{"id":66268,"date":"2018-01-23T03:58:55","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T03:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/23\/doctor-who-aided-hunt-for-osama-bin-laden-languishes-in-pakistan-jail\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:19:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:19:01","slug":"doctor-who-aided-hunt-for-osama-bin-laden-languishes-in-pakistan-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/01\/23\/doctor-who-aided-hunt-for-osama-bin-laden-languishes-in-pakistan-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor who aided hunt for Osama bin Laden languishes in Pakistan jail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PESHAWAR, Pakistan \u2014 Shakil Afridi has languished in jail for years \u2014 since 2011, when the Pakistani doctor used a vaccination scam in an attempt to identify Osama bin Laden\u2019s home, aiding U.S. Navy SEALs who tracked and killed the al-Qaida leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans might wonder how Pakistan could imprison a man who helped track down the mastermind of the 9\/11 attacks. Pakistanis are apt to ask a different question: how could the United States betray its trust and cheapen its sovereignty with a secret nighttime raid that shamed the military and its intelligence agencies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Shakil Afridi saga is the perfect metaphor for U.S-Pakistan relations\u201d \u2014 a growing tangle of mistrust and miscommunication that threatens to jeopardize key efforts against terrorism, said Michael Kugelman, Asia program deputy director at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. believes its financial support entitles it to Pakistan\u2019s backing in its efforts to defeat the Taliban \u2014 as a candidate, Donald Trump pledged to free Afridi, telling Fox News in April 2016 he would get him out of prison in \u201ctwo minutes. … Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan.\u201d But Pakistan is resentful of what it sees as U.S. interference in its affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohammed Amir Rana, director of the independent Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in Islamabad, said the trust deficit between the two countries is an old story that won\u2019t be rewritten until Pakistan and the U.S. revise their expectations of each other, recognize their divergent security concerns and plot an Afghan war strategy, other than the current one which is to both kill and talk to the Taliban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShakil Afridi (is) part of the larger puzzle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In this July 9, 2010, file photo, Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi is photographed in the Jamrud tribal area, Khyber region of Pakistan. (Qazi Rauf\/AP))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Afridi hasn\u2019t seen his lawyer since 2012 and his wife and children are his only visitors. For two years his file \u201cdisappeared,\u201d delaying a court appeal that still hasn\u2019t proceeded. The courts now say a prosecutor is unavailable, his lawyer, Qamar Nadeem Afridi, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone is afraid to even talk about him, to mention his name,\u201d and not without reason, said Nadeem, who is also Afridi\u2019s cousin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nadeem\u2019s office, the wind whistles through a clumsily covered window shattered by a bullet. On another window, clear tape covers a second bullet hole, both from a shooting incident several years ago in which no suspects have been named. Another of Afridi\u2019s lawyers was gunned down outside his Peshawar home and a Peshawar jail deputy superintendent, who had advocated on Afridi\u2019s behalf, was shot and killed, said Nadeem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afridi used a fake hepatitis vaccination program to try to get DNA samples from bin Laden\u2019s family as a means of pinpointing his location. But he has not been charged in connection with the bin Laden operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was accused under tribal law alleging he aided and facilitated militants in the nearby Khyber tribal region, said Nadeem. Even the Taliban scoffed at the charge that was filed to make use of Pakistan\u2019s antiquated tribal system, which allows closed courts, does not require the defendant to be present in court, and limits the number of appeals, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If charged with treason \u2014 which Pakistani authorities say he committed \u2014 Afridi would have the right to public hearings and numerous appeals all the way to the Supreme Court, where the details of the bin Laden raid could be laid bare, something neither the civilian nor military establishments want, his lawyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tensions have grown between Pakistan and the U.S. since Trump\u2019s New Year\u2019s Day tweet in which he accused Pakistan of taking $33 billion in aid and giving only \u201cdeceit and lies\u201d in return while harboring Afghan insurgents who attack American soldiers in neighboring Afghanistan. Days later, the U.S. suspended military aid to Pakistan, which could amount to $2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infuriated by Trump\u2019s tweet, Pakistan accused Washington of making it a scapegoat for its failure to bring peace to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\t