Pakistan's Game Plans

The medical doctor who lived across from the Abbottabad bin Laden compound and who was arrested by Pakistan police has completely disappeared from public view.  Dr. Shakeel Afridi was convinced that his government was sincere in its protestations of friendship with the United States and its statements that it could be depended upon in the 'war on terror'. 

He believed his government when it protested that it had no idea where Osama bin Laden was, but he was most certainly not in Pakistan.  And so, he believed he was behaving in a responsible, moral manner as a loyal Pakistani by co-operating with American intelligence in attempting to determine whether it might indeed be possible that his mysterious neighbour was none other than the al-Qaeda mastermind.

To that end, he committed himself to a plot whereby he would represent himself as an agent of the government health services allied with a non-governmental organization - he had indeed received training from Save the Children, had even applied for a position with them - in inoculating hundreds of thousands of Pakistani children against disease.

He attempted to convince the residents of the bin Laden compound that it would be in the best interests of the children to receive vaccinations, and in the process attempt to take blood samples from the compound children to obtain DNA samples.  That was to constitute evidence whether they were indeed related to the world's most wanted outlaw figure.

His collaboration with the United States, a country whose treasury has enriched and supported the Pakistan military and secret service to the tune of multiple billions per year over a decade, spelled his death knell.  All too aware of the malignant nature of the dysfunctional relationship of a country that supported, trained and supplied the very Taliban that NATO was battling, the United States launched a unilateral night-time raid into Pakistan by Navy SEALS. 

The victory in accomplishment was theirs and the hypocritical red-faced embarrassed fury was entirely that of the Government of Pakistan.  The schism that yawned between the U.S. and Pakistan remains.  But billions in military aid does salve the injury, and suffer the successful drone strikes that continue to destroy the upper echelons of Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership.

But the fall-out of that history is still unfolding, beyond the arrest and imprisonment and possible sentencing of Dr. Afridi.  David Wright, head of Save the Children in Pakistan has been barred from leaving the country, since they too have been accused of gathering intelligence on Osama bin Laden.  His visa was not renewed and he blames U.S. intelligence for breaching international humanitarian law.

"The blame lies squarely with the CIA and western governments which use humanitarian work for intelligence gathering or worse.  If it continues then we won't be able to do our jobs at all in 10 years' time."  Shipments of vital medicine, it would appear, have been months bound in red tape at airports.  An estimated 35,000 children have been deprived of medical care.

Why blame the western governments in this regard?  Why not enquire what kind of lethal game the Government of Pakistan continues to play with the lives of their own in their very peculiar face-saving whose ultimate purpose still has not entirely been understood.  But of course NGOs are above that kind of fray; seeking only to be seen as neutral, their purpose to deliver life-saving remedies for whatever ails.