Photo Gives Glimpse of Low-Profile US Air Operation

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ABC News - Photo Gives Glimpse of Low-Profile US Air Operation (ABC News)

By LEE FERRAN | ABC News – 33 minutes ago

In the fall of 2012, a young Pakistani girl named Rimsha Masih was released from a three-week stint in a local prison where she had been held for blasphemy.

During her detention, Masih’s controversial case garnered international attention so it was unsurprising that when she was freed, crowds had gathered at the prison. Fearing for her safety, the Pakistani government hustled her aboard a military helicopter to be flown to an undisclosed location.

A photographer at the scene, Farooq Naeem, snapped a picture of Masih in the helicopter, with her headset on, face barely visible through a small window in the side of the chopper. It’s a powerful image, but it also captured something else – a curious detail that a source familiar with the event recently noted to ABC News: a small red patch on the helicopter pilot’s shoulder that appears to say “Department of State Air Wing” surrounding what looks like the seal of the U.S. State Department. The pilot’s face, turned towards the Pakistani military co-pilot seated next to him, is not visible.

At the time, the State Department publicly had kept its distance from Masih’s ordeal, except shortly after she was arrested when State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland called the case “deeply disturbing.” When asked if the U.S. had been in touch with Pakistan about Masih’s detention, Nuland said then she was unsure if the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan was “on it.”

http://gma.yahoo.com/photo-gives-glimpse-low-profile-us-air-operation-173546363--abc-news-topstories.html



http://www.state.gov/j/inl/faqs/

[Fred Sanders]

1. Nobel Peace Prize winning president Obama is I think doing many good things without trying

to simply do it to create credit and political advantage.

The committee chose wisely.