US Desperate To Get The Wreckage Of Stealth Helicopter Back

With Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani scheduled to travel
to China on 17 May for a high-profile four-day visit, Western defence
officials will be searching for some indication of what Pakistan is
likely to do with the stealth helicopter wreckage it retrieved following
the US raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.

A senior Pakistani
government official described speculation that China is seeking access
to the aircraft as "mere nonsense", though he did confirm that the
wreckage was still in Pakistani hands.

Two senior NATO defence
officials based in Islamabad said the US is seeking the return of the
wreckage to prevent it being passed onto third parties such as China.
"The US is desperate to get the wreckage back," one of the officials
said.

What ultimately happens to the stealth helicopter wreckage
left behind by US special forces during the 1 May raid may depend
largely on how the parties concerned answer a single question: 'How much
is it worth?'

Some former and current US government officials
have cautioned that Pakistan would have little to lose by sharing the
technology with China, and that the consequences for the US would be
grave if it could not immediately recover the wreckage.