Dawn – US concern over Pakistan ‘CIA doctor’ torture claims

Washington, 12 September 2012. The United States said on Tuesday it cannot verify an alleged interview by a Pakistani jailed after he helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden but would be concerned if his torture claims were true.

In May, a Pakistani court sentenced a doctor, Shakeel Afridi, to 33 years in jail after he was arrested following the killing by US troops of bin Laden in May 2011 at his compound in the town of Abbottabad.

Afridi was said to have worked with the CIA to set up a fake vaccination program to obtain DNA samples in Pakistani communities in order to identify relatives of the fugitive al Qaeda leader.

But he was charged and jailed for treason over alleged ties to the militant group Lashkar-i-Islam.

US television channel Fox News said on Tuesday it had obtained an exclusive phone interview with Afridi from behind bars, in which he detailed months of torture by Pakistan’s shadowy Inter Service Intelligence.

But doubts were cast on the veracity of the interview, which was released as the United States marked the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Afridi’s lawyer said it was a fake, and AFP reporters in Peshawar said a phone conversation would be unlikely as mobile phones are jammed in his jail.

“Frankly, we can’t at this point verify the authenticity of the interview,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

“If we do find that it’s authentic though, then the allegations would be extremely concerning. Pakistan obviously has human rights obligations including under the convention against torture.”

“One would expect that the people in the government would be investigating such claims by Dr Alfridi if in fact it turns out that this tape is authentic.”

According to Fox News, Afridi said he had agreed to help the CIA out of love for the United States and said he would do so again despite months of torture by the ISI.

Soon after his arrest he was taken to the ISI headquarters. “My clothes were removed and I was forced by a major to wear old dirty torn rags,” the voice on the suspect recording said.

“It was difficult to eat food. I had to bend down on my knees to eat with only my mouth, like a dog. I sat on the floor.” After being blindfolded for eight months, and shackled in handcuffs behind his back for 12 months, his eyesight and limbs have been damaged, he said.

Nuland said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has “been outspoken on this case, has called the sentence unjust, unwarranted and has called for his release.”

Fox News added Afridi’s conditions had improved as he is now held in a jail in Peshawar, northwest of Islamabad, where he has a cell with a bed and bathroom and a small gas burner to cook his meals.

http://dawn.com/2012/09/12/us-concern-over-pakistan-cia-doctor-torture-claims/

Dawn – Dr Shakil Afridi says he was punished by ISI for supporting US

Washington, 11 September 2012. Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA nail Osama bin Laden, told a US television channel that the ISI considered America Pakistan’s “worst enemy”.

Fox News claimed that its correspondent had conducted the interview in the Peshawar Central Jail, and quoted Dr Afridi as saying that he suffered “brutal interrogation and torture” when arrested.

“I tried to argue that America was Pakistan’s biggest supporter – billions and billions of dollars in aid, social and military assistance – but all they said was, ‘These are our worst enemies. You helped our enemies’.”

The news channel broadcast only the transcript of the purported exclusive, but did not indicate whether it was a video or audio interview. It also does not say how its reporter managed to enter the jail or meet Dr Afridi.

According to Fox, Mr Afridi accused the ISI of funding militants.

“It is now indisputable that militancy in Pakistan is supported by the ISI … Pakistan’s fight against militancy is bogus. It’s just to extract money from America,” he said.

Dr Afridi claimed that he was first detained in the basement of ISI’s headquarters in Aabpara, Islamabad, where he was tortured with cigarette burns and electric shocks and ISI officers attacked him for assisting the US.

He also described “a regime of perpetual torture and interrogation for large numbers of detainees”, some of whom include white western male converts to Islam caught while travelling to Afghanistan to fight Nato troops or to join militant camps in Fata.

One of the officers who interrogated him had also escorted an American official visiting from Washington to an interview with a highly sought militant, Abdul Karim Agha, in November 2011.

Agha had later told him that an ISI officer had whispered instructions in his ear as he walked into the interrogation room to feign sudden illness so he could not be interviewed.

“I was told by others that the ISI advises militants to make things up to tell CIA interrogators, pretend this and that,” Fox News quoted Dr Afridi as saying.

Dr Shakil Afridi said before he was moved to Peshawar in May, he met Abdul Kayyum, the nephew of a chief of the Wazir tribe, who had been apprehended by the ISI for reasons that were unclear.

Dr Afridi said there were many militants of different nationalities, often Afghans, held at Aabpara.

Arab detainees were given “first-class treatment and first-class food”, while some radicalised westerners were singled out for abuse.

“The militants were told by the ISI, ‘According to the Americans, we’re supposed to arrest you. We don’t want anything to do with you, but will support you by letting you go. Go back to Afghanistan and steer clear of the Americans.’ And then they would be released.”

Dr Afridi said he also spoke to an American detainee called Brown who was held for four months after he crossed illegally into Pakistan from Iran and was arrested in Quetta.

Dr Afridi said his CIA handlers had advised him to flee to Afghanistan, where he and his family would be taken care of but he didn’t believe it was necessary to escape.

“I have a lot of respect and love for your people,” Dr Afridi told Fox News, adding that he was “proud to work with” the CIA.

“My bank account was looted [by the ISI while being held], making me bankrupt. I need financial, legal and diplomatic help,” Dr Afridi said.

“My situation is very grim. I earned millions of rupees (tens of thousands of dollars) a year and supported my family and that of my brother. All of that is lost.”

Since his arrest, his family collectively has suffered $160,000 in lost income, legal fees and living costs, an entire life’s fortune by Pakistani standards, the doctor said.

http://dawn.com/2012/09/11/afridi-says-he-was-punished-by-isi-for-supporting-us/

The Asian Age – ‘Osama kept by IB with Pervez nod’

New Delhi, 25 December 2011.

A former Pakistan Army general, Ziauddin Butt, has claimed that the slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had been kept in a “safe house” of the Intelligence Bureau in Abbottabad with the “full knowledge” of the then ruler, Pervez Musharraf, and possibly the current Army Chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. (PTI)

http://www.asianage.com/india/osama-kept-ib-pervez-nod-594