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U.S. uses stealth to avoid detection: Pakistan spy chief

Other News Materials 14 May 2011 10:19 (UTC +04:00)

Pakistan's intelligence chief informed the in-camera session that the United States had used stealth technology on its helicopters that could not be detected by the radars when they raided a compound and killed Osama bin Laden, officials said Saturday, Xinhua reported.

The in-camera session of the joint sitting of the parliament was summoned on Friday after the army and the intelligence agencies had been under fire for their failure to detect the U.S. army helicopters, which intruded into Pakistan and conducted nearly one hour operation to kill the al-Qaida chief.

Osama bin Laden was killed in the May 2 raid along with his son and two couriers in northwest Pakistan's garrison city of Abbotabad.

The country's intelligence agencies are also criticized for their failure to know about the presence of the world most wanted man in a Pakistani compound for five years.

"It was due to the U.S. technological superiority that they managed to get in undetected," head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt. gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha told the parliament, according to officials from the Information Ministry.

Officials quoted the spy chief as telling the house that armed U.S. aircraft were ready to react to any Pakistani reaction.

It was reported that the ISI chief presented himself for full accountability before any forum and said if there was any " negligence or intentional failure", he was ready to face the consequences.

The ISI chief offered resignation in the in-camera joint session of the parliament after he briefed the lawmakers about the U.S. operation, officials said. He said he was ready to face any commission of inquiry about the U.S. operation.

He, however, said that it was also the responsibility of the provincial government, the local police and related agencies to have information about the al-Qaida chief's hideout in Abbotabad.

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