Contained within the pages of a 2013 unclassified Senate report ( 113-007 ) were details of a meeting among the top intelligence leaders in the United States regarding aspects of the war in Afghanistan and insight into the raid against Osama Bin Laden and how this led to a deterioration of the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S.
What follows is an extract from that report:
“While the Committee’s efforts in the 111th Congress focused on the IC’s (Intelligence Community) role in supporting increased operations in Afghanistan (the “surge”), the Committee in the 112th Congress held hearings on three significant developments in the region: first, the killing of Osama bin Laden (OBL) on May 1, 2011; second, the significant deterioration in U.S.-Pakistan relations, beginning with the involvement of American Raymond Davis in a shooting in Lahore earlier that year, through the OBL raid, and reaching a nadir with the cross-border incident in November 2011, where Pakistani troops were inadvertently killed by U.S. forces; and, third, the Administration’s termination of the surge effort in Afghanistan and its signaling of a military drawdown leading to 2014. The Committee spent considerable time and effort conducting oversight into the significant intelligence issues related to all these developments.
Immediately following the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Osama bin Laden, the Committee heard testimony from numerous individuals on the conduct of the operation and the decade-long search that led to its successful execution.
Bilateral relations with Pakistan hit their lowest ebb in recent times during this period, affecting every aspect of the broad U.S. government engagement with that country. The Committee held periodic hearings and received numerous briefs on the implications of this breakdown in relations, which included a seven-month suspension of the military ground lines of communication that support the allied war effort in Afghanistan. In addition to focusing on IC activities, the Committee was regularly briefed on assessments of the consequences of this breakdown on U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the terrorist safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal regions. During the 112th Congress, the Committee took particular interest in intelligence assessments on the role the Haqqani network played in conducting operations against U.S., NATO, and Afghan military and civilian targets in Afghanistan.
Throughout the 112th Congress, the Committee conducted hearings and received briefings on IC assessments regarding the strength and long-term viability of the Afghan insurgency and the implications for long-term U.S. policy goals. As the Administration develops its policy on Afghanistan, the Committee will continue to review the role of the IC in implementing these policies, and how these decisions affect current IC operations in the region” (source: Senate Select Committee Intelligence Report 113-007 http://thomas.loc.gov).