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Pakistani Polio Center Bombed

anatta

anatta

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A suicide attack on a polio vaccination center in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday killed 15 people, mainly police officers gathered to escort health workers, officials said. It was the latest attack on the vaccination campaign, and health workers have been repeatedly targeted in recent years by Islamic militants.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives among the police officers, said Sarfraz Bugti, provincial home minister. The bombing happened outside the polio center shortly before vaccination teams were due to Polio workers in Pakistan, and their police escorts, have been targeted in recent years by Islamic militants who accuse them of working as spies for the United States.

The attacks intensified after a Pakistani doctor was arrested on charges of running a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign in the city of Abbottabad as a cover for a CIA-backed effort to obtain DNA samples from Osama bin Laden ahead of the 2011 U.S. raid that killed him.

Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio is endemic, and the attacks have hindered vaccination campaigns. Some Pakistanis are also suspicious, fearing the vaccinations will sterilize their children.

See more at: 15 dead in suicide blast at Pakistani polio center - Orlando Sentinel
 
Re: Pakistani Polio Cneter Bombed

back story on this is the CIA was caught red handed using vaccination workers for cover to gain info on bin Laden's location.
CIA promised never to do it again.. apparently the 'militants' do not believe that assertion
 
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Re: Pakistani Polio Cneter Bombed

annata said:
back story on this is the CIA was caught red handed using vaccination workers for cover to gain info on bin Laden's location.
CIA promised never to do it again.. apparently the 'militants' do not believe that assertion
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actually the whole story about a doctor running a fake vaccination center was just a made up CIA cover story

In June 2011, it was reported in the New York Times, the Washington Post and all over the Pakistani press that Amir Aziz had been held for questioning in Pakistan; he was, it was said, a CIA informant who had been spying on the comings and goings at the bin Laden compound. Aziz was released, but the retired official said that US intelligence was unable to learn who leaked the highly classified information about his involvement with the mission. Officials in Washington decided they ‘could not take a chance that Aziz’s role in obtaining bin Laden’s DNA also would become known’. A sacrificial lamb was needed, and the one chosen was Shakil Afridi, a 48-year-old Pakistani doctor and sometime CIA asset, who had been arrested by the Pakistanis in late May and accused of assisting the agency. ‘We went to the Pakistanis and said go after Afridi,’ the retired official said. ‘We had to cover the whole issue of how we got the DNA.’ It was soon reported that the CIA had organised a fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad with Afridi’s help in a failed attempt to obtain bin Laden’s DNA. Afridi’s legitimate medical operation was run independently of local health authorities, was well financed and offered free vaccinations against hepatitis B. Posters advertising the programme were displayed throughout the area. Afridi was later accused of treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison because of his ties to an extremist. News of the CIA-sponsored programme created widespread anger in Pakistan, and led to the cancellation of other international vaccination programmes that were now seen as cover for American spying.
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Seymour M. Hersh · The Killing of Osama bin Laden · LRB 21 May 2015
 
Re: Pakistani Polio Cneter Bombed

dimensionallava said:
actually the whole story about a doctor running a fake vaccination center was just a made up CIA cover story
Click to expand...
the vaccinations seem real.. but who knows.. the whole thing backfired in terms of vaccinations.

The Lasting Fallout of Fake Vaccination Programs - ABC News

The U.S. government will no longer use vaccinations as a front to obtain intelligence, according to a newly-released letter from the White House to 13 concerned public health school deans. But some experts say that the damage from high-profile ploys -- like the one used to help find Osama bin Laden -- is already done.

"When it was discovered that the CIA had used vaccine workers as part of their undercover activities, it had a chilling effect," said ABC News' chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser, referring to a hepatitis vaccination program in Abbottabad, Pakistan, aimed at getting DNA from bin Laden's relatives.

At the times of the workers' deaths, an American senior counter-terrorism official defended the vaccination program and stressed that the vaccinations were "real" and "conducted by genuine medical professionals."

"The idea that these were in any way 'fake' is simply mistaken," the official told ABC News. "Many Pakistani children received vaccinations, and if the effort had not been interrupted by the arrest of the doctor, they would have been fully immunized."

"The plan was for everyone to get the full course of treatments," the official added.
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Re: Pakistani Polio Cneter Bombed

In pakistan terrorism increasing day by day..
 
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