Man who helped catch Bin Laden sentenced to jail by Pakistan

[Crossroads Inc.]

From Yahoo News

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was convicted of high treason Wednesday and sentenced to 33 years in prison, officials said, a verdict that is likely to further strain the country's relationship with Washington.

Shakil Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad where U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida chief last May. The operation outraged Pakistani officials because they were not told about it beforehand.

Senior U.S. officials have called for Afridi to be released, saying his work served Pakistani and American interests. His conviction comes at a sensitive time because the U.S. is already frustrated by Pakistan's refusal to reopen NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. The supply routes were closed six months ago in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Afridi also was ordered to pay a fine of about $3,500 and will spend an additional three and half years in prison if he does not, said Nasir Khan, a government official in the Khyber tribal area, where the doctor was arrested and tried.

Afridi was tried under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, or FCR, the set of laws that govern Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region. Human rights organizations have criticized the FCR for not providing suspects due process of law. There is no right to legal representation, to present material evidence or cross-examine witnesses. Verdicts are normally handed down by a Khyber government official in consultation with a council of government elders.

Afridi has the right to appeal the verdict, said Iqbal Khan, another Khyber government official.

I think the following comment sums up my thoughts on this mess:
""What I don't understand is why the CIA did not get this man out of Pakistan and into the US or another safe have.
As far as I'm concerned, this doctor was critical in identifying Bin Laden and the least we can do is showing him some gratitude by protecting him and his family.
We need to show others that if you help us capture these nut jobs you won't be left holding the bag...""

[Stormin]

I can't remember where it was posted but one article said that the offer to get him out only extended to his immediate family. So he would have been safe but then Pakistan might have picked up every brother, cousin, parent etc and extracted their retribution from them instead.

[Sarevok]

Meh America would do the same if someone within the US aided say Iranians to kill Khomeni or Taslima Nasrin.

[Spekio]

From Yahoo News

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was convicted of high treason Wednesday and sentenced to 33 years in prison, officials said, a verdict that is likely to further strain the country's relationship with Washington.

Shakil Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad where U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida chief last May. The operation outraged Pakistani officials because they were not told about it beforehand.

Senior U.S. officials have called for Afridi to be released, saying his work served Pakistani and American interests. His conviction comes at a sensitive time because the U.S. is already frustrated by Pakistan's refusal to reopen NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. The supply routes were closed six months ago in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Afridi also was ordered to pay a fine of about $3,500 and will spend an additional three and half years in prison if he does not, said Nasir Khan, a government official in the Khyber tribal area, where the doctor was arrested and tried.

Afridi was tried under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, or FCR, the set of laws that govern Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region. Human rights organizations have criticized the FCR for not providing suspects due process of law. There is no right to legal representation, to present material evidence or cross-examine witnesses. Verdicts are normally handed down by a Khyber government official in consultation with a council of government elders.

Afridi has the right to appeal the verdict, said Iqbal Khan, another Khyber government official.

I think the following comment sums up my thoughts on this mess:
""What I don't understand is why the CIA did not get this man out of Pakistan and into the US or another safe have.
As far as I'm concerned, this doctor was critical in identifying Bin Laden and the least we can do is showing him some gratitude by protecting him and his family.
We need to show others that if you help us capture these nut jobs you won't be left holding the bag...""

...because fuck the now useless pawn?

[Vaporous]

That would be pretty stupid. "Work with the U.S., and then we'll leave you and your family in the lurch." isn't good advertising. Intelligence agencies (and anyone involved in trying to convince people to come help them, really) can't be viewed as being unable or unwilling to protect their assets and remain effective.

[Bright]

Why do I have the feeling this guy - someone who could kind of be regarded as a hero - is going to be swept under the rug by the popular consciousness and be forgotten in a matter of months? Many in the US wouldn't even want to give a Pakistani any credit.

[The Yosemite Bear]

I say we get him and his family relocated over here, and move them in next door to the Blind Chinese Lawyer we just picked up...

[NecronLord]

Gleen Greenwald wrote about this today and said basically what I have in mind:

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/26/the_imp ... singleton/

For the moment, leave to the side the question of whether knowingly administering ineffective vaccines to Pakistani children is a justified ruse to find bin Laden (just by the way, it didn’t work, as none of the health workers actually were able to access the bin Laden house, though CIA officials claim the program did help obtain other useful information). In light of all the righteous American outrage over this prison sentence, let’s consider what the U.S. Government would do if the situation were reversed: namely, if an American citizen secretly cooperated with a foreign intelligence service to conduct clandestine operations on U.S. soil, all without the knowledge or consent of the U.S. Government, and let’s further consider what would happen if the American citizen’s role in those operations involved administering a fake vaccine program to unwitting American children. Might any serious punishment ensue? Does anyone view that as anything more than an obvious rhetorical question?

And of course, a lot more at the link, but that's the core of it. This guy is a criminal.

What I don't get, here, is why the commentator thinks that the US should seek to be fair; it should seek to be successful, and create maximum incentive to work with it within the bounds of realistic pragmatism. It should certainly be within broad limits, one rule for US agents, another for those who work against the US. It's an espionage/counter-terrorism operation, not a trial.

If anything can be done without undue risk or loss to get the guy who supported US interests off, do so.
If anything could be done without undue risk or loss to ensure the guy who harms US interests is punished, do that.

That is the policy that will most assist US survival and prosperity, and thus the policy that its decision makers should follow.

[Guardsman Bass]

What I don't get, here, is why the commentator thinks that the US should seek to be fair; it should seek to be successful, and create maximum incentive to work with it within the bounds of realistic pragmatism. It should certainly be within broad limits, one rule for US agents, another for those who work against the US. It's an espionage/counter-terrorism operation, not a trial.

Greenwald is a former constitutional and civil rights lawyer turned blogger. I think he's uncomfortable with espionage in general.

In any case, I think the US should have tried to get this guy out of Pakistan after he played his role, but getting outraged over his treatment is ridiculous. He did conduct espionage on behalf of a foreign power (the US), and so of course he's going to get tried for espionage - any country would do the same thing. The use of the vaccine program as an espionage campaign, by the way, was pretty scummy - as Greenwald points out, certain muslim areas have been among those resistant to vaccination campaigns in the past because of fears that they were some kind of western plot to screw with muslim children, and this just gives fuel to that fire.

[Alyeska]

The vaccination cover was clever and effective, but damaging in the long term. It is for issues such as these that there needs to be oversight on intelligence opperations and set limits on their methods of operation. There are other effective strategies that are very much banned for being illegal or highly immoral.

[MKSheppard]

"What I don't understand is why the CIA did not get this man out of Pakistan and into the US or another safe have.

We actually offered to do this. The doctor turned it down, thinking that Pakistan would be proud of him. Oh, the fool....

This mess BTW proves that Pakistan is really pAQistan, one and the same with the Taliban/Al Quaeda; because how the fuck can killing OBL be "treason" against the pAQistani state?

[MKSheppard]

This guy is a criminal.

So charge him with endangering the Public trust via said fake vaccination operation.

OH WAIT, THATS NOT WHAT THEY CHARGED HIM WITH.

“conspiracy against the state of Pakistan and high treason” and for being a CIA agent.

NOTE: I actually would understand it if they had charged him for doing the fake vaccination thing; but as stated above, that's not what they did.

[PeZook]

Yeah, I mean...the operation he was involved in was to look for an international criminal who wasn't even a Pakistani citizen (and was in the country illegally, if you want to get technical).

It's not like he authorized the violation of Pakistani airspace or aided in the penetration in any way, or worked to steal classified information etc. ; All he did was attempt to give Americans information on a wanted criminal. How the FUCK is this a crime in any sane nation?

[PeZook]

He likely did not know why he was doing this. (The article says "reportedly", but I'm inclined to believe it anyway: he wouldn't have a need to know about the big picture, and the CIA doesn't like to volunteer information when you don't need to know. That article also says the plot did not work.)

My guess is he cooperated for money, not because he wanted to help law enforcement.

So? That's not treason.

He also did a lot more than give information. He also:

1) ran around regular health channels and looks like he bribed people: "Bypassing the management of the Abbottabad health services, he paid generous sums to low-ranking local government health workers, who took part in the operation without knowing about the connection to Bin Laden."

Bribery isn't automatically treason.

I wonder where that money came from too. Did he also accept a large cash payout from the CIA agents? I'm not sure. The BBC link from above has someone speculating that "He was merely paid to follow instructions", but this doesn't seem to be proven.

It's a pity he didn't get a regular open trial.

Still not treason. Endagering public health, corruption, bribery - perhaps. Perhaps even "at the behest of a foreign power"..but not treason. Unless you define germs as the enemy

2) Failed to give the necessary medical followup, putting the lives of poor children at risk from the disease he claimed to be vaccinating them against.

3) Betrayed the public trust, undermining efforts to combat other diseases like polio and likely putting health volunteers at risk.

I'm not saying he's not a criminal ; Just not a traitor deserving between 33 and 36 fucking years in prison.

I have to wonder why he had to administer fake vaccines, though...

[Simon_Jester]

He didn't administer fake vaccines. He administered one of the three shots that, taken together, make up the real thing... but then didn't administer the other two. So the protection was not useful, and if someone wanted to jug him for medical malpractice I could see the argument.

As you say, medical malpractice is not the same as treason.

[PeZook]

He didn't administer fake vaccines. He administered one of the three shots that, taken together, make up the real thing... but then didn't administer the other two. So the protection was not useful, and if someone wanted to jug him for medical malpractice I could see the argument.

Well, yeah, but...why?

Seriously. I don't see a good reason for NOT following up, even if the real sneaky purpose was the DNA collection thing.

As you say, medical malpractice is not the same as treason.

He was paid by the CIA to do it, but by that standard, practically every corporate corruption scandal in the world should involve treason proceedings.

[Edi]

I don't know what the relevant Pakistani laws are, but just being on the payroll of the CIA might qualify as treason and it's not like they have qualms about making an example of anyone engaged in something like that.

[Simon_Jester]

Treason gets set up for cases where something that might otherwise be innocuous ends up causing a disaster for the country.

For example, saying "General Huffandpuff is going to have a staff conference on Wednesday in Townville" probably isn't a problem normally. But if you tell it to some foreigner who wants to kill President Huffandpuff, and they bomb the hell out of Townville to get him, then it becomes a problem.

When guys on your side start aiding someone who's attacking you, it can screw you over really badly, even if what they're doing would be fine normally.

[Elfdart]

In replying to the following claims. I'm going to assume that the laws in Pakistan are anything like US law when it comes to treason, namely levying war against the country or adhering to the nation's enemies. This is in keeping with Glennzilla's idea of pretending the roles were reversed, and an American had aided a foreign country to carry out a military attack/assassination on US soil:

So? That's not treason.

Sure it is. He accepted money from, and worked for the same foreign agency that was already slaughtering Pakistani citizens -including civilians.

Bribery isn't automatically treason.

When the money you receive from a foreign spy service and pay out on their behalf is being used to arrange an attack on your own country, you bet your ass it is.

Still not treason. Endagering public health, corruption, bribery - perhaps. Perhaps even "at the behest of a foreign power"..but not treason. Unless you define germs as the enemy

Inviting foreign troops to enter your own country for an attack within that country would fall under levying war.

I'm not saying he's not a criminal ; Just not a traitor deserving between 33 and 36 fucking years in prison.

What would be a fitting penalty in your mind for someone who conspires with a foreign government to carry out an assault on your own country? If anything, this guy got off easy, since the usual punishment involves a gibbet or a firing squad.

[Sarevok]

If an American secretly worked as an agent for a foreign espionage agency and claimed it was for a "good" cause would he be allowed to go free ?

[Simon_Jester]

What makes this case interesting is that theoretically the Pakistani government 'wanted' bin Laden to get caught in the first place.

If bin Laden was a friend of Pakistan under Pakistani protection, then calling Dr. Afridi's actions treason would make lots of sense. But instead, Pakistan avowed its own hostility to al Qaeda, and as far as I know did not renounce the US sending troops to kill or capture him- theoretically, they were willing to do it themselves, too.

I have often said "turnabout is fair play:" a spy from A caught in B shouldn't expect better treatment than a spy from B who's caught in A while doing the same thing. But here, it's not 100% about the turnabout question. It's also about whether Pakistan's stated goals line up with their policies. Is their national plan to declare that they're the enemies of these guys, while secretly sheltering them and trying to avoid doing anything about them that might make it hard to use them later?

In the same way, suppose there was some wanted criminal on the loose in the US, and the US said as a matter of public policy that he was public enemy number one. And then suppose that an American leaked information about this criminal to Chinese or British or Israeli or South African or heck, Pakistani intelligence.

And then the US court system puts the man on trial for treason.

That sends an interesting mixed message about whether the US really wanted the guy caught or not.

[Simon_Jester]

But is it treason?

[The Yosemite Bear]

reminds me what happened to the folks that helped Wiesenthal in South America with his illegal kidnappings including Eichmann?

[Simon_Jester]

Did they get thrown in jail for that? Huh.

Were they charged with treason, by an Argentine government officially committed to hunting down Nazi war criminals? Because that'd be some pretty messed up stuff.

[The Yosemite Bear]

sctually I was asking