Taliban And Polio: Vaccine Drive Halted Due To CIA Fears

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.webpronews.com/taliban-an...-fears-2012-06


Taliban And Polio: Vaccine Drive Halted Due To CIA Fears



By Amanda Crum · 53 mins ago · Leave a Comment










The Taliban has halted the polio vaccination campaign that was scheduled to be distributed to over 161,000 children starting on Wednesday, citing worries that the U.S. drone strikes are indicative of a possible undercover CIA operation tied to the vaccine campaign.
The fears stem from an operation last year in which the CIA acted with Dr. Shakil Afridi, who used the vaccine campaign as a means to try and flush out Osama bin Laden with a door-to-door drive in Abbottabad. Dr. Afridi has been convicted for his part in the operation and was sentenced to 33 years by a tribal court.
Polio is still heavily prevalent in Pakistan, most notably in the North Waziristan tribal belt; this is where Pakistani officials are focusing their crackdown since the U.S. drone strikes. Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur says no vaccines will be given until he gets assurances that the drone strikes will cease.
Polio ran rampant in Pakistan last year; almost 200 new cases were reported last year, the highest amount at that time in the world. UNICEF says 143,000 of the area’s 161,000 children were reached by the last round of vaccinations earlier this year, which were given from June 4th to the 6th, but the ban on the upcoming round will hamper all their work.
The CIA has come under fire in recent years by aid workers for their use of health care providers in their operations, saying it only leads to undue suspicion towards the people who really just want to help.
Dr. Muhammad Sadiq, the North Waziristan surgeon general, said he had received Taliban orders to cancel the vaccination drive and is only carrying out his duty.
“Under these circumstances, we cannot continue,” he said in a telephone interview.

[Shamlawar Khurasani]

i believe the worries of taliban is justified.

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.businessinsider.com/taliban-commander-american-drone-attacks-must-stop-before-polio-vaccinations-continue-2012-6

Thanks To A Controversial Plan To Find Osama Bin Laden, 161,000 Pakistani Children May Not Be Vaccinated For Polio

Samuel Blackstone | Jun. 18, 2012, 4:33 PM | 360 | 8



Following last year's Navy SEALs operation that ended in the death of Osama bin Laden, reports surfaced of a controversial vaccination program that was created to confirm the suspected safe house of bin Laden.
The reports said that in March and April of last year, a Pakistani, Dr. Shakil Afridi, ran a hepatitis vaccination program in which nurses went door-to-door offering free vaccinations to children. Afridi, a health official of Khyber, was said to be recruited and in cohoots with the CIA.
The plan was to get the nurses into the suspected house of bin Laden, administer the vaccination, and use the blood taken and/or the DNA left on the used needle to identify if the children were related to bin Laden.
According to one U.S. official, the plan failed, but reports about the plan have enraged many observers — and may have widespread repercussions.
Afridi has been arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to jail for 33 years, albeit for a different offense (although most right-minded people seem to think it was in relation to his espionage activities), and is said to receive daily death threats from inmates. His status has created tension between the US and Pakistan.
And now, just days before 161,000 children were to be administered a polio vaccination (Pakistan is one of just three countries in the world where polio is still considered an endemic), Pakistani Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur has banned the vaccination program in North Waziristan, the New York Times reports.
Bahadur said he will continue the ban until the American drone attacks, largely carried out in North Waziristan, cease. His reasoning: this vaccination program could be just another covert CIA operation used to carry out more espionage.