Aid Groups Protest To CIA Over Bin Laden Scheme -- McClacthy NewsISLAMABAD — A leading coalition of American humanitarian aid groups has written to the CIA chief to protest the agency's use of a Pakistani doctor to help track Osama bin Laden, linking the ploy to a worsening polio crisis in Pakistan.
Polio, a crippling childhood disease, is endemic now in only three countries, including Pakistan, which had the highest number of polio cases in the world last year. Health workers in this impoverished nation warn of a health catastrophe could spiral out of control.
Last July, McClatchy revealed that the CIA had instructed a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, to set up a fake vaccination scheme in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad to gain entry to the house where it suspected that bin Laden was living. The goal of the scheme was to extract DNA samples from the al Qaida chief's family members.
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My Comment: Desperate times result in desperate measures. The operation to get Bin Laden and to interrupt Al Qaeda terrorism operations has always been a top priority for the U.S. intelligence community. Using the ruse of a vaccination program may not have been the best idea to track down Bin Laden .... but without Pakistani cooperation it was the only idea. And while I can debate the argument on why the ends justify the means, the fact of the matter is that this operation worked, and we are now less one top Al Qaeda terror leader.