Updated at: 1011 PST, Thursday, May 12, 2011
WASHINGTON: Pakistan said Wednesday it would not share the wreckage of a US helicopter used in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden with China, after speculation that the aircraft contained secret technology.
"Pakistan is not going to share any technology, and I don't think our friends in China have shown any interest in doing so," Pakistan's ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani told CNN.
Photographs of the wrecked helicopter, which malfunctioned during the raid and was deliberately blown up, fueled speculation among experts and enthusiasts that new features had been added to it to reduce noise or foil radar detection.
Some even postulated that the helicopter, which officials say was a Blackhawk, was actually an entirely new kind of "stealth" aircraft, with technology that could fall into the hands of Pakistan's ally China.
Defense analysts, however, have said that although the wrecked aircraft appears to be a modified Blackhawk, the technology in question is not shrouded in secrecy and Pakistan and China would gain little from the remains.
Tensions between the United States and its ally Pakistan have run high since bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the world's most wanted man, was found living in a garrison town near Islamabad.
Haqqani insisted, however, that the two countries were still "in close contact" and were trying to "get to the bottom of things."
"The United States and Pakistan, at the government-to-government level, the intelligence-to-intelligence level and military-to-military level, are in close contact," he told CNN.
"We are not in the business of denial or contradiction right now. We are trying to get to the bottom of things, understand the intelligence and work together," he added.
"At the same time, we continue to be concerned about unilateral actions and would prefer if the United States works with Pakistan instead of making Pakistan look like the bad guy." (AFP) |
ShareThis
