Did CIA’s Fake Polio Vaccination Program in Pakistan Help Fuel a Global Health Emergency?
The increase of polio in Pakistan is being linked to a secret CIA effort to hunt Osama bin Laden, in which the agency set up fake vaccination clinics in the city of Abbottabad in order to get DNA from the bin Laden family. The Taliban subsequently banned immunization efforts and carried out deadly attacks on medical workers.
The increase of polio in Pakistan is being linked to a secret CIA effort to hunt Osama bin Laden, in which the agency set up fake vaccination clinics in the city of Abbottabad in order to get DNA from the bin Laden family. The Taliban subsequently banned immunization efforts and carried out deadly attacks on medical workers.
The World Health Organization has designated the spread of polio in Asia, Africa and the Middle East a global public health emergency requiring a coordinated “international response.” Pakistan, Cameroon and Syria are recognized as three countries that pose the greatest risk to further spreading of the paralyzing virus. The WHO has recommended that all residents of the countries, of all ages, be vaccinated before traveling abroad. Another seven countries — Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel, Nigeria and Somalia — were instructed to encourage would-be travelers to get vaccinated.
“Democracy Now!” hears from Rafia Zakaria, a columnist for Dawn, Pakistan’s largest English-language newspaper, who has been covering the rise of polio in that country since the bin Laden raid. One of Pakistan’s leading polio experts, Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, also joins the conversation.
‘Democracy Now!’:
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
WAIT BEFORE YOU GO...This year, the ground feels uncertain — facts are buried and those in power are working to keep them hidden. Now more than ever, independent journalism must go beneath the surface.
At Truthdig, we don’t just report what's happening — we investigate how and why. We follow the threads others leave behind and uncover the forces shaping our future.
Your tax-deductible donation fuels journalism that asks harder questions and digs where others won’t.
Don’t settle for surface-level coverage.
Unearth what matters. Help dig deeper.
Donate now.
Books
The recent book by John Dinges pursues the untold story behind the killings of two Americans by the Chilean military after the 1973 coup.
Books
Historian Jeff Schuhrke documents the AFL-CIO’s role in weakening left-wing labor unions around the world between the '40s and '90s.
Politics
Piecing together newly unredacted files and personal accounts, we know now there was a powerful shift against the agency's 'rogue autonomy.' Until there wasn't.
Media
Two decades after Webb’s death, the U.S. government hasn’t kicked the habit of wreaking lethal havoc at home and abroad.
TD Interview
The director of “JFK” on the Kennedy cover-up, why he was killed, and what the country—and the world—suffered as a result.
Ear to the Ground
Reports of rampant sexual abuse pile up at Langley headquarters.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.