If USA can persuade China to let Cheng Guangcheng go, one can only assume that Dr. Afridi's incarceration for the time being serves a useful purpose for USA, namely allowing Pakistan to blacken its own face for a little bit longer.Originally Posted by carl
As I see it,The following requires consideration:
1. The OBL issue has made the Pak Govt, Army and ISI lose face with the public.
2. The Army and the ISI are taken to be the 'saviours' of the country. The OBL case was a body blow to both the Army and the ISI (the Govt is taken to be incompetent, corrupt and sold to the US and so not in the reckoning). It was unbelievable to the common Pakistani that there much acclaimed military could allow a foreign nation to violate the Pakistani airspace and at will come and kill the Islamic messiah OBL!
3. This is more so given the fact, unlike the world, the Pakistanis feel quite proud that Pakistan could hide OBL, a fugitive declared by the world and thus cock a snook at the mighty US. It is also a matter of glee for Pakistanis that the ISI while pretending to be with the US in their War on Terror was actually protecting the Muslim brothers and Islamic warriors against those who wished to decimate Islam.
Therefore, would not the fact that the Doctor who assisted the US be sentenced for treason a vindication that Pakistan, the Army and the ISI are actually saviour of Islam first and then other things necessary for political correctness?
Just a thought!
Last edited by Ray; 05-29-2012 at 05:28 PM.
I personally doubt that the Pak Army or ISI knew anything about the raid, for numerous and obvious reasons.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
H.L. Mencken
I agree. The simplest explanation for the publicly known facts is that they had no bloody idea...not on that night at least.
Its always possible that some trusted US "friends" high up were secretly alerted by their "friends" to prevent a disastrous response, but I cannot see how there could have been any official contact..
What could be the reason that the Pakistani radars could not spot the helicopters infiltrating their airspace, carrying out the raid and then exfiltrating and take action thereof?
That is another mystery!
I wonder if the whole thing was as simple as it appears.
The Pakistani airforce chief claimed that his best radars were turned off because if he keeps them on all the time he has to replace very expensive parts every X hours. That sounds about right to me.
btw, there was a small news item in a Pakistani newspaper the next day about how the radar at Peshawar airport suddenly malfunctioned at 1 am or something. The guy on duty called someone higher up, his boss said push reset and nothing happened but htere are no flights that late so they were not exactly rushing and then at 2-30 or whatever it started working again.
Maybe Uncle Sam can do things like that.
Then again, I am not claiming I know what happened. Maybe Kiyani was told and stood down that night, but later reactions dont seem to bear that out.
Shakil Afridi and Mangal Bagh
From the Washington Post, Verdict against Pakistani who helped track bin Laden: Guilty of militancy, not CIA links (29 May 2012):
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A Pakistan doctor who assisted the CIA in tracking down Osama bin Laden was sentenced to 33 years in prison for conspiring with an Islamist militant commander, a verdict that could make it more difficult for Washington to argue for his release.
The judgment against Shakil Afridi debunked the widely held assumption that he had been convicted for his involvement with the American spy agency.
...
The verdict said Afridi was guilty of conspiring with a militant group led by commander Mangal Bagh. It said he gave money to the group and treated its leaders at a hospital in Khyber when he was stationed there. According to unnamed witnesses, he did this because of his “deep affiliation with the group.” Others, also unnamed, said the group planned terrorist attacks in Afridi’s office.
The verdict, which was passed down last week, found Afridi guilty of “conspiring against the state” and other charges. ....
(Mangal Bagh - very short Wiki)
More detail from The News International, Court convicted Dr Afridi for links to Mangal Bagh (30 May 2012):
Of course, Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion.PESHAWAR: As details of the order of the assistant political agent, Bara, convicting Dr Shakill Afridi on four counts of anti-state activities and sentencing him to 33 years imprisonment became available on Tuesday, it recommended that evidence of Dr Afridi’s involvement in activities linking him to foreign intelligence agencies be produced before another relevant court for further proceedings under the law.
The five-page order containing the detailed judgement by Assistant Political Agent (APA) Nasir Khan, who is also Additional District Magistrate, Bara sub-division, Khyber Agency, pointed out that his court could not take into account the evidence obtained by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) regarding the involvement of the accused in acts associating him with foreign intelligence agencies due to lack of jurisdiction.
...
The order regarding the state versus Dr Shakill, son of Mewa Khan belonging to the Malikdinkhel Afridi tribe in Bara, Khyber Agency, noted that the accused was charged under sections 121-A, 123, 123-A and 124-A of the PPC under the 11-Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). It said the accused was produced before the court of APA Bara for further proceedings under the provisions of section 11 of FCR 1901 (Amended) 2011 after completion of investigation into the case.
According to the order, Dr Shakill Afridi was arrested on May 23, 2011 by the political administration of Khyber Agency on the basis of reports that he was involved in anti-state activities. It said the intelligence agencies had received reports that the accused was in league with the Mangal Bagh-led LI and members of the general public too had made complaints against him.
The order said the accused from May 24, 2011 was interrogated by the JIT, which normally includes officials from the intelligence agencies ISI, MI and IB, for five days. It added that later he was handed over to an intelligence agency for further probe. It said his trial in the court of APA Bara began on May 11, 2012.
The order said the case was referred to the counsel of elders, or jirga, for inquiry on May 12, 2012. It claimed the jirga gave ample opportunity to the accused for his defence. Finally, the order said the accused was produced in the APA Bara’s court and given a chance to answer the charges against him.
Explaining Dr Shakill Afridi’s links with the LI, the order said the JIT in its report maintained that he gave Rs2 million to the banned militant group while serving at the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, Dogra, in Bara area and provided medical assistance there to the LI’s commanders Said Noor Malikdinkhel, Hazrat from the Sepah tribe, Wahid from the Shalobar Qambarkhel tribe and others.
The order said the accused was found guilty on all four counts and sentenced to 33 years imprisonment and fined Rs320,000. It added that all the sentences would run consecutively and the conviction should commence from the date of his arrest on May 23, 2011.
Regards
Mike
Roll that one over and grow me another one!
In other words he announced to the world, “We regularly leave the door unlocked, and by the way, here are the hours.” Was he immediately put up against a wall and blindfolded? If not, color me suspicious. Color me even more suspicious if he trots the same line out every time the Pakistani street gets restive over a drone strike.
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
Most suggestive to me is that you had a helicopter go down hard followed by multiple shots fired and yet the team still had time to collect evidence before anyone in uniform responded.
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
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