The life and death of Pakistani anti-polio campaigner Naseem Munir

[IKT]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-2...rdered/5479164

Local police and the health department gave us permission to film Naseem and her workers as they went door to door vaccinating in one of Karachi's dangerous areas. The Taliban is known to be active there.

Our presence created more security problems for the workers, so we could only spend a couple of hours filming, but what we saw in that time was incredibly impressive.

A large group of armed police, and a group of ambulances was on standby, in case of attack. To us it seemed bizarre, that all this security and effort was needed just to distribute a few polio drops.

But that is what it has come to in Pakistan.

Interesting article, sad about the outcome

[Cybran]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-2...kistan/5478144

In 2011, the CIA used a hepatitis vaccination program to help locate Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

A local doctor running an immunisation program, Dr Shakil Afridi, visited the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was located just weeks before US Special Forces killed the terrorist leader.

Dr Afridi was after DNA from children in the compound and is believed to have given US intelligence agents material that he obtained during the vaccination drive. It is not known if any of his actions played a direct role in bin Laden's capture.

Islamist groups were outraged when news of the program emerged and attacks on immunisation workers increased across the country.

Dr Abid says the CIA operation to capture bin Laden had a negative effect on his work.

"At the time it was really bad for all our immunisation programs," Dr Abid said.

It's the CIA's fault. They used the vaccinations as cover for years and now Al Qaeda is targeting health workers. In turn making children suffer.

[Notchris]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-2...kistan/5478144


It's the CIA's fault. They used the vaccinations as cover for years and now Al Qaeda is targeting health workers. In turn making children suffer.

Except they were targeted before that, that just made them target them even more. But don't let silly shit like facts get in your way of a good old "blame the west!" spiel. Not that you ever do.