The cruel fate of a hero 7

We posted our summary of this shameful story of the Obama administration’s perfidy on our Facebook page, and we’re glad to say it has “gone viral”, spreading to 44,424* people to date.

It is about the Pakistani doctor, Shakeel Afridi, who made it possible for the US SEALs to kill Osama bin Laden, and has been abandoned by the US to a terrible fate.

He ran a vaccination program which gave him the pretext to visit the house in Abbottabad where bin Laden was in hiding. He took DNA samples from bin Laden which allowed the CIA to know for sure that bin Laden was there. It was a dangerous venture. He was risking his life to help the US find the man behind 9/11.

For his pains, he was arrested by the Pakistani authorities – who should not have been hiding bin Laden – and they are punishing him for their own deceit.

Fox News reports:

The wife and children of the Pakistani doctor credited with having helped the United States find Osama bin Laden are in increasing fear for their lives and should be evacuated from Pakistan immediately, friends and supporters close to them say  …

Shakeel Afridi, 51 – called a traitor in Pakistan, but a hero in the U.S. after the May 2011 SEAL Team 6 raid that killed the al Qaeda leader – remains in isolation in a Pakistani jail, where his bid for a review of his 2012 conviction for “terrorism links” has been stalled since last March.

Afridi’s wife, meanwhile, is in hiding with their two sons and a daughter, fearful they’ll become targets of groups within Pakistan – Taliban among them – who’ve declared their determination to seek revenge for bin Laden’s killing.

“I am sorry to say that (the) U.S. government is doing nothing for him,” [said] Qamar Nadeem Afridi, the doctor’s lawyer and cousin

President Obama – during his 2012 re-election campaign – touted the killing of bin Laden as one of his administration’s first-term achievements.

“He has been left to wolves and terrorists all around him in Peshawar central prison.” [said]  Zar Ali Khan Afridi, Pakistani human rights activist. …

Qamar Nadeem says he, Afridi’s brother Jamil and Afridi’s friends are bearing most of the doctor’s legal and other expenses.

“You know, both of them, he and his wife, were in very respectable government positions prior to this situation,” said Qamar Nadeem. “He was a doctor, head…doctor in the district, while his wife was a principle of a government degree college for women. But now they are in a very … miserable condition. You can’t even imagine. He is not working; she is in hiding.”

The degree to which they are in danger is emphasized by Zar Ali Khan Afridi, a prominent Pakistan-based human rights activist, whose last name reflects his tribal affiliation, not any familial relationship to the doctor.

Saying he himself has faced death threats for pleading the doctor’s case “since day one,” Zar Ali [says] that the doctor’s family should immediately be given passage out of Pakistan for their safety.

The wife and the children – whose approximate ages are 14, 16 and 18 – are understood to be living … somewhere in the province of Punjab, which lies due south from Peshawar, the city in whose central jail Afridi is held. …

Afridi is widely believed to have been targeted by Pakistani authorities because he played a role in what proved to be a deep embarrassment for the country’s leadership. Not only was bin Laden found on Pakistani territory, his compound hideout was located in a garrison town – Abbottabad – raising questions about who, within the Pakistani establishment, might have already known about his presence.

Many U.S. lawmakers have long questioned why the administration could not use the military and other aid Washington gives to Pakistan – billions of dollars worth since Pakistan was named a partner in the war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks – as leverage to secure Afridi’s release.

[But] testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry said it was “not as simple as holding everything accountable to one thing.” He cited nuclear non-proliferation talks with nuclear-armed Pakistan, and also said the country provided vital access for supplying us forces in Afghanistan.

“We’re not ignoring Dr. Afridi at all,” Kerry told the committee after Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) – calling Afridi an “American hero” – sought to know how much longer the United States would rely on “quiet diplomacy” before cutting off the aid flow.

The State Department [says] that the matter remains open – to discussion.

Whatever John Kerry and the State Department say, we know from long experience that the opposite is most probably the truth.

But while the matter may have been brought up while Kerry and other American diplomats had a working dinner with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and some of his aides during an official visit to Pakistan this month, the Secretary of State failed to mention Afridi during a wide-ranging press conference he held with Pakistani foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz.

It is believed that Afridi himself is being held in a 10-by10-feet cell with little opportunity for exercise. Pakistani authorities have said he is held in isolation for his own safety, but they drastically cut back on his visit privileges after he spoke with Fox News by cellular phone in August 2012.

Qamar Nadeem, his lawyer, is prevented from meeting with his client.

It’s for this reason that Qamar Nadeem refers back to that time to relay Afridi’s most recent appeal to the United States. “He told me the last time I met him that he (hopes for) diplomatic, legal and financial help from the U.S. government.”  …

Afridi was defiant and frank in his Fox News interview, describing brutal torture at the hands of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, and saying the agency was openly hostile to the United States.

Since the Fox News interview, Afridi’s brother Jamil has been denied all visits …  His wife met with him, accompanied by their two sons in late 2013, and accompanied by their daughter in August 2014 …

Pakistani intelligence launched an all-encompassing investigation in the wake of the Navy SEAL raid, arresting Afridi three weeks later at a roadside checkpoint.

While it was speculated he would be tried for treason in a Pakistani federal court, his case was transferred to the jurisdiction of the reputedly lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas  – even though Abbottabad is situated in a neighboring province that is subject to Pakistan’s standard judicial system. Bordering Afghanistan, FATA is subject to Frontier Crimes Regulations …

“This is a ruthless system,” said Zar Ali. “We demanded … an open trial in Abbottabad, but the government did not listen.”

What could they charge him with that wouldn’t highlight their own vicious double-dealing?

Afridi was called a traitor in 2012 by Pakistan’s then Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Yet the charges he faced accused him of aiding an anti-government terror group – Lashkar-i-Islam – rather than working with a foreign intelligence service. …

Afridi received a 33-year sentence in May 2012, provoking outrage in the United States, and leading to Congressional moves to cut a symbolic $33-million from U.S. aid to Pakistan.

An effort that has come to nothing, since John Kerry prefers to rely on diplomacy so quiet that nobody, including the Pakistani authorities, can hear it.

In March 2014, a review led to the sentence being reduced to 23 years when one of the charges against Afridi was dropped. However, Afridi’s legal team immediately argued that the review should have been the equivalent of a total re-trial. Since then, proceedings have stalled while the FATA tribunal currently hearing the appeal awaits a complete case record from earlier judicial authorities.

“No hope,” said Qamar Nadeem, but he added that his client had “no other option” but to continue with the legal process.

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* Up-dating: Friday, February 13, 1.00 am.  The number of people reached is now 71,968.

Posted under Islam, jihad, Pakistan, United States by Jillian Becker on Sunday, February 8, 2015

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