Pakistan jails doctor who helped CIA find Osama bin Laden - 33 year sentence

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/23/11827022-pakistan-jails-doctor-who-helped-cia-find-osama-bin-laden?lite

Updated at 8:18 a.m. ET: PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A Pakistani doctor accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden was convicted of high treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison on Wednesday.

Shakil Afridi ran a vaccination program for the American intelligence agency to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad, where he was killed last May by U.S. commandos.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has previously called for Afridi to be released, saying his work served Pakistani and American interests.

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Afridi was also ordered to pay a fine of about $3,500, Nasir Khan, a government official in the Khyber tribal area, told The Associated Press. If he doesn't pay, he will spend another three and half years in prison, Khan said.

His imprisonment is likely to anger ally Washington at a sensitive time, with both sides engaged in difficult talks over re-opening NATO supply routes to U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials had hoped Pakistan, a recipient of billions of dollars in American aid, would release Afridi. He was detained after the unilateral operation which killed bin Laden and strained ties with Islamabad.

In January, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a television interview that Afridi and his team had been key in finding bin Laden, describing him as helpful and insisting the doctor had not committed treason or harmed Pakistan

[chessdev]  WTF!?!?   Allegedly these guys are our allies in the "War on Terror".  And they sure are quick to accept billions of dollars in American aid, including after several earthquakes... BUT we find Bin Laden virtually down the street from their government AND they're going out of their way to punish people who helped get Bin Laden???

My first thought for balancing the budget would be to withdraw some of the aid we're giving that government -- if they're going to take our money and still try to screw us over, then let's give it to OUR causes and let *those* screw us over instead...

Or is there some rationale that isnt as sinister as I'm thinking for why they would sentence this guy so harshly?

Comments

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the US should take this as a validation that Pakistan has been taking aid to fight terrorism and in reality been doing the opposite (something the US has suspected for a while, hence the reason the Bin Laden raid wasn't disclosed to Pakistan in the first place) basically stealing the money. After all, if this doctor can be charged with treason for helping to kill Bin Laden, wouldn't that mean they consider the killing of Bin Laden as a betrayal to Pakistan itself? Perhaps the US should demand the some 80 billion dollars we gave back. If they refuse the US will accept military incursions to hit terrorist targets within Pakistan's border with impunity. For every drone bombing, the US will knock 100 mil of the bill and for every raid the US will knock 200 mil off the bill, until we get our money worth.

This probably a horrible idea when it comes to international law, but its fun to think about.

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

The problem is that the US needs Pakistan a lot more than Pakistan needs the US at this point. Until we can reduce our troop and equipment levels in Afghanistan to the point where we can just write them off, we need those supply lines. That's a lot of what the US is paying that money for. Pakistan knows this, and sees no reason not to use that to squeeze the US every once in a while. Because the US is so invested in Afghanistan we need Pakistan's cooperation - for now - because we sure aren't going to get Iran's.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that Pakistan already stopped NATO supply lines through Pakistan? If that's the case, where is the military getting their supplies through?

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

They stop it every once in a while. This forces the US and ISAF to rely on the Northern Distribution Network which a) puts us in debt to a bunch of governments playing the same game, only in the north, and b) is dramatically more expensive. Everything that goes through the NDN basically has to be either flown in, or driven in a very circuitous route, either through Russia (the most stable option), or through a combination of Georgia and Azerbaijan and across the Caspian, and in both cases through Kazakhstan and either Uzbekistan or Tajikistan (and Kyrgyzstan depending on the time). That's a lot of toll collectors on the way, and the US still feels a bit wary about putting their military supply train, including classified parts that can "fall off the truck" through Russia, and then through territory allied with China. It's a rotten game no matter how you play it. It also forces the US to rely on stability in several countries not known for it.

In the interim, the DoD has opted to pay a lot more and make their soldiers do with less. This is short-term sustainable, but people have doubts about its long-term effectiveness. Or whether Americans will be willing to take the tax hikes needed to pay for the full thing.