Fake polio drive

ADD ‘non’ before ‘government’ and one may actually end up with a perspective that is indeed at odds with the official view of things. For the American CIA, the use of a ‘polio vaccination drive’ to get to the most wanted man in the world may have been a clever ploy. For a number of US-based non-governmental organisations it was an irresponsible act that has jeopardised the working of NGOs in Pakistan where humanitarian organisations with overseas links are easily projected as covers for espionage, propaganda and even religious conversions. The president of the Inter Action alliance, a group of some 200 US-based NGOs, has written a strongly worded letter to CIA director Gen David Petraeus. The letter questions the CIA’s tactics under which a Pakistani doctor carried out a fake anti-polio drive in Abbottabad in order to locate Osama bin Laden. The Al Qaeda chief was killed in a US operation in May last year and the polio-drive doctor has since been hailed in the US as one Pakistani who stood by the Americans in the war against terror. This sole-ally title for Dr Shakil Afridi is, conversely, indicative of how difficult it is for the Americans to find friends among the Pakistani people. The letter by Inter Action chief Samuel Worthington confirms the theory.

The letter says the fake anti-polio drive erodes “the ability of humanitarian actors in Pakistan….” Our report on the letter comes up with a more specific case when it quotes the Save the Children country director in Pakistan as saying: “Our ability to continue this important work has been seriously undermined by CIA’s use of humanitarian activity as a cover for their intelligence gathering.” This is all the more alarming when we have in the recent past had many incidents of foreign aid workers kidnapped in various parts of Pakistan. The warning by Mr Worthington has certainly taken time coming given that it has been a while since the news about the fake drive reached the people. But the CIA would be faking it if it says it was unaware of the consequences.