On Trial for Treason

Osama bin Laden had been favoured by Pakistan and particularly by the military and its intelligence agency, with a peaceful existence in Abbottabad. There, he took the youngest and latest of his wives to sire four more children with her, to while away the tedious hours. A hunted man must live a careful, albeit precarious existence. With the help of his friends, of course.

The military garrison close by and the nearby homes of elite officers guaranteed respect for his anonymity.

Ah, but one of his closest neighbours harboured his own suspicions. Dr. Shakeel Afridi, aware that his government boasted its friendship with the United States and trumpeted their common cause in battling terrorism, saw little amiss when he was recruited by the CIA to aid them in discovering just who that mysterious recluse might be.

They thought up a scheme to vaccinate the town's residents for hepatitis B. In the process, procuring DNA samples from those living in that compound.

Dr. Alfridi took it upon himself, responsibly, to maintain a watch on his neighbours. He reported activities of interest to the CIA. And possibly was able to validate suspicions through DNA testing, that the children living there were related to Osama bin Laden. Ergo, the tall, silent ghostly figure likely was Osama bin Laden himself.

The lightning, split-second-timing SEALs raid that ended the life of al-Qaeda's leader, constituted an embarrassment for Pakistan, revealing its administration and its military and intelligence agency for the duplicitous, treacherous 'friends' they are. They hadn't officially been alerted to the planned raid because suspicions were robust enough that they would alert bin-Laden.

It's taken awhile, but the government in northwest province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where bin Laden had lived has fired Dr. Alfridi on disciplinary grounds. "The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has issued a notification of dismissal of Dr. Shakeel Alfridi", announced the provincial health secretary.

Dr. Alfridi is not merely fired. He is in police custody. Seventeen additional medics who worked on the same vaccination program that had been arranged for through collusion with the CIA have also been fired. Fifteen female health workers were dismissed last summer. A female doctor and an assistant coordinator were fired earlier this month.

Dr. Afridi had worked for years as a government surgeon.

An investigative panel looking into the bin Laden raid has put forward the recommendation that Dr. Afridi be tried for treason. He is suspected by Pakistani officials of having led the U.S. to Osama bin Laden. This is the very same Pakistan that pledged, in return for yearly American funding to the tune of multiple billions, to form an alliance against terror with the United States.

This is the Pakistan that claimed it had no knowledge whatever of the presence of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad; for that matter, anywhere in Pakistan. The SEALs raid, however, represented an insulting violation of the country's sovereignty. And, of course, Pakistanis were outraged, along with their furious government.

Even so, the American government was not completely certain of the identity of the man they targeted in that fateful May 2 raid on the Abbottabad compound. It just happened, after all, to be Osama bin Laden. And he was summarily dismissed from life. "Paid" stamped on a debt of revenge, or natural justice.

And Dr. Shakeel Afridi will now go on trial for treason against his country. Does that not speak absolute volumes?