fake vaccination drive to get osama

[Feroz Afridi]

CIA organised fake vaccination drive to get Osama bin Laden's family DNA | World news | The Guardian

CIA organised fake vaccination drive to get Osama bin Laden's family DNA
Senior Pakistani doctor who organised vaccine programme in Abbottabad arrested by ISI for working with US agents



CIA organised fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad to try and find Osama bin Laden. Photograph: Md Nadeem/EPA
The CIA organised a fake vaccination programme in the town where it believed Osama bin Laden was hiding in an elaborate attempt to obtain DNA from the fugitive al-Qaida leader's family, a Guardian investigation has found.

As part of extensive preparations for the raid that killed Bin Laden in May, CIA agents recruited a senior Pakistani doctor to organise the vaccine drive in Abbottabad, even starting the "project" in a poorer part of town to make it look more authentic, according to Pakistani and US officials and local residents.

The doctor, Shakil Afridi, has since been arrested by the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) for co-operating with American intelligence agents.

Relations between Washington and Islamabad, already severely strained by the Bin Laden operation, have deteriorated considerably since then. The doctor's arrest has exacerbated these tensions. The US is understood to be concerned for the doctor's safety, and is thought to have intervened on his behalf.

The vaccination plan was conceived after American intelligence officers tracked an al-Qaida courier, known as Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, to what turned out to be Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound last summer. The agency monitored the compound by satellite and surveillance from a local CIA safe house in Abbottabad, but wanted confirmation that Bin Laden was there before mounting a risky operation inside another country.

DNA from any of the Bin Laden children in the compound could be compared with a sample from his sister, who died in Boston in 2010, to provide evidence that the family was present.

So agents approached Afridi, the health official in charge of Khyber, part of the tribal area that runs along the Afghan border.

The doctor went to Abbottabad in March, saying he had procured funds to give free vaccinations for hepatitis B. 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. Health visitors in the area were among the few people who had gained access to the Bin Laden compound in the past, administering polio drops to some of the children.

Afridi had posters for the vaccination programme put up around Abbottabad, featuring a vaccine made by Amson, a medicine manufacturer based on the outskirts of Islamabad.

In March health workers administered the vaccine in a poor neighbourhood on the edge of Abbottabad called Nawa Sher. The hepatitis B vaccine is usually given in three doses, the second a month after the first. But in April, instead of administering the second dose in Nawa Sher, the doctor returned to Abbottabad and moved the nurses on to Bilal Town, the suburb where Bin Laden lived.

It is not known exactly how the doctor hoped to get DNA from the vaccinations, although nurses could have been trained to withdraw some blood in the needle after administrating the drug.

"The whole thing was totally irregular," said one Pakistani official. "Bilal Town is a well-to-do area. Why would you choose that place to give free vaccines? And what is the official surgeon of Khyber doing working in Abbottabad?"

A nurse known as Bakhto, whose full name is Mukhtar Bibi, managed to gain entry to the Bin Laden compound to administer the vaccines. According to several sources, the doctor, who waited outside, told her to take in a handbag that was fitted with an electronic device. It is not clear what the device was, or whether she left it behind. It is also not known whether the CIA managed to obtain any Bin Laden DNA, although one source suggested the operation did not succeed.

Mukhtar Bibi, who was unaware of the real purpose of the vaccination campaign, would not comment on the programme.

Pakistani intelligence became aware of the doctor's activities during the investigation into the US raid in which Bin Laden was killed on the top floor of the Abbottabad house. Islamabad refused to comment officially on Afridi's arrest, but one senior official said: "Wouldn't any country detain people for working for a foreign spy service?"

The doctor is one of several people suspected of helping the CIA to have been arrested by the ISI, but he is thought to be the only one still in custody.

Pakistan is furious over being kept in the dark about the raid, and the US is angry that the Pakistani investigation appears more focused on finding out how the CIA was able to track down the al-Qaida leader than on how Bin Laden was able to live in Abbottabad for five years.

Over the weekend, relations were pummelled further when the US announced that it would cut $800m (£500m) worth of military aid as punishment for Pakistan's perceived lack of co-operation in the anti-terror fight. William Daley, the White House chief of staff, went on US television on Sunday to say: "Obviously, there's still a lot of pain that the political system in Pakistan is feeling by virtue of the raid that we did to get Osama bin Laden, something the president felt strongly about and we have no regrets over."

The CIA refused to comment on the vaccination plot.

[Feroz Afridi]

Afridi’s help to reach Osama puts health workers lives at risk


* Health workers, vaccination drives will be affected when people find out that local doctors were helping the CIA
By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: The disclosure that a senior Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Health Department official helped the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) track down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad before the May 2 operation by Washington “puts the lives of health workers at risk”, Pakistani and international health organisations fear.
A British newspaper alleged that Dr Shakil Afridi, an agency surgeon in Khyber Agency, ran a “fake vaccination drive” in Abbottabad to try to get DNA samples from the family members of Osama bin Laden. Afridi, however, is missing since the last week of May, as security agencies have detained several “Pakistani agents” working for the CIA who took part in the anti-Osama operation.
“I think with this revelation our polio vaccination drive will be affected,” a senior FATA Health Department official told Daily Times on Saturday. “The health workers will be suspected of being part of any plot the CIA may be staging to arrest the remaining wanted men,” he said.
Pakistan is among very few countries where polio has not been completely eliminated yet and the government and world health organisations run vaccination drives repeatedly to keep more children from being crippled by the disease.
The reason for repeated campaigns is the unwillingness of conservative families, who always treat such campaigns with great suspicion.
“Dr Shakil Afridi’s alleged involvement in the anti-Osama operation will have a negative fallout on the future of anti-polio vaccination drives in the Tribal Areas,” the FATA Health Department official warned. He said if the issue of Dr Afridi continued to make headlines in the media it would “strengthen the hands of the elements who had opposed the vaccination in the past”.
An international humanitarian organisation working in health sectors worldwide, also joined the concerns of the FATA Health Department, saying, “The US government’s alleged misuse of a vaccination campaign in Pakistan for counter-terrorism purposes constitutes a dangerous abuse of medical care, which threatens the trust essential for health agencies and humanitarian aid workers to provide lifesaving medical services.”
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders said that it “Condemns the use of medical aid for military objectives”.
MSF international president Dr Unni Karunakara in a press statement issued in New York on July 14 and received on Saturday via email, said, “Whether the story is true or not, the mere suggestion that the provision of medical care was carried out under false pretences damages public perception of the true purpose of medical action.”
“With all populations in crisis, it is challenging enough for health agencies and humanitarian aid workers to gain access to, and the trust of, communities, especially populations already sceptical of the motives of any outside assistance.”
He went on to lash out at the CIA: “Deceptive use of medical care also endangers those who provide legitimate and essential health services. Furthermore, carrying out an act of no therapeutic or preventative benefit purely for military or intelligence purposes violates medical ethics, which require acting solely on the needs of patients and doing no harm.”
The MSF international president added that impartial humanitarian assistance “requires acceptance from all communities and warring parties – whether national governments, armed opposition movements, international forces, or even criminal groups. In all conflicts or highly politicised environments, this access can only be achieved and maintained over time by actions that demonstrate humanitarian providers are acting only in the interests of those receiving care”.
“The allegation of a fake CIA vaccination campaign constitutes a grave manipulation of the medical act,” said Dr Karunakara. “The risk is that vulnerable communities—anywhere—needing access to essential health services will understandably question the true motivation of medical workers and humanitarian aid. The potential consequence is that even basic health care, including vaccination, does not reach those who need it the most.”
After the Guardian report the distressed family of Dr Shakil Afridi also went underground as local media visited their house in the Hayatabad residential district to talk to any member of the family.

[afghan]

this news does seem a foolish joke. why to make things so complicated, the USA knew where bin laden was , his compound was well secured. the questions comes in mind how he came to be settled in abbot abad? the he lived in was not a common man living place. for DNA the CIA could use the rubbish from the same house.

[jhaneG]

Who would love to hear? Although, many brand new reports all claim that vaccinations have grown to be even more effective, decreasing death rates, many vaccinations have grown to be more difficult than ever to get to at-risk groups. The actions of a clandestine CIA program make this problem worse. In fact, some nations considered canceling Polio vaccination drives due to CIA actions. I found this here: Mistrust of vaccinations growing in developing countries.