The CIA Aided Polio's Comeback–but Media Have Forgotten the Story

[G_j]

http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/05/07/the-cia-aided-polios-comeback-but-media-have-forgotten-the-story/

Posted by Julie Hollar

Polio had been battled to near-extinction after decades of effort, but this year the WHO confirmed 68 new cases and declared it an international public health emergency. Nearly 80 percent of those cases are in Pakistan.

Why is this? According to the New York Times' Donald McNeil Jr. (5/6/14), "Polio has never been eliminated there, Taliban factions have forbidden vaccinations in North Waziristan for years, and those elsewhere have murdered vaccine teams." McNeil also quotes a WHO spokesperson towards the top of the piece: "So we're saying to the Pakistanis, the Syrians and the Cameroonians, 'You've really got to get your acts together."'

The Times underlined the emergency today in an editorial, explaining that Pakistan has such high numbers "largely because Taliban factions have forbidden vaccinations in conservative tribal areas and attacked healthcare workers elsewhere."

There's a crucial piece of information missing here—one that these outlets know full well. In 2011, the British Guardian (7/11/11) reported that the CIA used a fake vaccination drive led by Pakistani Dr. Shakil Afridi to gain entry to bin Laden's compound and gather DNA to confirm his presence there. As McNeil himself reported in 2012 (7/9/12), that revelation led to suspicion and banning of vaccination teams in the tribal areas of Pakistan. At the time, the WHO argued that, while it was a "setback…unless it spreads or is a very longtime affair, the program is not going to be seriously affected."

Then the killings started; the Times reported several times on killings of polio vaccination workers in Pakistan, noting in June 2013 that these attacks "escalated" after the revelation of the CIA plot. And the following month, McNeil reported that after Dr. Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason, "Anger deepened when American lawmakers called Dr. Afridi a hero and threatened to cut off aid if he was not released."

Fast forward to this week, and CBS Evening News (5/5/14) likewise avoided the CIA connection in reporting the most recent story, as anchor Scott Pelley noted: "Most cases are in Pakistan, where vaccine workers have been murdered on suspicion that they're spying for the United States."

The PBS NewsHour (5/6/14) was one of the only outlets that mentioned the CIA issue, in a report by correspondent Jeffrey Brown:

BROWN: Dr. Anita Zaidi, a pediatrician, cited a fake vaccination campaign that the CIA used in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

ZAIDI: Which has hugely damaged public health programs, not only in Pakistan, but in many, many countries, because people ask all kinds of questions. They now think that they might—the vaccine programs might be actually spy operations.

This story was well-reported in the past, particularly by the Times; why the silence now that the problem has been declared an international emergency?

[Fred Sanders]

1. But American spying is good, all others bad, get with the program.

[George II]

2. And just how did the CIA "aid" this?

[Demeter]

4. It's called "blowback"

The unintended consequences of dirty tricks.

[Aerows]

19. Typically when it is revealed that an organization isn't doing what they say they are doing

... confidence is lost.

The blood of the executed health workers is on the hands of the person that conceived of this operation, as is the fault of those afflicted by polio their works.

[MohRokTah]

35. They used the cover of polio vaccinations for covert operations in Pakistan. eom

[George II]

39. But even if they hadn't done this, there would not have been any polio vaccinations...

....so the CIA "non-vaccinations" didn't AID the comeback of polio. It had already "come back" and nothing wasn't going to be done about it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

41. Sure they did

because now any foreign health worker in those areas of Pakistan is suspected of being a CIA agent. See here, for instance:

After the ruse by Dr. Shakil Afridi was revealed by a British newspaper a year ago, angry villagers, especially in the lawless tribal areas on the Afghan border, chased off legitimate vaccinators, accusing them of being spies.

And then, late last month, Taliban commanders in two districts banned polio vaccination teams, saying they could not operate until the United States ended its drone strikes. One cited Dr. Afridi, who is serving a 33-year sentence imposed by a tribal court, as an example of how the C.I.A. could use the campaign to cover espionage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/health/cia-vaccine-ruse-in-pakistan-may-have-harmed-polio-fight.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

There you have a very obvious cause and effect; Taliban in control of tribal areas of Pakistan banning vaccination teams AFTER the methods the US used to locate Bin Laden were revealed, and explicitly making the link between vaccination teams and US spies. Sorry, but you're wrong.

[George II]

42. I guess you missed this in the original article....

"Polio has never been eliminated there, Taliban factions have forbidden vaccinations in North Waziristan for years, and those elsewhere have murdered vaccine teams."

If anything, perhaps the CIA vaccination teams took the attention away from the REAL vaccination teams, allowing them to administer at least some vaccinations?

But, around here it seems every silver lining has a cloud!

[Spider Jerusalem]

43. No, I didn't.

However, I guess YOU missed THIS in the NYT article I linked:

Five years ago in Afghanistan, when Taliban sympathizers beat vaccinators, Unicef and the W.H.O. successfully appealed to the Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar for letters of protection their teams could carry.

What put an end to that? The revelation that CIA agents posing as a vaccination team had been involved in the USA's hit on Bin Laden, that's what.

[Demeter]

3. The CIA is a greater international "emergency' than polio

capable of inflicting much greater harm more rapidly, and taking down the entire globe in weeks if it decides to.

[IronGate]

6. Bullcrap.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Bullcrap?

Pinochet. Pol Pot. Somoza. Noriega. The Shah. The Fedayeen. The Mujahedin & Osama himself.All monsters of our creation. Demeter is calling it exactly right.

[IronGate]

12. Exactly what I said.

Bullcrap.
Take it as you want.

[Comrade Grumpy]

15. Brilliant rebuttal. Quite substantive, too.

[Aerows]

20. Not in this life time will I ever agree with you

The dirty tricks squad has more blood on their hands than the vast majority of evil regimes combined, and you can bank on the fact that eventually, not only will their chickens come home to roost for their overseas shenanigans, they will eventually visit them at the polls and other venues.

When lying becomes not just PR, a habit, but willful purposeful obfuscation of horrific behavior, you can bank on the fact that eventually the human spirit will boldly and willfully put a stop to it.

Live in your bubble, but this ugliness can't continue forever.

[IronGate]

5. The CIA aided in this?

Bull, this is wholly on the Taliban, what with murdering medical professionals, spreading anti vaccine propaganda.

You know, not everything wrong in the world is the US or CIA's fault.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

7. Not all the world' sills can be placed at the feet of the CIA.

But a great many can. Check it out sometime. They started life by overthrowing peaceful governments. They haven't changed their stripes.

[IronGate]

8. So what govt. have they overthrown lately?

And please don't say the Ukraine.
And, do you agree that the CIA is responsible for the re-emergece of Polio?


And what about the Russian FSB, the Chinese, the N. Koreans? You think they're actively interfering in other nations internal affairs

[DisgustipatedinCA]

9. I know what the spooks in MY country have been responsible for on the world stage

And I don't support most of those things. And yes, of course the CIA shares some responsibility for their conduct. They didn't set out to spread polio, but on the other hand, it's hard to imagine they give a damn.

[gratuitous]

13. You mean in the last 12 months?

None that we know about. Funny thing, though, the people paying for all this are quite often the last to know for some reason.

[IronGate]

14. Ahhh,

so the proof is that there isn't any proof?
Sorry, just came off a hectic 24 hour shift and am too tired to debate.
Gotta go get some shut eye now.
Have a great day.

[gratuitous]

18. No, I didn't call that "proof"

But thanks for trying to cram your prejudices into my post. You have a great day, too.

[Aerows]

23. I think you are operating out of your paygrade

because your arguments aren't getting the slightest bit of traction here, or on any of the other "IronGate" aliases you have on other sites.

[IronGate]

24. I have aliases on other sites?

Could you post links to them so I can see what you're alleging?

[Aerows]

25. Oh, I didn't directly accuse YOU

Which is a fond invocation made by organizations that do things that are "extra-legal", I was using "you" in the sense of corporations are people, military units are people and the CIA is a person .

[IronGate]

26. Understood.

[Aerows]

27. I'll bet! n/t

[IronGate]

28. No idea what you mean by this post.

But, it's all good.

[Comrade Grumpy]

16. Well, they're busily adding to the mayhem in Syria. But they are failing there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria#War.2C_2011.E2.80.932013

Where they've been stirring shit for more than a half century.

And then there was Libya:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/world/africa/31intel.html?_r=0

...but that kind of blew up in their faces when their gun-running operation to Syria got attacked:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/10218288/CIA-running-arms-smuggling-team-in-Benghazi-when-consulate-was-attacked.html

And that's just the last few years.

[George II]

40. The CIA is NOT responsible for the re-emergence of polio. People here are acting like....

...the CIA went around intentionally (or not) spreading the disease.

[G_j]

17. fake vaccination drives, a splendid way to gain trust..

and foster the safety of REAL doctors

[Aerows]

22. Even a first grader could make the connection to this one

Unless the first grader was so brainwashed themselves that they couldn't piece together the difference between right and wrong.

[Aerows]

21. He ADMITTED he did it!

Excuse me, but when someone pridefully admits they do something horrible, brags about it, and would have continued ON doing it had he not gotten caught, I tend to believe the ... did it.

Bang your head against the brick wall all you like, but this is all on those who would covertly violate human rights, justice, and morality for GAIN.

That's called GREED and lust for power.

[xchrom]

10. du rec.

[seveneyes]

29. Taliban and Trust have nothing in common

This is all on the Taliban. Nobody else. WTF does the Taliban have any say in anything? The goal should be to wipe them out completely, and any other groups that target innocents for rape, murder and torture.

[G_j]

31. So if the CIA enters a village posing

as a vaccination team, they need not give thought to the possible future consequences?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

30. Our beloved CIA??? Perish the thought. Why they're really humanitarians and lovers of democracy.

Except when they're busy assassinating, torturing, subverting, drug smuggling, droning, or other "patriotic" acts.

[Ichingcarpenter]

32. The CIA's role in the overthrow of the progressive govt. of Austrilia

On December 2nd 1972, Australia's first Labor Government for twenty-three years was elected. The new Prime Minister, Edward Gough Whitlam, quickly set about a series of historic legislations: wages, pensions and unemployment benefits were increased; equal pay for women was introduced; a free national health service was established; spending on education was doubled; university and college fees were abolished; and legal aid became a universal right.

The Federal Government assumed responsibility for Aboriginal health, education and welfare, and the first land rights legislation for Aborigines was drafted. Cultural initiatives for women, Aborigines and immigrants were set up. Imperial honours such as knighthoods and MBEs were scrapped. The "Commonwealth Government" was renamed the Australian Government and an Australian anthem replaced "God Save the Queen."

Conscription was ended. Australian troops were withdrawn from the Vietnam War and men imprisoned for draft evasion were released. Australian ministers publicly condemned the American conduct of the Vietnam War. The U.S. bombing of Hanoi during Christmas 1972 was denounced as the work of "maniacs" and "mass murderers". Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Jim Cairns, called for public rallies to condemn the bombing and for boycotts on American goods. In response, Australian dockers refused to unload American ships. Whitlam himself warned the Nixon administration that he might draw Indonesia and Japan into protests against the bombing.

The Australian Government also pressed for support for the Indian Ocean Zone of Peace, which was opposed by the US, and spoke up in the United Nations for Palestinian rights. The French were condemned for testing nuclear weapons in the South Pacific, and refugees fleeing the CIA-backed coup in Chile were welcomed into Australia (an irony in the light of Washington's retaliation against Whitlam).


And then:

"The CIA's aim in Australia was to get rid of a government they did not like and that was not co-operative… it's a Chile, but in a much more sophisticated and subtle form."
]- VICTOR MARCHETTI, ex-CIA officer, 1980


Long read:
http://www.american-buddha.com/cia.australia.htm


Also a video which on the same lines

They created a bank from drug money and falsified documents and much more

[MohRokTah]

34. Christopher John Boyce.

That's what set him over the edge to become a spy for the Soviets.

[G_j]

36. another footnote in (barely) written history

so easy to forget...

[MohRokTah]

33. One of the most stupid moves made by the CIA, IMO.

Next they'll bring back smallpox. Won't that be just dandy?

[Joe Shlabotnik]

37. K&R n/t

[fujiyama]

38. The operation was short sighted

but then again US foreign policy is often short sighted. What else is new?

The long term global health consequences of using fake polio aid workers to help find bin Laden weren't thought out. But then again, long term implications of any spy operation aren't well thought out...

Sorry, but the Taliban deserves the bulk of the blame here. Actually I'd place more blame on the Pakistani government before the CIA on this one. They never had to protect bin Laden all those years. The culture of paranoia and religious fervor is mostly of their own making (though the US certainly helped encourage it when it suited its own interests).