US official confirms doctor's role
Source: Agencies |
January 29, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
DEFENSE Secretary Leon Panetta is acknowledging publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor provided key information to the US in advance of the successful Navy SEAL assault on Osama bin Laden's compound last May.
Panetta told CBS' "60 Minutes" that Shakil Afridi helped provide intelligence for the raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence in the compound. He has since been charged by Pakistan with treason. Panetta said he is "very concerned" for the doctor.
Panetta also said that he remains convinced that someone in the Pakistani government "must have had some sense" that a person of interest was in the compound. He added that he has no proof that Pakistan knew it was bin Laden.
The Pakistani government had hoped to resolve the Afridi matter quietly, once media attention died down, perhaps releasing him to US custody, according to two Pakistani officials, who requested anonymity because the investigation against the doctor was ongoing.
Panetta told CBS' "60 Minutes" that Shakil Afridi helped provide intelligence for the raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence in the compound. He has since been charged by Pakistan with treason. Panetta said he is "very concerned" for the doctor.
Panetta also said that he remains convinced that someone in the Pakistani government "must have had some sense" that a person of interest was in the compound. He added that he has no proof that Pakistan knew it was bin Laden.
The Pakistani government had hoped to resolve the Afridi matter quietly, once media attention died down, perhaps releasing him to US custody, according to two Pakistani officials, who requested anonymity because the investigation against the doctor was ongoing.
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