It may sound melodramatic but one of the most tragic examples of blowback from our terror war in Pakistan is that the Taliban there are now trying to prevent Pakistani children from getting the polio vaccine, which has been available to Americans since the 1950’s and is all but gone from every corner of the earth, save for Pakistan and Nigeria where the remaining victims, and traces of the virus, linger.
![Polio vaccines in Pakistan. Note the guards.](https://antiwar.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/pak_polio_295x200.jpg)
On Wednesday, gunmen in northwestern Pakistan killed one security officer and wounded another as they guarded a team of polio vaccination workers. While no one has yet taken responsibility for the attack, it was the latest in a string of violent attacks and threats against health workers that began when it was revealed that a Pakistani doctor had helped the CIA gather intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden’s family in 2011. He did this by setting up a phony vaccination drive with hopes of collecting DNA samples in Abbottabad, where the bin Laden family compound was located. U.S forces thought the ruse could give them a clue about bin Laden’s exact location. Navy Team Seal 6 eventually got their man, but the Pakistani government did not celebrate whatever role Dr. Shakil Afridi played in bin Laden’s demise — they threw the doctor in jail for a year, then tried him on what appears to be trumped up terrorism charges and sentenced him to jail for another 33 years. Reports say he is in solitary confinement in Central Prison, Peshawar.
![A boy with Polio in Islamabad, 2011 Credit: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images](https://antiwar.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/url.jpg)
But the repercussions of Afridi’s brief CIA experience continue. U.S lawmakers are “outraged” by Afridi’s jailing, even lining him up for a Congressional Medal of Honor and vowing to withhold aid if he is not released, but none have acknowledged that the CIA scheme may have grievously disrupted a global health plan that would see polio eradicated by 2018. They don’t acknowledge, that even before Afridi’s collusion with the CIA, Imams and other Islamist leaders in both Pakistan and Nigeria, had declared the polio vaccine off limits for Muslims, calling it, according to a New York Times story in July, “a Western plot to sterilize girls, that it is unclean under Islamic law, that it contains the AIDS virus.”
Then Afridi came along, apparently thinking he was doing the right thing in helping the U.S roust the terrorists from his neighborhood (reportedly he did not know the bin Ladens were the target) and gave the Taliban all it needed to exploit that existing fear, paranoia and the ability to control and crack down on any whiff of western influence in northwest Pakistan. The government there acted swiftly, too, disqualifying the health workers who (unwittingly and unknowingly) went along with the fake vaccination drive from further service. Their terminations (over a year ago now) were just overturned by a court in Peshawar, according to The Dawn newspaper.
Some would say the number of actual polio cases — now down double digits — in Pakistan indicate the problem is well in hand anyway. But health officials fear these developments nonetheless, because there are still traces of the virus turning up in sewage samples, and there are a greater number of “carriers” that, without a full vaccination campaign, could spur an outbreak at any time. But as experts have pointed out, the Afridi affair has put ALL public initiatives, not just polio vaccinations, at risk.
According to a recent Associated Press report based on new UNICEF numbers, 240,000 Pakistani children missed out on the UN-backed polio vaccine because of the increased violence, and some 15 health workers have been killed (not counting the one on Wednesday).
Laurie Garrett, prize winning science writer, had this to say last May on the new realities in Pakistan:
“So last July (2011), when it was disclosed that the CIA had used Afridi and a false vaccination campaign to gain access to the Abbottabad complex, I co-authored a warning with Dr. Orin Levine that the CIA had ‘destroyed credibility that wasn’t its to erode.’ We wrote: ‘It was the very trust that communities worldwide have in immunization programs that made vaccinations an appealing ruse. But intelligence officials imprudently burned bridges that took years for health workers to build.’”
They weren’t thinking — or were just thinking of themselves and the prize of bin Laden at the other end of the scheme. A means to the end. Now we can just think about paralyzed children and iron lungs, and our hope that public health officials won’t stop trying to end polio there, even though they risk their lives every day to do it.
I have some very strong reservations about how the CIA or the US in general chooses to infiltrate countries such as Pakistan and does whatever it wants to without any justifications whatsoever. However, I do think this is a case of misplaced blame.
If the Taliban think they are justified in stopping polio workers from giving polio drops to children all because of how this method was used as a ruse in tracking down Bin Laden, then the Taliban are proving true their stereotype of being irrational volatile inhumane militants. Not much to do with the CIA actually.
If you do want to bring world focus on how CIA efforts might be hampering humane efforts in Pakistan, how about looking at the Drone Attacks? Multiple innocent lives are being lost there, which results in more resentment and Anti American sentiment, and to what end actually?
Well, it IS much to do with the Criminals In Action. You can blame them (the CIA) for funding a fake vaccination program. I think it's pretty bad to fund the deceitful program which ended up not even vaccinating the children because the follow up vaccinations were not administered. The result is that the CIA has tarnished the name of well-meaning health workers and programs from all countries and NGOs. So now the locals are suspicious of all vaccination programs. ps. I am not supporting governament vaccination programs in general, nor am I supporting the Taliban's actions.
Isn't the polio thing a possible war crime?
You can't use Red Cross markings to camoflage military vehicles, for example.
For similar reasons, I would assume this guy should be in big trouble.
well done kvlahos, finally we have some context on how the GWOT has eroded humanitarian campaigns which will take decades to overcome. With incalculable human cost. War crime and beyond.
Whoever is responsible for the fake vaccination scheme deserves death a million times over. This person is one of the lowest in humanity…
Rand Paul likes this Afridi Pakistani doctor because Rand Paul celebrates the death of Pakistani children.
I don't care much for Sen. Paul but I seriously doubt that, as you slanderously state, he "celebrates the death of Pakistani children." Most intelligent people wouldn't have made such a baseless statement so obviously you're not very intelligent and most likely a lowlife Troll… have a nice day anyway.
This website sucks balls, especially this ridiculous story! No way is killing polio workers justifiable you fucking left wing loons
Its cute how conservatives still call Anti-War.com a left wing site.
Looks like our old friend- “the law of unintended consequences”- strikes yet again!
This website sucks balls, especially this ridiculous story! No way is killing polio workers justifiable you ****ing left wing loons