Tuesday, July 29, 2014

An unfortunate consequence of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden

If you have followed the OBL story and/or saw "Zero Dark Thirty", maybe you are familiar with the fact that the CIA exploited a hepatitis vaccination program in Pakistan to locate OBL through DNA matching. Unfortunately, word about that got to the Pak Taliban, and now they don't trust any medical vaccination programs.
Humanity has been spending billions trying to eradicate polio for decades, and we are mostly successful everywhere BUT Pakistan. Since 2012, vaccination workers have been targeted and killed (about 60 dead), and families in Taliban-controlled areas are intimidated and discouraged from getting vaccinated.

The Taliban say that is is outrageous that the CIA would use a humanitarian program as cover for its operations. Of course it's also outrageous that they are killing medical workers and families trying to protect their kids, but their paranoia/savagery has some justification. Yet another unintended consequence of some smarty-pants at Langley (or Jessica Chastain) thinking this would be great way to find OBL. I understand if that was "the only way", but the most global and well-funded intel org in the world had 10 years to find OBL through other channels (incl. torture), and failed. So now they put thousands of lives at risk just to take out an ailing, marginalized terrorist. 

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