You just can’t make this stuff up. The Pakistani commission that is investigating the raid that killed al Qaeda founder and emir Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad is recommending that a doctor who aided the CIA be put on trial for treason. Seriously. From The Associated Press:
He is alleged to have run the phony vaccination program in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad where the al-Qaida leader hid in an effort to obtain a DNA sample from him. Afridi was detained in the days after the raid. He has no lawyer, and CIA officials have not commented.
The government commission said in a statement that it was of the view that “a case of conspiracy against the state of Pakistan and high treason” should be registered against Afridi on the basis of the evidence it had gathered. It did not elaborate.
Such a charge carries the death penalty.
Now, if you’re a member of the Pakistani government or the military, and you wanted to dispel the accusations that you were actively complicit in sheltering bin Laden for years at a compound that is a stone’s throw from Pakistan’s top military academy, one of the last things you would do is accuse someone who aided in the hunt of treason.
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22 Comments
Thpakis are NOT our allies, they are our enemies. We need to tell them once and for all, either they shape up or we will cut their aid all together. Meanwhile we need to go after the Haqqauni’s ourselves all out and the Taliban and Mullah Omar. And if we have to cross into Pakistan to do it, so be it. We can always move more of our supplies in through Uzbekistan.
The gloves are off.They are no longer scared of the US and obviously Kept OBL as a Cash Cow.
to salvage afghanistan we will need to intimidate pakistan which will only drive it closer into the arms of the militants which in turn would mean jihadi bases in both countries rendering our efforts in afghanistan meaningless. The only way to intimidate pakistan is to act in concert militarily with india…I do not see any good opportunities for the us any more.
Pakistan has been running with the hare & hunting with the hounds for decades.India has been crying itself hoarse over Pak doublespeak.
There are several terrorists Hafiz Saeed, Illyas Kashmiri,Dawood Ibrahim, Riaz & Iqbal Bhatkal, Azam Cheema living in ISI protection.
The west initially turned Nelson’s Eye to these jihad factories but now since these Gps are directly affecting US interests, the west is taking notice.
However, piecemeal approach to combating terror is bound to fail the world needs to issolate Pak, incl impose sanctions to bring it back from the brink
This is just another phony bail scheme in its beginning stage. The doctor in question will be charged and found guilty. As with the hikers in Iran, eventually the U.S. will put up the money to the necessary corrupt Pakistani officials to get this doctor and his family out of Pakistan and into the U.S., where the doctor & his family will enter witness protection.
Pakistan is relying too much on the promised Chinese aid. They will surely be surprised to find the Chinese don’t give money away for nothing, as the US has done.
In the meantime the US will continue it’s drawdown of forces in Afghanistan and the situation on the ground here will deteriorate.
We want to win obviously in Afghanistan but what is the ‘national interest’ of the US here?
I agree whole-heartedly with Leonard. The Pakistanis are our enemies.
I am of the impression that we are more concerned with being able to keep their nuclear arms under control which is why we put up with their games.
I also agree that we deal with with Jalaluddin Haqqani and his offspring. How we do it does not matter, if we need to visit Pakistan again to do it as we did with OBL or we use a Predator strike it really will not matter. As long as it is done.
Not to start a political debate, but I must admit our current administration seems to be getting a lot more done than our previous one and I am happy for it
I believe the highest levels of the Pak security forces since 2001 were involved in an elaborate, long successful, conspiracy to hide UBL. Listen to Dexter Filkins of the NYT talk about meeting with the Asia Times journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad who shook up the Pakistani generals when he revealed activities of bin Laden in his 25 March 11 article “Bin Laden sets alarm bells ringing in Asia Times Online (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MC25Df01.html ). His later article describing ties between AQ and the ISI proved Shadzad’s undoing.
Shortly before he was murdered by the ISI, Shahzad was dragged in by Rear Admiral Adnan Nazir, who serves as the head of the I.S.I.
I wonder if the Hekmatyar ‘thread’ is somehow woven into this.
This is all for public consumption. The Pakistani establishment is running scared of their lunatic fringe and they are going to offer this guy up to them. Anyone who reads the news from Pakistan can see how their entire society has been perverted by homicidal monsters and a substantial part of the population which is ready to support the murder of anyone who disagrees with their (7th century )world view.
The real traitors in Pakistan are its military who have progressively run the country down into the gutter. It could have been a showcase for free enterprise and capitalism, especially when its giant rival, India, was bogged down with socialism and Soviet-styled governmental planning. Instead, their blinding obsession with India and their knee-jerk inclination to use tactics of violence and terrorism to impose their strategic vision have made them international outlaws. If the commission had any sense, they would form a circle which included all the chiefs past and present, and start firing inwards.
The doctor that aided the CIA should be put in the FBIs relocation program. Anyone who helps us should be helped by us.
Perhaps the treason charges are in relation to him aiding and working for a Foreign Governments Intelligence Service, not for the fact that he was complicit in the killing of Bin Laden.
However the duplicity of Pakistan never ceases to amaze me the fact they no longer even try to hide it leads to many exaspearted sighs on my part.
The vaccinations where real. They just needed a excuse to search Osaba.
In a country where people dies of polio or dengue it doesn’t seems so high treason… unless they where really hosting Al Quaeda leader.
Clearly, Pakistan is an enemy and we should treat them as such; they have not even pretended to be embarrassed by having OBL caught right inside a military garrison town. On another topic, I am not a big fan of the US handing out green cards like candy, but for a man who stepped up and helped us out like this I would hope we are doing something behind the scenese to get this doctor out of there.
Attack now or you have lost …….
Isn’t this one sick country?!
After violence, utter shamelessness defines these debauched people.
One can only feel for the 10 or 20% of the population who have the courage and intelligence to reject ‘the establishment’ and suffer silently. And one can imagine that includes Dr Afridi, his family and friends. Hopefully, the US is working behind the scenes to free him–in the meantime one can only empathize with his trauma, surrounded by these spineless, brainless animals, that make wolves look elegant.
Lets also hope the power crisis in this bumbling nation continues to worsen so as to draw the people out in revolt (pun intended). But pity them for they still can’t awaken to how severely they’ve been mislead by their generals.
Stepping back, what one is witnessing is the AfPak battle slowly moving centre-stage to Pak. One can never predict what the final trigger is that pushes things over a tipping point. But one thing is for sure: they have so many crises on their hands, they are bound to hang themselves by one rope or another. Pakistan is not going to be looking pretty as she turns 65 in 2012.
Pakistanis handed us a few second and third tier terrorists in exchange for billions. OBL in their mind was probably worth 100 billion or more. The doctor’s actions deprived the Pakistani establishment of these multitude billions. Wouldn’t you call aiding or abetting that resulted in 100 billion loss a treason!
Now if we partially compensate them for their monetary loss, I am sure they would gladly withdraw the charge.
Nothing justifies Pakistan’s duplicity. However, they are terrified of a 2-front situation with India in the East and Afghanistan in the West. Perhaps a genuine peace treaty between Afghanistan and Pakistan can be worked out whereby the former guarantees with verifications allowed that it will not aid India in any conflict between Pakistan and India. If Pakistan can be convinced by such a treaty that it need not fear a 2-front war, then maybe Pakistan will rein in both AQ and the Taliban. Maybe it would even be feasible to guard the AfPak border with thousands of blue-helmeted United Nations troops from non-aligned distant countries. Just a thought.
The latest is that a Dr. accused by us of funneling ISI money to fund Pakistan’s Kashmiri cause around the world conveniently died of a heart attack in Pakistan. Dead men tell no tales. The other accused conspirator, Ghulam Nabi Fai, is fortunate to live in the US where he escapes the ISI’s reach. OTOH AQ Khan still lives to spill the beans about their WMD proliferation program, and so he probably has safely tucked away enough “insurance” to keep breathing. As spooks go, the Pakistanis are fast approaching Stasi or Bulgarian status.
Pogo,
Thanks for the link to that New Yorker article. It is an excellent must-read piece.
I’ve linked it further in a comment at the latest headline here at LWJ to give it further airing.
Will somebody explain to US citizens why this isn’t an admission of an Act of War upon the USA. The way I see it, with Osama sitting right next to Pakistan’s West Point he was obviously an employee of the Pak Military Establishment. He is assumed to have been their hit man to kill other members of their group … plane crashes of dictators and such… and with this death charge on the doctor one can only conclude his has been a valued member of their regime since day one.
Next since he committed 911 – then he could not have done so, as an employee of the military establishment without their knowledge and implied approval. Therefore this death charge is a nail in the coffin for Pakistan confirming their support of 911. Logic dictates then that 911 was an Act of War by among others Pakistan.
We have long bemoaned the statelessness of 911 well – here is a State Actor.