Daily Times

Whether it’s drilling holes in other countries or churning out feminist literature, the mightiest country in the world leaves no stone unturned in achieving its interests. Much of these covert and propaganda activities have both immediate and long term benefits for the US. However, there are some long term corrosive effects that others have to deal with.

A news report about the killing of polio vaccination team in Quetta caught my attention. A woman and her young daughter named Sakina Bibi and Rizwana respectively were shot dead while they were administering anti-polio drops. Two hours earlier, Constables Mohammad Ilyas and Shokat Ali were also killed when motorcyclists opened indiscriminate fire with their  automatic weapons. The attack was claimed by the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,

Former US President Obama had authorised the CIA to use covert polio vaccination team to obtain the DNA sample of Bin Laden or one of his family members living at the compound in Abbotabad. Consequently, Bin Laden was killed, allowing Obama to prove his anti-terror credentials and get re-elected, which was the ultimate aim of this entire operation.

But now, it is Pakistan that has to deal with the widespread scepticism about polio vaccination teams that stemmed from the CIA operation. The view of polio vaccination as something suspicious or anti-Pakistan covert operation is not confined to just the Taliban. This cynical view is also shared by a certain chunk of citizenry.

There are many people who suspect that the drops given to the children prove to be detrimental for their fertility later in their lives. There are numerous rumours making rounds about sudden deaths of children who were allegedly vaccinated.

Pakistanis tend to indulge in hatching conspiracy theories. But one should also be cognizant of the fact that much of the scepticism about polio vaccination team is hardly based on any conspiracy theory. It is apparently rooted in facts, thanks to the US.

According to the official version of the Abbottabad operation, the US made Dr. Shakil Afridi to run the covert polio vaccination campaign. However, if we are to trust Seymour Hersh’s version, the use of polio vaccination team as CIA asset remains relevant.

In his book, The Killing of Osama Bin Laden, Hersh described Shakil Afridi as a CIA asset who ran another vaccination campaign in Abbotabad area “to get the bloood of terrorism suspects in the villages”. However, it is important to understand that majority of the common people in Pakistan are not aware of Hersh’s account of the raid; the official version of the operation is prevalent which fuels more scepticism and fear.

Many people in Pakistan, including Sakina Bibi and Rizwana, have lost their lives while performing the honourable duty of eradicating polio from the country. But the man who turned this noble profession into a nefarious asset lives a peaceful life in D.C., just a few blocks away from where used to live as a president because he is waiting for his younger daughter, Sasha, to complete her school. He is expected to soon write his memoir, which would most probably become the Amazon’s bestseller.

Everybody knows Pakistanis love juicy conspiracy theories. But one should also be cognizant of the fact that much of the scepticism about polio vaccination is hardly based on any conspiracy theory. Thanks to the US, it is apparently rooted in facts

A presidential library will also be inaugurated to highlight the decisions he made, the phone calls he had, the napkins he left on the table of the Oval Office after using them, etc.

And a sizeable number of people would flock to the library watching all of it in awe.

Black families would feel proud of him, whereas White families would ask their kids to see how America allowed people from all colours to run the presidential office.

There would also be his recorded conversations with his cabinet officials and foreign leaders. If lucky enough, many people might also get a chance to listen to his statement that the decision to kill Anwar Al Awlaki, an American citizen, was an easy one.

Since the Obama Presidency was in love with the drones, as the joke goes that Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream and Obama had a drone, there may be drones displayed as large hanging kites. Parents would tell their kids how the drones saved American lives by killing ‘suspected militants’ and preventing troops deployment in dangerous zones. They would never know who the ‘suspected militants’ were. But when has that mattered?

I have already given up on the library having any recorded conversations about casting the surveillance dragnet over communications of, Terror Tuesdays, and so forth. While the napkins would be there, the pen that used to sign the notorious “drone memo” and authorised extrajudicial killing of an American citizen wouldn’t be there. Because that’s critiquing the President and Presidential libraries are about covering up their crimes and presenting them as benign humble leaders who took care of the nation in a fatherly way.

Despite the mind boggling technological advancements that allows people to communicate in an instant across the world, many of us, in contrast, still reside in different worlds because of what we watch, read, and listen to.

People living in one bubble cannot comprehend the mentality of those who are confined in an another bubble. Perhaps they just don’t want to.

People who watched Fox News thought that Obama was a Muslim on a mission to impose Shariah law in America, while those who viewed MSNBC couldn’t find even one flaw in Obama. Viewers of CNN were being constantly bombarded with Malaysian Flight MH-370.

We have bought so many ‘iEverything’ that Apple had to stash billions in offshore tax havens. Meanwhile, The Guardian newspaper, that informs and educates people in true sense, was forced to become the online-only news outlet as it had to shut down its print edition. Despite being ridiculously cheap compared to any Apple product, only a handful of people bother to buy it.

Hence, it comes as no surprise that Sakina Bibi and Rizwana would be forgotten and criminals would be celebrated as great statesmen.

The author can be reached at imran.jan@gmail.com. He tweets at @Imran_Jan

Published in Daily Times, January 27^th 2018.