Hero Pakistani doc who helped get bin Laden hit with dubious murder charge

[Zarvan]

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  Shakil Afridi says he helped the CIA track Usama bin Laden because he loves America. (AP)
  

Shakil Afridi, the hero Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA pinpoint Usama bin Laden's compound ahead of the Navy SEAL raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader, has been charged with murder -- for trying to save a little boy stricken with appendicitis six years ago, according to his attorney.

The bizarre charge comes as international pressure mounts on Pakistan to free Afridi, who was sentenced last year to 33 years in prison for "conspiring against the state," a sanction western observers believe was a pretext to punish him for helping the U.S. Afridi executed a vaccination ruse that helped establish bin Laden's presence in an Abbottabad compound, a development seen as embarrassing for Pakistan, which claimed not to know the world's most wanted man was living openly a stone's throw away from a military complex.

Attorney Samiullah Afridi said Friday that Shakil Afridi was charged with murder in the case of the unnamed boy, who after the doctor operated on him n 2007 in Pakistan's Khyber tribal area. The boy's mother filed a complaint against the doctor, saying he was not authorized to carry out the surgery because he was a physician, not a surgeon, according to The Associated Press.

The lawyer said the case had no merit because too much time had passed. But supporters believe that the murder charge could keep Afridi imprisoned even if a retrial ordered in August of his conspiracy charge results in an acquittal.

Afridi is fighting the conspiracy charge from prison, but has repeatedly been denied the right to see his lawyer or even attend court proceedings. His sentence was overturned in August and a retrial ordered.

Afridi, who professed his love for America in an exclusive interview with FoxNews.com last year, was nabbed in the days following the dramatic Navy SEAL raid in 2011. A government-commissioned report, supposedly independent from the Pakistani leadership and likened to the U.S.'s own 9/11 Commission Report, blamed the U.S. for Afridi's capture and imprisonment.

The report, ordered to get to the bottom of how bin Laden had lived freely in the country for so long and how the U.S. could conduct a raid on its sovereign territory, blamed former Secretary of Defense and ex-CIA Director Leon Panetta for publicly acknowledging Afridi's role in the ruse. By going public with his participation, the report claimed, any chance that Pakistani authorities could help him get out of the country vanished.
Hero Pakistani doc who helped get bin Laden hit with dubious murder charge | Fox News

 

[niaz]

Even If Dr Afridi had helped CIA because he thought that scourge of mankind Osama Bin Laden deserved to be eliminated; I would still call it a treacherous act.

Dr Afridi probably did it for money and he must face consequences of his actions.

 

[graphican]

His crime is not to get Osama killed but that he supported a foreign conspiracy deceiving internal security. He has committed treachery according to law. Now when you identify he did a service to America, reward him and give him benefits for his service - and - at the same time, when he deceived Pakistan, he must receive the needful reward for his treachery and for that he should be hanged.

Any objections on this approach?

 

[Zeeshan S.]

Time will tell what will happen. Will appeasing the masters will have masters save him or will he be punished by state law.

 

[chhota bheem]

if he had been dealing with an intelegence agency of a enemy country he is wrong .he was helping a friendly country to track down an international terrorist who is not even a Pakistani and ISI was the one which gave the info knowingly or un knowingly which helped track down the courier who led them to OBL.

 

[Rahil khan]

One thing shouldn't be ignored, is that he used polio vaccination campaign as a tool to track down OBL's whereabouts. Now how on earth should the GOP can convince the backward, extremely prejudiced, narrow minded people in majority of the population of tribal areas, that the Polio vaccination campaign is a matter of life and death of their children, and its not part of any scam or any hidden agendas.....How can we convince them?? Hasn't he played his role to put the future of thousands and thousands of innocent children at great risk......

 

[airmarshal]

One fine day, all of a sudden we will hear Afridi was taken to Chaklala Air base and boarded an unmarked plane for an unknown destination. In a couple of days he will be making anti-Pakistan statements from US or other Western country.

This the way Pakistan operates. This is our country where criminals get a free pass and innocent, or I must say those who are not resourceful, suffer.

Forgot to say. Along the news of Afridi sudden departure, we will also hear all charges were dropped.

Remember one thing. This is Hazrat Ali's indefinite wisdom and we cant deny it. A godless system can survive, even prosper but one based on oppression, discrimination & injustice cant. Pakistan's unfortunately is a system of injustice.

 

[forcetrip]

if he had been dealing with an intelegence agency of a enemy country he is wrong .he was helping a friendly country to track down an international terrorist who is not even a Pakistani and ISI was the one which gave the info knowingly or un knowingly which helped track down the courier who led them to OBL.

Totally agree with you. IF it was how you perceive it. You can not mix him doing a wonderful thing such as getting OBL killed to working with a foreign intel agency deliberately circumventing your own. Do you not see the amount of problems it has created for the country? The embarrassment of him staying next to a military base while all the while a PAKISTANI knew he was living there along with his foreign spy contacts. High level treason is what it is. It damaged far more than the countries future.

 

[Malik Usman]

if he had been dealing with an intelegence agency of a enemy country he is wrong .he was helping a friendly country to track down an international terrorist who is not even a Pakistani and ISI was the one which gave the info knowingly or un knowingly which helped track down the courier who led them to OBL.

What will be your reaction....if ISI support some other country (Can be your ally) to catch some terrorist in India..............???........you peoples will make a hell of this news.......so stop discussing this thread anymore...

 

[chhota bheem]

Totally agree with you. IF it was how you perceive it. You can not mix him doing a wonderful thing such as getting OBL killed to working with a foreign intel agency deliberately circumventing your own. Do you not see the amount of problems it has created for the country? The embarrassment of him staying next to a military base while all the while a PAKISTANI knew he was living there along with his foreign spy contacts. High level treason is what it is. It damaged far more than the countries future.

There's always two sides to the argument i respect you side.if there is dirt hole in my compound and someone throws a stone in it making the surroundings dirty i can argue why someone has to throw a stone and you can argue why there is dirthole.but by arressting him i feel it did more harm to the image of pakistan ,it showed as if the whole of Pakistan establishment was trying to hide him.

Totally agree with you. IF it was how you perceive it. You can not mix him doing a wonderful thing such as getting OBL killed to working with a foreign intel agency deliberately circumventing your own. Do you not see the amount of problems it has created for the country? The embarrassment of him staying next to a military base while all the while a PAKISTANI knew he was living there along with his foreign spy contacts. High level treason is what it is. It damaged far more than the countries future.

There's always two sides to the argument i respect you side.if there is dirt hole in my compound and someone throws a stone in it making the surroundings dirty i can argue why someone has to throw a stone and you can argue why there is dirthole.but by arressting him i feel it did more harm to the image of pakistan ,it showed as if the whole of Pakistan establishment was trying to hide him.

 

[forcetrip]

but by arressting him i feel it did more harm to the image of pakistan ,it showed as if the whole of Pakistan establishment was trying to hide him.

He could have told the Pakistani establishment who he was in employment for. He was legally obliged to do that. Same as the case with Edward Snowden. The US does not sit back and see the morality of Snowdens actions. It sees them in a legal perspective.

 

[oFFbEAT]

....why put your life in danger by revealing it........

 

[notsuperstitious]

Punishing Afridi is justified if those Pakistani security officers who kept Osama in a safehouse in Pakistan are also punished. Certainly the whitewash report that nobody in pakistani intel knoew holds no water, or atleast less water than the claim that Afridi actually did a good deed and should be considered for pardon. Heck Pakistan pardoned AQ Khan who also (sic) sold state secrets to foreign nations for money, did they not?

But the fact is that AQ Khan single handedly carried out nuke smuggling is also BS, same as nobody in Pakistani intel knew about Osama. And both these acts, í.e. punishing Afridi while immediately 'pardoning' khan point to that.

 

[forcetrip]

Punishing Afridi is justified if those Pakistani security officers who kept Osama in a safehouse in Pakistan are also punished. Certainly the whitewash report that nobody in pakistani intel knoew holds no water, or atleast less water than the claim that Afridi actually did a good deed and should be considered for pardon. Heck Pakistan pardoned AQ Khan who also (sic) sold state secrets to foreign nations for money, did they not?

But the fact is that AQ Khan single handedly carried out nuke smuggling is also BS, same as nobody in Pakistani intel knew about Osama. And both these acts, í.e. punishing Afridi while immediately 'pardoning' khan point to that.

I somewhat agree with you on that. Firstly the proof of that needs to be brought by a third party who is familiar with the case. Because obviously you dont trust our report which holds no water for you. How about the CIA open that dirty bag, I am sure it knows of everyone involved with it. If the CIA do not know of involved party then who can we trust to find out that answer from? I hope you say Times of India, because they will come up with lots of names a lots of answers.

 

[notsuperstitious]

I somewhat agree with you on that. Firstly the proof of that needs to be brought by a third party who is familiar with the case. Because obviously you dont trust our report which holds no water for you. How about the CIA open that dirty bag, I am sure it knows of everyone involved with it. If the CIA do not know of involved party then who can we trust to find out that answer from? I hope you say Times of India, because they will come up with lots of names a lots of answers.

Absolutely disingenuous to ask us for proof of what happened in Pakistan, similar to asking us for proof of Mumbai attacks that were planned in Pakistan.

My post is based on reasoning, unless you believe AQ Khan single handeldly sent military planes abroad on nuke smuggling missions, or that allowing LET to operate at muridke just by changing name plate does not show state support of terrorism. No I do not have ''proof'' ''pakistani state'' was involved, so do not ask, I already admit.