Cold shoulder: Pakistan cut off contact with U.S. military for days after OBL raid

For two whole days after the raid, “we didn’t have very good contact” with the Pakistani military, said Maj. Gen. John Campbell, the commander of U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan.

That’s a big deal. Campbell’s soldiers have to safeguard some 450 miles of border with the Pakistan, an easy transit point for insurgents, terrorists and their logistics. That can’t happen without the aid of the Pakistani military on the other side. The raid became international news within hours. Even before al-Qaida confirmed bin Laden’s death, al-Qaida operatives would have had an opportunity to disperse — possibly across the border…

Haider Mullick, a Pakistani military expert who’s also a fellow at the Joint Special Operations University, guesses that Campbell’s Pakistani counterpart, Lt. Gen. Asif Yasin Malik of the 11th Corps, “stopped talking to John because he was asked to” by the top Pakistani brass. It’s likely Malik’s orders were to “ignore Campbell, find out what the hell happened” with the raid; “deal with the chaos” it created inside Pakistan’s security sector; or, potentially, prepare to “stop a second run” by U.S. troops, Mullick says.