Controversy Over Shakil Afridi Exemplifies Tensions Between US and Pakistan

Dr. Shakil Afridi was an important Pakistani medical official – but he also allegedly worked for the CIA, helping them to track Osama Bin Laden in the tribal areas near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Afridi has been held in secret detention by Pakistani intelligence since last year.

He has reportedly told Pakistani intelligence agents that he was introduced to the CIA by the humanitarian organization Save The Children.

Save the Children has denied this – and say that the allegation has had a negative impact on their ability to operate inside Pakistan.

Marco Werman talks with New York Times reporter Declan Walsh, who has been following Afridi’s story.

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Marco Werman: This week President Obama has gone out of his way to remind Americans about the death of Osama bin Ladin a year ago. There was that campaign ad featuring Bill Clinton praising Obama for authorizing the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader and Obama’s secret trip to Afghanistan was timed to coincide with the anniversary too. The US raid on bin Ladin’s compound in Pakistan is still, a year later, a cause of friction between Washington and Islamabad. So is the fate of one man who has been detained by Pakistan since shortly after the raid. He’s a Pakistani doctor named Shakil Afridi. The New York Times Declan Walsh in Islamabad reported on his story this week. Declan just who is Dr. Shakil Afridi and why has he been detained by Pakistani Intelligence for nearly a year now?

Declan Walsh: Dr. Afridi, at the time of his detention, he was the Surgeon General in Khyber Agency along the Afghan border. So he’s a pretty senior Pakistani medical official, but he was picked up 2 weeks after the bin Ladin raid by Pakistani Intelligence because they had received information that Dr. Afridi had in fact been working for the CIA in the run up to the May 2nd raid by the American Navy Seals and that he had in fact been running a vaccination campaign in the neighborhood around bin Ladin’s house before the raid in order to try and get DNA evidence from the inhabitants of the house so that the CIA could confirm that bin Ladin was living inside.

Werman: And is there any doubt that Dr. Afridi was working for the CIA?

Walsh: At this point, there’s really not much doubt. Particularly since Leon Panetta, the Defense Secretary, who at the time of the raid of course was the CIA chief, and he came out in January and made a public statement to the program ’60 Minutes’ effectively owning Dr. Afridi, admitting that he had worked for the CIA and appealing to the Pakistani authorities to release him, saying that Dr. Afridi had not been doing anything against the Pakistani state, but rather that he had been helping the CIA to catch someone who was a common enemy to both Pakistan and the US. In other words, Osama bin Ladin.

Werman: Right. So what was the doctor actually doing to help the CIA?

Walsh: It turns out that he had actually been working for the CIA for several years. His task was to continue with his normal work in Khyber Agency and that involved moving around in a very sensitive part of the country where the CIA wanted to gather intelligence. So as we have established this week, the CIA had basically employed Dr. Afridi to keep his eyes and ears open and pass on any information about al-Qaeda operatives in that area that would be of use to them. This was his normal mode of operation, but then when the Abbottabod operation came up, it was slightly different. In that point, he was actually contracted to run this special vaccination campaign, ostensibly to immunize the local inhabitants against Hepatitis B, but his real job was to collect blood samples from the bin Ladin house that could be used to confirm to US Intelligence that bin Ladin was inside.

Werman: Now the story doesn’t end there though. Not by a long shot. You’ve reported that Afridi has told the Pakistanis that he was introduced to the CIA through the aid group Save the Children. Save the Children denies this. Do you have any sense where the truth lies Declan?

Walsh: Dr. Afridi’s alleged testimony in detention has caused huge difficulties for Save the Children in Pakistan over the last year. At one point, the agency believed that Pakistani Intelligence wanted to shut them down completely, to expel them from the country. And there have been restrictions on their movement, restrictions on the import of medicines that are used to treat children, which Save the Children says at one point resulted in 35,000 children in the tribal areas missing their treatment. So it’s had a very considerable impact on them. And it’s not just Save the Children that has had problems in this case. Most of the western aid agencies here have complained that over the last year they have come under very intense and negative scrutiny from Pakistani Intelligence. And this largely stems from Dr. Afridi’s claim that back in 2008, as he’s told Pakistani Intelligence, he was introduced to the CIA via a Save the Children employee. Save the Children has denied this very vociferously and they basically say that while they had some connection with Dr. Afridi, in the sense that he had participated in medical training courses they ran for 4 years in a row, that otherwise they had no significant contact with him and their sense is that basically he’s scapegoating them to try and reduce his affiliation with the CIA or present some sort of alternative explanation for his actions.

Werman: The New York Times Declan Walsh in Islamabad telling us about the case of Dr. Shakil Afridi. Thanks a lot Declan.

Walsh: My pleasure.

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