Will lthe "fine man" do the right thing, or will he apologize once more?

hm1996

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Brother says Pakistani doc tortured, appeals to US for legal help

By Dominic Di-Natale
Published May 29, 2012
FoxNews.com

The Pakistani doctor sentenced last week to 33 years in prison for helping track Usama bin Laden suffered torture, isolation and starvation during his interrogation, his brother told Fox News -- as he made an appeal from the family for the U.S. Embassy to help fight his legal case.

Jamil Afridi told Fox News in an interview that the Embassy so far has not reached out to the family of Dr. Shakil Afridi.

The brother said the family wants the U.S. to provide lawyers as well as pay the legal bills -- as questions surround the dubious legal process used to convict Afridi and hand down what amounted to a life sentence. He also said the broader family of roughly 30 people wants asylum in America.

"The blame has been placed on my brother because of America. We are facing a tough time and they should now support us. We should get justice and protection," he told Fox News. "Me, my brother, my family don't have any protection here. When I leave from this place, I don't know what might happen to me. I don't know in which guise someone might come for us. I am afraid of the government agencies, the Taliban and terrorists."

Jamil Afridi said security forces insiders told him his brother was tortured during the interrogation. Afridi was so emaciated when he arrived at prison after last week's conviction that he has put on five pounds just from being fed properly, his brother said.

The interrogation apparently is over. The brother said that based on what he was told by security forces, Dr. Afridi's conditions are "paradise" in comparison to what he experienced before.

But even after that ordeal, one Pakistani security official told Fox News that Afridi continues to be kept in isolation in a six-foot-by-four-foot cell.

According to the brother, the family is still being denied visits to him in jail. During the year prior to his sentencing, Afridi did not see sunlight while held by his interrogators, his brother said.

"For one year after he was taken in, we didn't know if he was alive or dead, which agency had him or what his whereabouts where," he said, adding that his two sisters were recently turned away when they tried to visit.

Further, he said authorities are "willfully avoiding and stalling" in providing verdict papers, so the family is unable to lodge an appeal. Shakil Afridi has three children -- two sons and a daughter.

The details provided by Jamil Afridi likely will add to the pressure on Washington to do more to help the jailed doctor, considering the role he played in helping the CIA track bin Laden before the U.S. raid on his Abbottabad compound.

The Obama administration has condemned the Pakistani government's decision to imprison Afridi, and claims to be pressing his case with Islamabad. Members of Congress meanwhile have called on the administration to step up their efforts on Afridi's behalf. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., told FoxNews.com last week that he thinks "the administration hasn't done anything to indicate they are serious about the demand for this man's release."

On the Senate side, a committee last week lodged a protest against the prison sentence by voting to cut Pakistan's aid by $33 million.

In Pakistan, government officials last Friday described the sentence as payback for how the U.S. went about getting the Al Qaeda leader and shrugged off criticism by American officials -- telling the U.S. to stop "over-reacting."

Rohrabacher, in response, accused the government of being "blinded by their radical Islamic ideology."

As for Afridi's current status, a senior security official working inside Peshawar's penal system with close knowledge of the Afridi case said the inmate is "confident about his future and an appeal."

"He has become an American hero," the official said. The official said Afridi is being kept in isolation in his tiny cell, though stressed the conditions were not meant to be a form of solitary confinement punishment.

The official also said the jail is facing a potential riot among its 2,000 inmates because militants among them have gotten word that Afridi is being held there. The wardens have also received death threats from militants, the official said.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/.../#ixzz1wGx9R5Ey

Regards,
hm
 
Quote:
Senator threatens to cut off all Pakistani aid unless doctor is released to US

Published May 29, 2012
FoxNews.com


A U.S. senator announced Tuesday he would introduce a bill stripping Pakistan of all foreign aid unless the doctor imprisoned for helping the CIA track Usama bin Laden is released. The Obama administration, meanwhile, appeared unwilling to budge from its talking points on the issue, despite an impassioned plea for U.S. intervention from Dr. Shakil Afridi's family.

"The blame has been placed on my brother because of America," Shakil's brother, Jamil, told Fox News during an interview in Pakistan. "We should get justice and protection."

Jamil Afridi claimed his brother had been tortured by Pakistani authorities.

In Washington, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he would introduce a pair of bills next week to address Afridi's plight. One would strip Pakistan, which received $2.1 billion from the U.S. for the current fiscal year, of all foreign aid until Afridi's 33-year sentence is overturned and he's allowed to leave the country; the bill other would grant Afridi U.S. citizenship.

The measures would go beyond the vote by a Senate panel last week to strip Pakistan of $33 million in aid.

"Pakistan must understand that they are choosing the wrong side. They accuse Dr. Afridi of working against Pakistan, but he was simply helping the U.S. capture the head of Al Qaeda. Surely Pakistan is not linking their interests with those of an international terrorist organization," Paul said in a statement. "Foreign aid has been an abysmal failure precisely for this reason -- we give the aid to governments who then turn and work against our national interest. That must end."

Administration officials have made a similar case, saying repeatedly that Afridi was working against Al Qaeda, not the Pakistani government.

"We certainly believe and know that anyone who assisted the United States in the effort to bring Usama bin Laden to justice was working against Al Qaeda, but not Pakistan," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday. Take that, Pakistan!

But he and other officials would not go much beyond that in public statements.

Asked about the brother's plea, Carney said: "We have made our views known that the doctor in question here should not be held, as he did nothing that would justify him being held."

Carney said the U.S. is "consulting" with the Pakistanis on the issue and is "making our views known."

In a separate briefing, Pentagon spokesman George Little said "the Pakistanis are well aware of our concerns."

The administration so far has not explained what exactly the U.S. was doing before, and may be doing now, to secure Afridi's release.

Jamil Afridi told Fox News that the family wants the U.S. to provide lawyers as well as pay the legal bills, though it's unclear what legal options are available to his brother. He also said the broader family of roughly 30 people wants asylum in America.

"Me, my brother, my family don't have any protection here. When I leave from this place, I don't know what might happen to me. I don't know in which guise someone might come for us. I am afraid of the government agencies, the Taliban and terrorists," he said.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/.../#ixzz1wIMPc2Je

Regards,
hm
 
Originally Posted By: jumprightinitI'd think that kind of information would be classified top secret. One who released that should be prosecuted .

Ummm, you mean like those responsible for Fast & Furious, or those who appeared on videos w/baseball bats keeping voters away from the polls, or those responsible for the Acorn voter registration fraud, or....................?

Regards,
hm
 
Sorry Rand, your hearts in the right place to strip the ragheads of $2.1 bil, however zero will simply issue an executive order to send along with the cash.
 
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