Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Doctor who helped CIA catch Bin Laden convicted in Pakistan of Treason

Less you be confused, convicted of treason BECAUSE he helped us end Bin Laden. Real 'Smart Power' here...

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/23/doctor-who-helped-cia-catch-bin-laden-convicted-in-pakistan-of-treason

"Thirty-three years in prison. He could have gotten death if he’d been tried under Pakistan’s penal code, but he was tried in a tribal court that follows a British-era colonial law so he got off “easy” with just a few decades behind bars. For helping catch the leader of Al Qaeda, who greenlit 9/11.

The only way the treason charge makes sense conceptually is if you treat spying on Osama Bin Laden as a betrayal of Pakistan’s national interests, the endless blather from Islamabad about “standing with the U.S.” against AQ notwithstanding. Consider that the silver lining in this otherwise very dark cloud: The regime is being honest, for once, about who and what they really are.

In Washington, Obama administration officials expressed anger and frustration at the tribal court’s decision, but indicated that American officials were working quietly behind the scenes to shorten the sentence or have it dismissed.

“The doctor was never asked to spy on Pakistan,” said a senior American official with knowledge of counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda in Pakistan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to talk candidly about the sentencing. “He was asked only to help locate Al Qaeda terrorists, who threaten Pakistan and the U.S. He helped save Pakistani and American lives.”

On Capitol Hill, two of the Senate’s leading voices on national security, Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, who is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and John McCain of Arizona, the panel’s ranking Republican, angrily denounced the court’s sentence. “What Dr. Afridi did is the furthest thing from treason,” the senators said in a statement. “It was a courageous, heroic and patriotic act, which helped to locate the most wanted terrorist in the world — a mass murderer who had the blood of many innocent Pakistanis on his hands.”

It’s charming that McCain and Levin think the jihadi sympathizers and anti-India fanatics in Pakistan’s military/intel leadership give a squirt about innocent Pakistanis vis-a-vis protecting their strategic interests.
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