Some Accuse US of Hypocrisy Over Pakistan Doctor Case

[lem34]

Some Accuse US of Hypocrisy Over Pakistan Doctor Case


May 25, 2012

Tensions rose higher between Pakistan and the United States this week after a tribal court gave a long prison term to a Pakistani doctor who tried to help U.S. forces gather information about Osama bin Laden. American forces later killed the terrorist, and the doctor's actions angered many Pakistanis. Some critics say the case of Dr. Shakil Afridi has some parallels to the plight of a U.S. citizen who sold U.S. secrets to Israel, and who is serving a life term in an American prison.

U.S. forces found and killed Osama bin Laden after Dr. Shakil Afridi gathered some information for them. He was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign designed to help the CIA collect DNA from bin Laden's family in the town where bin Laden was hiding.

Pakistan charged Afridi with treason and Interior Minister Rehman Malik says the judge's decision should be respected.

"The person happened to be a traitor, the person happened to be before the court. The court has obverted, the court has taken the due process of law, and accordingly he has been convicted. So we have to respect our courts," Malik said.

"The U.S. does not believe there is any basis for holding Dr. Afridi," said U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who pressed Pakistan to release Afridi.

Angry members of the U.S. Congress voted in favor of cutting U.S. aid to Pakistan by $33 million -- one million for every year of Afridi's sentence.

Some analysts say the case of Johnathan Pollard shows Washington has an inconsistent policy. Pollard was convicted of selling U.S. secrets to Israel and sentenced to life in prison. Washington has rejected Israeli pleas to release Pollard.

But the Middle East Institute's Marvin Weinbaum says those who accuse Washington of hypocrisy have a superficial view of the situation; Pollard cost the United States some of its most closely-guarded secrets, while Dr. Afridi worked against a threat to both the United States and Pakistan.

You have to look at what in fact was the purpose of the action. Was it just simply to help a foreign country, or was it to do something to serve the interest mutual interest of the two countries?

Shuja Nawaz, a scholar with the Atlantic Council in Washington, says Pakistan does not see it that way. "They see it as the subversion of a Pakistani citizen and his willing participation in an act that was to support the United States intelligence operations inside Pakistan," Nawaz said.

Weinbaum says the further souring of U.S.-Pakistani relations is unfortunate because it keeps the two nations from working together on shared interests.

Both analysts say if relations improve in the future, the two nations might find a way to make a deal to reduce Dr. Afridi's sentence.


Some? All would accuse US of Hypocrisy Over Pakistan Doctor Case

 

[fd24]

I suggest befor the USA start interfering into our affairs they should release Pollard to the country he assisted - then they would be in a better place to make demands on other nations to follow their example.
Its a case of "All animals are equal BUT as far as the USA are concerned some are MORE equal than others" (Animal Farm)

 

[lem34]

I suggest befor the USA start interfering into our affairs they should release Pollard to the country he assisted - then they would be in a better place to make demands on other nations to follow their example.
Its a case of "All animals are equal BUT as far as the USA are concerned some are MORE equal than others" (Animal Farm)

Americans are hypocritical animals I would say

 

[VelocuR]

Well, US is sending urgent messages to terrorists and they care them just like Dr.Afridi and interests. They are encouraging more terrorists to do favor for US and million dollars.

Yeah, hyprocrisy.

 

[Mercenary]

I suggest befor the USA start interfering into our affairs they should release Pollard to the country he assisted - then they would be in a better place to make demands on other nations to follow their example.
Its a case of "All animals are equal BUT as far as the USA are concerned some are MORE equal than others" (Animal Farm)

Read the Article.

It already negates your point.

Pollard stole US secrets. This Doctor didn't steal any Pakistani State Secrets. He helped hunt down the most wanted terrorist on the planet.

Its like an Argentine doctor helping the Israelis find Eichmann in 1959 in Argentina. How is he a traitor to Argentina?

 

[lem34]

Read the Article.

It already negates your point.

Pollard stole US secrets. This Doctor didn't steal any Pakistani State Secrets. He helped hunt down the most wanted terrorist on the planet.

Its like an Argentine doctor helping the Israelis find Eichmann in 1959 in Argentina. How is he a traitor to Argentina?

No you are wrong coconut. Pollard gave information to Israelis. Afridi gave information which it was his duty under the Pakistani constitution to give to Pakistani agencies.


I have noticed there is a tendency in some Pakistani Canadians and Pakistani Americans usually fresh mangos that are so grateful at having a green card they try to ingratiate themselves with their adopted country.

 

[iajj]

Read the Article.

It already negates your point.

Pollard stole US secrets. This Doctor didn't steal any Pakistani State Secrets. He helped hunt down the most wanted terrorist on the planet.

Its like an Argentine doctor helping the Israelis find Eichmann in 1959 in Argentina. How is he a traitor to Argentina?

how was that guy not a traitor, causing such a diplomatic rancor between argentine and israel? did you bother to ask argentines what they thought of having mossad agents kidnapping a person from their midst and deliver him to jew executioners who ignored all international conventions to kill him? whether that doctor is a traitor is a question that must be left for argentines to decide - whether this one is also is a question that must be left for pakistanis to decide who need not invite the opinion of all the coconut men living in north america.

and that is the thing: there is no honor or dishonor in having a former nazi or an al qaeda leader live in your country (turkey, america, canada, russia, many of the arabic countries, india, etc.), but every bit of national dignity of a people depends on its ability to make the call: who is their enemy and who amongst them is a traitor. if you take away this singular sign of national sovereignty and political independence, you have committed worse crimes against that people than to steal from them.

 

[VelocuR]

No you are wrong coconut. Pollard gave information to Israelis. Afridi gave information which it was his duty under the Pakistani constitution to give to Pakistani agencies.


I have noticed there is a tendency in some Pakistani Canadians and Pakistani Americans usually fresh mangos that are so grateful at having a green card they try to ingratiate themselves with their adopted country.

Lol, Mercenary is not Pakistani.

 

[lem34]

Lol, Mercenary is not Pakistani.

And you are? He carries the same flags as you

 

[fd24]

Exclusive: Pakistan doctor in bin Laden case called corrupt, womanizer
(Reuters) - The Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden faced accusations of corruption and other wrongdoing long before he was captured by Pakistani intelligence agents and then jailed for 33 years for treason.

In interviews over the weekend, several current and former Pakistani officials described the doctor, Shakil Afridi, as a hard-drinking womanizer who had faced accusations of sexual assault, harassment and stealing. They said his main obsession was making easy money.

According to a 2002 Pakistan health department document seen by Reuters, Afridi was deemed to be corrupt and unreliable and unfit for government service.

U.S. officials have hailed Afridi, aged in his 40s, as a hero for helping pinpoint bin Laden's location in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad where the al Qaeda leader was killed in May last year in a raid by U.S. Navy SEALs.

Officially Pakistan has said nothing about Afridi except that the court's decision to sentence him should be respected. But the fresh accusations about Afridi's character, coupled with his imprisonment, will almost certainly lead to further strain on already tense bilateral ties.

Pakistani officials' attempts to cast doubt on Afridi's character will likely be viewed in some quarters as retaliation for his work with the Americans, despite the disclosures in the 2002 Pakistani document.

U.S. officials on Monday called the accusations character assassination. In Washington, one senior official said the U.S. government was unaware of any questionable behavior by Afridi.

"Available information showed Afridi was a respected member of the Pakistani health care community," said the senior official. "We are aware of efforts, put in place since Dr. Afridi's arrest, to denigrate his character."

Another U.S. official said: "It's nothing short of puzzling that Pakistani officials would disparage someone who helped in the hunt for bin Laden, a terrorist who had Pakistani blood on his hands."

The Afridi family's lawyer declined to be drawn on the controversy. "I cannot comment on any past allegations against him," Raza Safi told Reuters.

Afridi ran a vaccination campaign in Abbottabad and used cheek swabs to try to gather DNA from bin Laden's children, said one former Pakistani security official familiar with the case.

Accompanied by three health workers, he went to bin Laden's house and told his wives that a vaccination program was underway in the area, said the former security official.

"A woman went in (to the house) and said 'bring the children out, the doctor is waiting and he will give them the drops'," the former official said. "That's when he used the swabs."

It was unclear whether the CIA used the swabs to determine if the children were bin Laden's. A DNA test can prove close blood relations and U.S. authorities could have matched the samples with profiles it had collected from several of bin Laden's relatives.

INADVERTENTLY CONFIRMED
In Washington, another senior U.S. official with knowledge of Afridi's work for the CIA said the doctor's vaccination efforts had also enabled him to gather intelligence on bin Laden's couriers who visited the house.

"Dr Afridi was inadvertently able to confirm something we already suspected - that bin Laden's couriers practiced extraordinary operational security," the official said.

"Was that a key to the raid? No. Was it important? Absolutely."

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Sunday that Afridi "was not working against Pakistan. He was working against al Qaeda. And I hope that ultimately Pakistan understands that".

"Because what they have done here, I think, you know, does not help in the effort to try to re-establish a relationship between the United States and Pakistan."

U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher introduced legislation in February calling for Afridi to be granted U.S. citizenship and said it was "shameful and unforgivable that our supposed allies" charged him.

UNWANTED SCRUTINY
Infuriated by the unilateral U.S. raid in a town just a two-hour drive from the capital Islamabad, many in the country see Afridi as a villain who conspired against the state and brought unwanted scrutiny of Pakistan's attitude to militants.

Last week, a tribal court sentenced him to 33 years in prison for working with a foreign intelligence agency.

Afridi is being kept in solitary confinement in a prison in the city of Peshawar for fear that he may be targeted by Islamic militants also incarcerated there, said prison sources.

Afridi had been working with the CIA for years before the bin Laden raid, providing intelligence on militant groups in Pakistan's unruly tribal region, said the former Pakistani security official and a former Pakistani intelligence official.

They and other officials said he was of questionable character. "Afridi was known to perform surgeries even though his qualification was basic and he was not authorized to conduct surgery," a senior provincial health official said.

"He was accused of conducting surgeries of the eyes, nose, ears, kidneys."

Afridi was also in contact with militant groups and treated Taliban fighters who were wounded in battle with the Pakistani military, said the former security official.

The Taliban are described by the state as terrorists, and most Pakistanis strongly oppose their suicide bombing missions, and philosophy.

"Keeping in view his extreme lust for money, I am ashamed to even call him a doctor. He is a corrupt, unreliable and low category officer," said a March 2002 provincial health department report on Afridi's performance and conduct.
The document described Afridi as unreliable, cruel and inhumane and gave him the lowest job performance scores in most categories. It went on to say:

"If his overall character as a doctor is taken into account I would recommend and feel that he is not at all fit for government service or any position where money is involved."

CHARACTERLESS
Tariq Hayat, formerly the highest government official in the Khyber tribal region, said he knew Afridi when the doctor worked at a hospital there and was a senior medical officer.

Hayat said he met him twice to question him over allegations that he had sexually assaulted a nurse at his hospital and had stolen its electrocardiograph machines for his private practice.

"I made him stand ... I told him you are a characterless person, you have no principles," said Hayat, adding he had Afridi fired and expelled him from Khyber. "I said 'you are a thief, doctor'."

A senior health official who said he saw a record of the case said a nurse had complained about sexual harassment to the regional health director. That account was confirmed by a senior police official who investigated Afridi.
"A number of nurses had complained about him, that he had behaved inappropriately with them," said the police official, adding that Afridi was also accused of stealing material sent by international aid agencies and selling it.

These accounts could not be independently verified.

Afridi's brother Jamil described the treason charges as baseless and said the doctor was being made a scapegoat.

"If my brother had done something wrong, he had a valid U.S. visa. He could have fled the country," he said, adding that the family had received no offers of help from the U.S. government.

He did not respond to questions about the charges of corruption and harassment.

"I am in hiding because my life is in danger, all of our lives are in danger," Jamil Afridi said. "The family is safe for now but the propaganda campaign in the media is putting us in a lot of danger."

Some health workers who knew Afridi described him as a dedicated, polite professional.

"He was very nice to all the people in the team and did his job very diligently," said Naseem Bibi, a nurse.

She said she had been with him when the medical team visited bin Laden's house. "Yes, he was very interested in this house on that day, but I wasn't sure why," she said.

EASY PREY
His reputation hurt by allegations, Afridi was easy prey for the CIA which found him through his connections to Western aid agencies in about 2009, said the former security official.

"The man was living beyond his means after he was fired," said the former security official. "He got married a third time. He maintained a couple of cars."

Afridi, who came to Abbottabad to carry out the vaccination campaign apparently at the CIA's behest, blundered when he visited the district health officer in the town.

He told the officer he was a volunteer who wanted to provide vaccinations in a certain area and he gave the officer his real name, the former security official said.

The team moved from house to house conducting vaccinations and leaving chalk marks on the door to show the people inside had been vaccinated, as is customary in Pakistan.

"They went in systematically the way a team is supposed to work," said the official. "No eyebrows were raised."

But after bin Laden was killed, his widows unwittingly helped Pakistani authorities track Afridi.

"They said that the only time when somebody from outside visited the house, was this polio vaccination (team)," said the former security official, who believed the only other visitor to the house was bin Laden's courier, about once a month.

Afridi was quickly scooped up by security officials.

When interrogated, Afridi initially said he had no ties with Americans, said the former security official.

"He categorically denied everything to start with," said the former security official. "But when the Americans started asking for him, then I think the cat was out of the bag."

Exclusive: Pakistan doctor in bin Laden case called corrupt, womanizer | Reuters

 

[Pakistanisage]

No you are wrong coconut. Pollard gave information to Israelis. Afridi gave information which it was his duty under the Pakistani constitution to give to Pakistani agencies.


I have noticed there is a tendency in some Pakistani Canadians and Pakistani Americans usually fresh mangos that are so grateful at having a green card they try to ingratiate themselves with their adopted country.

Aryan , you are assuming that just because somebody flies a Canadian or US flag, they are actually from that country. Keep in mind there are many " American Wannabees " who have never been outside of Pakistan who pretend they are in the US or Canada and fly False Flags.

Well, US is sending urgent messages to terrorists and they care them just like Dr.Afridi and interests. They are encouraging more terrorists to do favor for US and million dollars.

Yeah, hyprocrisy.

Please notice the English. Does this guy sound like he lives in Canada...

I rest my case..

 

[T-Rex]

I suggest befor the USA start interfering into our affairs they should release Pollard to the country he assisted - then they would be in a better place to make demands on other nations to follow their example.
Its a case of "All animals are equal BUT as far as the USA are concerned some are MORE equal than others" (Animal Farm)

"Animal Farm" by George Orwell is a very close depiction of the world we live in right now led by a pig named the US. In the novel this pig has the name Napoleon because of his despotic nature. In the novel this pig made hypocrisy look like an art.

 

[lem34]

Aryan , you are assuming that just because somebody flies a Canadian or US flag, they are actually from that country. Keep in mind there are many " American Wannabees " who have never been outside of Pakistan who pretend they are in the US or Canada and fly False Flags.




Please notice the English. Does this guy sound like he lives in Canada...

I rest my case..

Sorry mate point taken. But I did say some

 

[nirreich]

In Pakistan armed groups run free, terrorising massive areas, openly carrying weapons, but the law does not apply to them.

In Pakistan, terror organisations murder innocent people in India, Kashmir, and Afghanistan, but no one is arrested (or released immediately).

In Pakistan, corruption is so high that the President is known as "Mr. Ten Percent", but rarely someone called to court.

One brave guy does what Pakistan's security agencies failed to do: helps to capture the most dangerous terrorist in the world. Suddenly the legalistic point of view is crucial and he need to be jailed for a long period.

Well this is no surprise: As everyone knows, in Pakistan the law is the law...

I suggest everyone to stop with the double standards and say what you really think about his assistance to kill OBL. The law is the least of your concerns.

 

[Pakistanisage]

In Pakistan armed groups run free, terrorising massive areas, openly carrying weapons, but the law does not apply to them.

In Pakistan, terror organisations murder innocent people in India, Kashmir, and Afghanistan, but no one is arrested (or released immediately).

In Pakistan, corruption is so high that the President is known as "Mr. Ten Percent", but rarely someone called to court.

One brave guy does what Pakistan's security agencies failed to do: helps to capture the most dangerous terrorist in the world. Suddenly the legalistic point of view is crucial and he need to be jailed for a long period.

Well this is no surprise: As everyone knows, in Pakistan the law is the law...

I suggest everyone to stop with the double standards and say what you really think about his assistance to kill OBL. The law is the least of your concerns.

How does this affect Israel in any way.

I think you should concentrate on getting Jonathan Pollard free.

Remember the Israeli citizen Jonathan Pollard in the US jail for life sentence.

No country allows its citizens to collaborate with foreign intelligence agencies, certainly not Israel or US. So now tell me who has double standards,