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本帖最后由 StephenW 于 2011-7-12 10:24 编辑
Al-Qaeda CIA 'set up fake vaccination programme to capture Osama bin Laden's DNA' The CIA set up a fake vaccination programme in Pakistan as it tried to confirm where Osama bin Laden was hiding, it has been claimed.
 The villa in Abbottabad where the courier would visit Bin Laden Photo: AFP
By Nick Allen, Rob Crilly in Islamabad 11:37PM BST 11 Jul 2011
Having traced a bin Laden courier to a walled compound in the town of Abottabad, agents wanted to confirm the al-Qaeda leader was living there before raiding it.
They began a complicated ruse by recruiting a senior Pakistani government doctor to offer Hepatitis B vaccinations to local people, according to the Guardian and American newspapers.
A nurse working for the program was then admitted to the compound to give vaccinations to the children there.
The CIA hoped to obtain DNA from the children and match it to that of bin Laden's sister who had died at a hospital in Boston last year. It is not known how successful the scheme was.
The doctor involved was reportedly detained by Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency weeks after the US raid on the compound in early May, in which bin Laden was killed.
Officials in the US are said to have intervened in an attempt to secure the doctor's release.
The Pakistani authorities and the CIA did not comment on the report.
Relations between the two countries — awkward at the best of times — have hit new lows after American special forces launched a covert raid to kill Osama bin Laden in May.
Pakistan has expelled US military personnel and delayed visas for diplomatic staff.
The US has now halted $800 million (£500 million) in assistance in protest at Pakistan's decision to expel military trainers, and in frustration at the perceived slow pace of hitting militant hide-outs in North Waziristan.
Hamid Gul, a former director of the ISI, said withholding aid would simply turn public opinion more "caustic" and delay any large-scale campaign against militants.
“Why should they go into North Waziristan now? They were making commitments to do it, but these threat, master and slave treatment, this arm twisting, will not work,” he said.
Pakistan has long promised to launch a major ground offensive in North Waziristan, a rugged tribal area home to militants with the Haqqani network, from where they launch cross-border attacks on international forces in Afghanistan.
US officials have raised the issue repeatedly with their Pakistani counterparts, who say they are still trying to put down insurgencies elsewhere and are not ready to deal with a terrorist backlash likely to result from opening a fresh front.
Holding back aid is unlikely to increase co-operation and could strengthen those in the government who argue that Washington is a fickle ally who can’t be trusted, said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US.
“If you still need the relationship, which clearly the United States does, then it really doesn’t make sense to take action at this time because it leaves the United States with less, not more, influence with the Pakistani military,” she said. “Co-operation cannot be coerced by punitive actions.”
For its part, the Pakistani military has played down the cut in aid.
Military figures insist it will make no difference to their ability to take on militants or delay their long-standing promise to launch a ground offensive in North Waziristan.
“We will continue to fight this war with or without them,” said a senior security official. “Without them we will do it in our own sweet time.”
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发表于 2011-7-12 10:23
