Pakistan Further Damages Itself: Holds Doctor Who Tried to Get Bin Laden DNA

Pakistan is now turning itself into a major issue in the United States on two fronts. The administration has held back on a chunk of funding due to some actions many think are not exactly in keeping with the definition of an ally. And it is losing friends quickly in Congress. The latest news that it is holding the doctor who tried collecting bin Laden DNA will make its position worse on both fronts:

Pakistani authorities have jailed a doctor who helped the CIA by creating an elaborate plot to get DNA samples of Osama bin Laden’s family before the al Qaida leader was killed in a special forces raid here.

The doctor, who holds a senior government health post in Pakistan, used nurses, who were able to gain entry to the residence on the pretext of giving vaccinations to children living there, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials and local residents.

The U.S. special forces operation that found and killed bin Laden on May 2 severely damaged relations between the United States and Pakistan, which was kept in the dark about the CIA’s discovery that the al Qaida leader was living in a town filled with active-duty and retired Pakistani military.

The doctor’s detention has added to the tension, and American authorities are thought to have intervened on his behalf.

Previous news reports have quoted U.S. officials as alleging that the Pakistanis had detained some people for questioning about their role in assisting the United States in tracking down bin Laden. But until now, there’s been no detailed information on anyone detained or what he or she might have done for the Americans.

The doctor apparently is the only person still under arrest. His story provides previously unknown details about the lengths the CIA went to as it tried to confirm suspicions that bin Laden was hiding in the compound.

American officials are concerned that Pakistan is more focused on finding out how the CIA tracked down bin Laden than on determining how he managed to remain undetected for as long as five years in Abbottabad, a military garrison town where the nation’s premier military academy is less than a mile from the bin Laden compound. So far, no one is known to have been arrested for helping to hide bin Laden.

As I’ve noted before (a)the United States needs Paksitan’s cooperation (b) the United States does not want the current government to be replaced by something worse than the current government of this nuclear power nation (c)there must be huge smiles in New Delhi, where officials have long felt stung that the United States seemed to bend over backwards for Pakistan.