Pakistani Doctor that helped US track down Osama bin Laden sentenced for treason

[halik]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...lped-track-bin-laden-jailed-for-33-years.html

Yay Pakistan BFFs

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Already saw and read this on BBC

 

[Craig234]

I suspect we'd do the same if the roles were reversed.

For example, what if a citizen aided Venezuela in an armed raid to capture or kill the man who blew up an airliner who we were allowing to live here, refusing extradition?

However 'justified' the citizen's support for the raid, we wouldn't call it a crime?

 

[halik]

I suspect we'd do the same if the roles were reversed.

For example, what if a citizen aided Venezuela in an armed raid to capture or kill the man who blew up an airliner who we were allowing to live here, refusing extradition?

However 'justified' the citizen's support for the raid, we wouldn't call it a crime?

I caught that story on NPR while back; can't think of anything in our legal system that would make you liable in letting foreign entities know where a certain person resides. (unless it's classified information or something)

 

[cybrsage]

We should have pulled him out of the country (or at least offered it to him).

 

[Orignal Earl]

All of bin Laden's wife's are also in jail for being in the country illegally.

 

[ichy]

I knew someone like Craig would start up with the false moral equivalency.

 

[Texashiker]

Answers my question if Pakistan was protecting osama.

 

[yllus]

A morally bankrupt move by a morally bankrupt country. At best we can hope that Western diplomats quietly lobby for him to disappear into their arms and is transplanted to Britain, Canada or the United States.

 

[crashtestdummy]

We should have pulled him out of the country (or at least offered it to him).

They should have (and may have, for all we know) offered him asylum.

I will also say that I have mixed feelings about the particular ethics of gathering DNA evidence by a vaccine program. I get that it helped bag Osama, but now you'll have people in many places of the world afraid that vaccines will be an American conspiracy to monitor everyone in the world (and will have evidence to back it up). I could see this really hurting vaccine implementation in the future, and that's something that could be more destructive than Bin Laden ever was.

 

[ichy]

The ends justify the means in this case. Ignorant people in shitholes like Pakistan will be suspicious of progress regardless of what we do. Fuck em.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

A morally bankrupt move by a morally bankrupt country. At best we can hope that Western diplomats quietly lobby for him to disappear into their arms and is transplanted to Britain, Canada or the United States.

I'll agree about their government being morally bankrupt but remember that treason is from the perspective of the nation in question, not ours. While we are glad Bin Laden was caught, someone did in fact provide information so that a foreign nation could attack on his native soil. That by any definition would be treason. He did the deed and I hope we can get him out.

 

[lothar]

I suspect we'd do the same if the roles were reversed.

For example, what if a citizen aided Venezuela in an armed raid to capture or kill the man who blew up an airliner who we were allowing to live here, refusing extradition?

However 'justified' the citizen's support for the raid, we wouldn't call it a crime?

It's not illegal in the US to tell foreign entities where a particular person lives.

 

[fskimospy]

It's not illegal in the US to tell foreign entities where a particular person lives.

It can be, depending on the situation.

This situation is obviously horrible, but it's not exactly surprising. The government of Pakistan generally wants to be helpful to the US so we don't do awful things to them. The population of Pakistan wants nothing of the sort. Therefore the government toes a very fine line.

 

[crashtestdummy]

It's not illegal in the US to tell foreign entities where a particular person lives.

Perhaps not, but it would be considered at least a violation of HIPAA to be gathering information during a medical procedure that you then distribute to third parties. Fraud also comes to mind. Hell, there are investigations of Google right now about them intercepting network traffic. Do you think that is more private than taking someone's DNA?

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Thanks for the help, sorry you died...........?

Remind me never to help any of you guys. heh

 

[crashtestdummy]

It can be, depending on the situation.

This situation is obviously horrible, but it's not exactly surprising. The government of Pakistan generally wants to be helpful to the US so we don't do awful things to them. The population of Pakistan wants nothing of the sort. Therefore the government toes a very fine line.

It's more than that. As Robert Gates said, there's a feeling amongst the Pakistani government and people that we've abandoned them when the going got tough multiple times before, and they expect it again. So they play both sides of the fight so that no matter who wins, they don't lose. The only way we could convince them to play our side is to either convince them that we're not disappearing again or to completely crush the Taliban inside and out of Pakistan without their help. I frankly don't see either of these happening any time soon.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

All those countries say we abandoned them when we quit funneling money over there by the truckload, Afghanistan said the same dumb shit after we saved them from Russia.

 

[Craig234]

It's not illegal in the US to tell foreign entities where a particular person lives.

You better believe it is when in furtherance of that foreign entity violating our borders on a military mission.

 

[yllus]

Foreign Policy - Five people who are not in jail in Pakistan

Hafiz Saeed

The head of a banned charity widely believed to be a front for the international terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba is wanted by both India and the United States for his alleged role in orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The Lahore High Court dropped all charges against Saeed in 2009. Last month, the U.S. offered a $10 million reward for information leading to Saeed's arrest, which raised some eyebrows since he's not in hiding. Saeed held a press conference inviting U.S. authorities to come and get him.

Abdul Qadeer Khan

Despite having admitted to selling nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran, and Libya, A.Q. Khan was freed from house arrest in 2009. The father of Pakistan's nuclear program has been officially pardoned and is now immune from further prosecution.

Dawood Ibrahim

The boss of the organized crime syndicate D-Company is believed to be one of the world's richest criminals. He is suspected of ties to both al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba and to have masterminded a series of bombings in Mumbai in 1993. Accodring to some accounts, he lives in a palatial mansion in Karachi, though the Pakistani government has always denied that he is in the country.

Qari Saifullah Akhtar

Akhtar, who is believed to have run an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan before 9/11, was arrested in 2004 in the United Arab Emirates and turned over to Pakistan custody, then released a few months later. He was later detained in connection with an attempted assasination attempt on former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in October 2007 in Kharachi and then a successful one in December but released both times. Bhutto herself accused Akhtar of involvement in the Karachi attack. He was last released after four months under house arrest in late 2010.

Malik Ishaq

The founder of the al Qaeda-affiliated militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was released after 14 years in jail earlier this year. Ishaq has been accused in at least 70 murders and faced 44 criminal cases -- including allegeldy masterminding the 2009 massacre of the Sri Lankan cricket team, but no conviction has ever stuck.

 

[colonel]

the only thing Pakistan cares is India, they are playing games with foreign policy. They know is a election year in US.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Foreign Policy - Five people who are not in jail in Pakistan

Ok I see what you have, but what is your point? That Pakistan hasn't the interests of the US? That they aren't friendly to us? Pakistan is pretty transparent. It has groups which are anti-West which have considerable influence in the government which has waxed while the more secular military influence has waned. That being the case it's hardly surprising that what we see is what we see.

 

[Anarchist420]

I can't believe so many people think bin Laden was still alive in 2011.

I don't get why it's so hard for so many people to comprehend that Bush and co. wanted people murdered on 9/11/01.

That said, Bush and co. are the ones who should be tried for treason because they were enemies of the united States who waged war against the united States (as well as a lot of other people). Lincoln also should've been tried for treason since he waged war against the united States.

 

[rudder]

I suspect we'd do the same if the roles were reversed.

For example, what if a citizen aided Venezuela in an armed raid to capture or kill the man who blew up an airliner who we were allowing to live here, refusing extradition?

However 'justified' the citizen's support for the raid, we wouldn't call it a crime?

Even if there was a legal basis for arrest and incarceration... the one arrested would at least be afforded a trial in the U.S. One where the defendant has legal council, can enter evidence, etc. This doctor was not able to have any of that. He was convicted and sentenced by some tribal group without trial.

 

[yllus]

Ok I see what you have, but what is your point? That Pakistan hasn't the interests of the US? That they aren't friendly to us? Pakistan is pretty transparent. It has groups which are anti-West which have considerable influence in the government which has waxed while the more secular military influence has waned. That being the case it's hardly surprising that what we see is what we see.

Pakistan's problems are manifold, but I don't think one of them is that it does not share the same interests as the United States. Two nations probably couldn't be any different so that should be no surprise.

My ultimate goal is to aid Pakistanis in realizing that their massive case of cognitive dissonance hurts them far more than it hurts the rest of us.

The average Pakistani considers himself devout in Islam but does all that he can to avoid paying taxes and utility bills that might help the tens of millions of poor and uneducated in his country.

The average Pakistani professes disgust and superiority over the West, but would take an offer to immigrate to the United States or Britain in a heartbeat.

The average Pakistani states that it is of course wrong to attack and kill innocent civilians, but in the next breath considers the 9/11 attacks completely justified.

Called out on any of the above you'll see a Pakistani flush with the realization that they've said something silly, but they're just back at it five minutes later. Maybe it's because they get treated as grown children in so many ways - ever needful of aid despite unwarranted pride and bravado, not considered responsible for their actions due to a lack of education and infrastructure. I couldn't tell you really. But I am sick of it and do my best to call it out whenever I see it.