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/

BBC News – Save the Children foreign staff ordered out of Pakistan

Thursday, 6 September 2012. Save the Children’s foreign staff have been ordered to leave Pakistan within two weeks, the aid agency confirms.

It says it has been given no reason for the order, but correspondents say the move is thought to be fall-out from the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden.

After the raid a Pakistani doctor was arrested for helping the CIA track him.

Pakistani intelligence officials accuse Save the Children of involvement – the group denies the claims. Six of its 2,000 staff in Pakistan are foreigners.

The charity, which has operations all over the world, has worked in Pakistan for more than 30 years. Correspondents say it is not thought the forthcoming expulsions will have any significant impact on its operations in the short term.

A Save the Children spokesman in London told the BBC that the charity was seeking “clarification” from the Pakistani authorities in relation to the expulsions. The spokesman said it was not yet clear whether the agency would be allowed to send replacement expatriate staff.

The Pakistani government has so far not officially commented on the expulsions.

‘Zero tolerance policy’

Dr Shakil Afridi was arrested after it emerged he had been running a fake vaccination programme on behalf of the CIA as part of efforts to track Bin Laden, who was killed by US special forces in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in May last year.

The US authorities say Dr Afridi provided “very helpful” information for the raid and have called for his release.

Although Pakistan and the US are ostensibly partners in the fight against militancy, the Pakistani authorities viewed his actions as treason.

Media reports say Dr Afridi was in contact with staff of the charity.

But the Save the Children spokesman said that Dr Afridi had never been paid for any work by the charity and had never run any of its vaccination programmes – although he had attended a seminar shortly before his arrest.

“We never knowingly employ anyone who has worked for the CIA or any other security service,” the spokesman said. “It is totally against our impartial humanitarian mandate… Save the Children is a global organisation and has a zero tolerance policy for people involved in work that is not humanitarian.

“We reiterate our offer to the Pakistani authorities to examine our country office financial records and interview any of our staff concerned with our operation there.”

Dr Afridi was jailed for 33 years in May in a controversial hearing held behind closed doors under Pakistan’s tribal justice system.

It was originally thought that he had been imprisoned for running the fake vaccination programme – but court papers later showed that he was sentenced for alleged links to a banned militant group.

His family have called the treason allegations “rubbish” and his lawyers said they would appeal.

The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says that over the past 18 months foreign staff of other aid agencies in Pakistan have reported increased restrictions on the way they work.

Most international agencies report that it has become harder for foreign staff to get visas, and to get permission to move around the country, he says.

Despite that, huge numbers of Pakistanis have been reliant on their help, particularly following displacement because of conflict in the north-west and after natural disasters, like the floods of the past two years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19500103

BBC News – Pakistan jails doctor who helped CIA find Bin Laden

Wednesday 23 May 2012. A Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama Bin Laden has been jailed for at least 30 years, officials say.

Shakil Afridi was charged with treason and tried under the tribal justice system for running a fake vaccination programme to gather information.

The US state department said there was “no basis” for the charges, but declined to make a specific comment on the doctor’s sentence.

Bin Laden was killed by US forces in Abbottabad in May 2011.

The killing triggered a rift between the US and Pakistan, whose government was seriously embarrassed as it emerged Bin Laden had been living in Pakistan.

Islamabad felt the covert US operation was a violation of its sovereignty.

Absent from court

Shortly after the raid on Bin Laden’s house, Dr Afridi was arrested for conspiring against the state of Pakistan.

Pakistan has insisted that any country would have done the same if it found one of its citizens working for a foreign spy agency.

Dr Afridi has been found guilty in Khyber district, and has also been fined $3,500. If he does not pay the fine his prison sentence will be extended by a further three years.

Under the tribal justice system, the administrative head of a tribal district performs the function of a judge.

Typically, this means a court will often deliver swift justice and does not necessarily follow the regular judicial procedures.

Dr Afridi, who is now being held in jail in Peshawar, was not present in court so was unable to give his side of the story.

State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters on Wednesday: “We continue to see no basis for these charges, for him being held, for any of it.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for his release on the grounds that his work served Pakistani and American interests.

The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says that many outside observers are concerned that most of the people detained since Bin Laden’s killing have been those who were trying to help capture him, rather than those who helped shield him.

In June, Pakistani army officials told the BBC that some suspects were arrested for helping the Americans refuel their helicopters during the raid. Others were detained because they were suspected of firing flares to guide the helicopters towards the compound.

It is not clear if Dr Afridi knew who the target of the investigation was when the CIA recruited him, or what DNA he managed to collect in the fake hepatitis B vaccination programme.

The idea was to obtain a blood sample from one of the children living in the Abbottabad compound, so that DNA tests could determine whether or not they were relatives of Bin Laden, our correspondent says.

Both US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have said Dr Afridi’s arrest was a mistake and called for his release.

Speaking in January, Mr Panetta said: “Dr Afridi was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan. For them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part.”

The conviction of Shakil Afridi is likely to further strain US-Pakistan tensions, which have been rocky since the killing of Bin Laden, the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Islamabad says.

More recently, the issue of drone strikes and Pakistan’s refusal to re-open Nato supply routes to Afghanistan have made for a particularly uneasy relationship between the two allies, she says.

Pakistan’s parliament has called for an end to the use of drones, and says they are an attack on its sovereignty. A drone strike on Wednesday killed four people in the North Waziristan tribal area, security officials said.

The two countries also failed to reach agreement at the Nato summit in Chicago over the supply routes that were closed after a US air strike in 2011 killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Islamabad is demanding more than $5,000 (£3,200) per lorry, up from its previous rate of $250, to let supplies flow again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18175964

BBC News – Pakistan appoints Zaheerul Islam as new spy chief

Friday 9 March 2012. Pakistan’s prime minister has appointed a new head of intelligence to replace the retiring chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency.

Lt General Zaheerul Islam replaces Ahmad Shuja Pasha, who has been at the ISI’s helm since 2008 and is set to retire.

He takes up the post after a tumultuous year in which the agency has been accused by the US of backing militants across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies such claims but relations with the US have been tense.

Lt General Pasha’s term as head of the ISI was overshadowed by a single event – the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden by US special forces in the north-western Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad last May.

Some in the US accused Pakistan’s establishment, and especially the ISI, of at best incompetence and at worst complicity after the al-Qaeda chief was found to have lived in the hill town for a number of years.

Lt General Islam was born into a military family and is currently the army commander in Karachi. He has also served as deputy head of the ISI agency in the past.

The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says the appointment is unlikely to radically change the course of the agency, but is likely to be met with relief in a number of quarters.

US relations with the outgoing chief were frosty, particularly in the wake of the Bin Laden raid and ongoing disputes over drone strikes in Pakistan.

Correspondents say that as head of the ISI many believe Lt General Islam could be an important figure in any future Pakistani efforts in future peace negotiations with the Afghan Taliban.

Many believe the ISI has some influence over the Taliban – the ISI denies such claims.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17312915

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