt by yanks to frame Pakistan. Get the family into Pakistani soil, create a drama on the border and send their men to "rescue" and "save" American lives right on the Pakistani border. Its another thing how ISI and PA used this situation to its advantage and made the CIA and JSOC looked like chimps.

 

[airmarshal]

The article full of American bravado and hubris. This is meant for local audience.

Pakistan has not been that intransigent on intel based operation in the past. But the Americans want to portray us as villains. They want to portray their failure as a result of Pakistan giving refuge to Haqqanis. Nothing can more preposterous than this!

Americans have failed because they did not want to succeed. They are here to stay and wont leave Afghanistan soon as this is a strategic foothold. A country across Atlantic finds itself a neighbor of Russia, Iran and Pakistan! USA will be foolish to think of packing up and leave.

 

[S.Y.A]

Yes...Absolutely. US Navy SEALs are a bunch of incompetent rednecks. Even the lowliest of Pakistan's army recruit is better than the entirety of the SEALs.

obviously, otherwise they would have been the ones to rescue the couple.