What [was] the security level of a 'military academy' in a place like Abbottabad deep inside Pakistan? Was Pakistan even expecting a surgical strike on a compound from US as far as in Abbottabad? These are important considerations.
Another incident in relation to the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA Kakul) back in 2012:
https://fp.brecorder.com/2012/01/201201281147663/
So?
OPERATION NEPTUNE SPEAR took place
late in the night when people were expected to be asleep in general. Additionally, helicopter-based activity at close proximity to PMA Kakul was unlikely to be give the impression of something being off; anybody awake was likely to assume that Pakistan Army was up to something.
Pakistani armed forces WERE ON THE MOVE [after]
an explosion occurred in the target compound, but OPERATION NEPTUNE SPEAR was winding up at this point. PAF scrambled two F-16 aircraft to monitor aerial activity over Abbottabad and search for potential intruders
but American helicopters and drones were very close to the PAK-Afghan border for EXIT at this point.
Pakistani armed forces were
NOT sleeping - never claimed this to be the case. However, you need to understand the basics of the vast American surveillance apparatus
FIRST in order to understand how they were able to identify potential gaps in Pakistani defenses and exploited these gaps to their advantage to pull-off a surgical strike in Abbottabad. This is a lengthy discussion but I am in the position to give you important pointers.
[1]
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/paki...ns-infrastructure.581116/page-4#post-10856517
[2]
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/paki...ns-infrastructure.581116/page-4#post-10857776
[3]
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/simorgh-class-drones-ashes-of-the-beast.455519/page-5#post-10970821
[4]
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/simorgh-class-drones-ashes-of-the-beast.455519/page-5#post-10971887
Whatever I have disclosed in those posts, is TRUE:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ld-settle-debate-over-pakistan-india-dogfight
Radar systems were NOT OFF at the time (refer to the Abbottabad Commission Report) - US-led forces employed certain techniques and tools to make the most threatening ones redundant for a while.
[a]
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/world/asia/06helicopter.html
LINK:
https://theaviationist.com/2011/05/06/operation-neptunes-spear/
Notice the yellow zone? This was the sector where Pakistani defenses were rendered redundant by powerful airborne Electronic Warfare assets for the duration of OPERATION NEPTUNE SPEAR within Pakistan.
US-led forces utilized similar/same airborne Electronic Warfare assets to make Russian defenses redundant for a military operation in Syria on the night of April 14, 2018 because Russian authorities were opposing it after being warned in advance, and perceived it as a violation of the Deconfliction Arrangement with NATO for day-to-day activities in Syria.
Pakistani defenses are really good in regional context, but not necessarily in global context. Unfortunately, Pakistani public expect too much from Pakistani armed forces in the face of overwhelming odds and otherwise. Even though then ISI chief Shuja Pasha offered to resign in the Parliament in a non-televised session
out of guilt in the aftermath of the Operation Neptune Spear [5], his offer was declined by the elected officials attending this session.
[5]
https://www.thenational.ae/world/asia/pakistan-s-isi-chief-offers-to-resign-over-bin-laden-1.372530
Then a homegrown narrative surfaced that Pakistani armed forces facilitated Americans in this operation - perhaps the agenda was to soothe Pakistan public. An American journalist Seymour Hersh offered an account of his own [6] which was also well-received in Pakistan.
[6]
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden
American accounts are largely consistent in regards to
how OPERATION NEPTUNE SPEAR unfolded. Refer to [a] and THE AVIATIONIST above, and additional accounts below.
[c]
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/08/08/getting-bin-laden
[d]
https://www.history.com/news/osama-bin-laden-death-seal-team-six
[e]
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/29/us/politics/obama-legal-authorization-osama-bin-laden-raid.html
[d]
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15814872-no-easy-day
Pakistan's own Abbottabad Commission Report drew similar conclusions with additional insights which one can expect from Pakistani officials only. Here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/binladenfiles/
Only Hersh is
noted for disputing the widely established and cross-examined explanation of the operation [in question] in his book
but he was not privy to the specifics of this operation in reality, and any book for sale is closely vetted by the American deep state to make sure that 'sensitive information' is not leaked in it.
[7]
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/11/8584473/seymour-hersh-osama-bin-laden
[8]
[9]
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/seymour-hersh-bin-laden-raid-officials-criticism-117826
It is CERTAINLY POSSIBLE that the American deep state
tapped Hersh to do his bidding in order to soothe tempers in Pakistan - reshaping public opinion or an understanding with Pakistani establishment. We don't know.
Why would Pakistani establishment allow [any] foreign entity to conduct a military operation this deep inside Pakistan? This is bit far for even the greatest of
sellouts.
Why Dr. Shakil Afridi is in jail and not getting bail? Something is amiss.
Additional terrorists were also nabbed from Abbottabad:
https://thediplomat.com/2011/05/abbottabad-terrorist-central/
Not just Abbottabad but numerous Al-Qaeda operatives were caught in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Rawalpindi among others. You will find lot of information in the book of Pervez Musharraf:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/141550.In_the_Line_of_Fire
It all makes sense when you piece together bits of information in right way, and realize sheer asymmetry between the military might of US and Pakistan.
Osama Bin Laden was on the move since 2001 and changed his location SIX TIMES
until he sought refuge in Abbottabad with support of his Pakistani
handlers.
2. Life in Hiding
After bin Laden was killed, elements of the international media ran with a narrative that he had been relaxing in some sort of million-dollar summer resort/luxury fortress, kicking back as he relived his glory days and feasted on internet ****.
This doesn’t seem to be the case. “They lived extremely frugally,” the Pakistani commission found. According to his wives, before bin Laden moved to the garrison town of Abbottabad in 2005, he owned just six pairs of shalwar kameez (three for the summer, three for the winter), a black jacket and two sweaters.
For years, the families on the compound lived in a bubble – bin Laden with his three wives and the courier brothers, Ibrahim and Abrar, and their wives and children. The brothers bought groceries if necessary, though most of what they ate was grown on-site. Bin Laden’s son Khalid – 23 years old at the time of his death in 2011 – was responsible for plumbing and furnishing matters.
None of the children on the compound went to school. Bin Laden’s family did not mix with the families of Abrar and Ibrahim. “The children did not play together. There was in fact a wall separating them,” the report says.
While the couriers’ children were free to leave the compound and play, Bin Laden’s children were not. They “led extremely regimented and secluded lives” and were “very quiet.” Bin Laden was personally responsible for their religious education and playtime, the report says, “which included cultivating vegetable plots with simple prizes for best performances.”
Though he sometimes complained of heart and kidney pains, bin Laden never left the compound, let alone visited a doctor. If he felt sick, he opted for natural Arab medicines, the report says. When coordinating a worldwide terror network left him feeling sluggish, he would reach for “some chocolate and an apple.”
More information in this link:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...ns-about-osama-bin-ladens-final-years-195413/
Truth can be stranger than fiction at times, my friend.
Indeed this is a DARK SPOT in Pakistan's history
but this wasn't Pakistan's FAULT. Hersh
implicated Pakistani establishment for sheltering Bin Laden in Abbottabad in his account, and this account does not bode well for Pakistan's image if to be taken at face value. US will always have this CARD up its sleeve to exploit...
There might be additional elements to this story as
@Oscar alluded to. But it rather indicates the level of breach by CIA within.