Posted on 05/28/2012 4:28:40 AM PDT by edpc
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said it was "disturbing" and "difficult to understand" Pakistan's 33-year prison sentence for a doctor who aided the United States in finding terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
Shakil Afridi, a 48-year-old Pakistani doctor, was convicted last week of high treason by a Pakistani tribal court for working with the CIA by running a fake vaccination program near the al Qaeda leader's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in an attempt to collect DNA samples from bin Laden's relatives to try to confirm his location.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Headline should read: Pakistan admits to supporting Al-Qeada and harboring Bin Laden.
Correct me if I am wrong; but wasn’t Panetta the one who revealed his identity months ago?
>a 48-year-old Pakistani doctor, was convicted last week of high treason by a Pakistani tribal court
What is that?
Seriously, what is a “tribal court” and how does it differ from any other court in that country?
Tribal court sounds like something out of Zululand Africa.
Why didn't the Obama Adminstration have the Doctor removed to the United States before the raid?
I read the same thing. This is another lesson to those who might help. Don't trust the US. You will be betrayed. This is a message that is incredibly corrosive to our relationships around the world - just the kind of thing Obama would love.
Had it not been for this Pakistani DR. and Seal Team 6 BinLaden would probably be alive today. Maybe its time for Seal Team 6 to spring him.
Nope, it’s not difficult to understand at all.
Nor is it difficult to understand that Panetta, like a lot of other Dems, progressives & libs, is an idiot who refuses to recognize that many radical exponents of Islam loathe our freedom and way of life, and want to kill us. Period. Of course they are going to mete out stiff punishment to those who aid the U.S.
It’d be nice to see a few treason trials in this country, too. There’s plenty of anti-American, anti-Constitution activity going on at some pretty high levels of the gov’t.
I read on another site that the Senate has voted to cut funding to Pakistan by $33 million. 1 million for every year this man will be in jail.
It’s a very tiny sliver of the amount they get every year. They should have cut it entirely. Pakistan is no friend to the United States.
The fact that they would convict this man tells me they supported OBL from the get-go. Who’s the real enemy and betrayer here?? As for Panetta and the rest of the Chicago Thug Machine... They’re ALL in bed w/the terrorists nations. Don’t let them fool you.
You’ll get no arguement on that from me. They have chosen sides in the war, and it wasn’t us. We need to stop giving them money. See if the Taliban make up the difference, or watch their country crumble. We won’t have to do a thing.
I find it difficult to understand the outrage over this issue.
Turn it around. An American citizen doctor assists Pakistani or Iranian intelligence agencies in locating an enemy of their regime. They then send commandos onto American soil to kill him.
Would this American doctor not be guilty of a crime? Not treason, but surely espionage and possibly conspiracy to commit murder.
I’m not trying for moral equivalency here. I have no notion that Pakistani or Iranian dissidents or opponents are “the same” as bin Laden. (Though I could point out that the MEK is one of the most violent terrorist organizations on earth.)
The issue seems to be that we think the rules we apply to others shouldn’t apply to us, because we are us.
BTW, I haven’t seen it mentioned, but I doubt the good doctor acted out of the goodness of his heart. I suspect he was well paid and knew the risk he ran. Also, has anybody noted that his actions are a pretty drastic betrayal of medical ethics?
GWB made many missteps in the GWOT. Perhaps the biggest was pretending Pakistan was an ally.
That, along with the belief there were nations in the Middle East capable of handling the responsibilities that come with self rule.
“Correct me if I am wrong; but wasn’t Panetta the one who revealed his identity months ago?”
What is disturbing is this administration outed this guy in a moment of self aggrandizement and now has abandoned him to the wolves. Panetta is a pathetic coward and traitor along with his devil master Barry, I am a Kenyan, Obama.
I quite agree that we should have protected our agent, regardless of his motives for spying for us.
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